Ewiiaapaayp/Viejas Joint Tribal Gaming

By Cheryl J. Lenz

There will be no off-reservation second casino in Alpine. Now how can that not be good news to all Alpiners?

The Viejas Tribe began reaching-out to its adjoining neighborhoods last year by hosting events facilitated by Supervisor Dianne Jacob. I have attended several of these events where real issues of mitigation have been identified that real people care about. Hopefully the Ewiiaappaayp Tribe will join the Viejas Tribe in their on-going efforts to help resolve the local impacts inherent with casinos.

As a reminder, during the recent Cedar Fire, the Viejas Tribe opened their Reservation to all for a fire fighting base camp. It became a much needed staging area with supporting infrastructure for hundreds of fire trucks, dozens of aerial equipment and many hundreds of fire fighters. Everyone's help was needed during this terrible time + and our neighbor, the Viejas Tribe, was there for Alpine. More recently, Viejas donated in excess of $4,000,000 for a rural emergency and firefighting helicopter.

In the future, Alpine most likely will be considered by the rest of the county as the Gateway to country villages. We will be the geographic Gateway to the back country, the mountains and deserts. But most important, we will be the cultural Gateway to history, tradition and Native American heritage. All this will be anchored by our good neighbor, the Viejas Tribe.