WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — The Navajo Nation Council is set to meet in a special session Friday to consider approving a line of credit that will foster the development of casinos on the 27,000 square-mile reservation.
The tribe secured a $100 million line of credit from JP Morgan Chase earlier this year, but the council needs to approve it before any of the money is drawn out.
Bob Winter, executive director of the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise, said the tribe cannot go out to bid on engineering and design contracts “until you certify you have sufficient money to do the kind of work you are putting out to bid.”
The tribe plans to build six casinos — four in Arizona and two in New Mexico. Winter, hired earlier this year as the tribe’s first-ever gaming chief, has said the first would go up near Gallup by June.
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Winter has recommended a site just outside the northwestern New Mexico city on 21 acres of tribal trust land between Interstate 40 and the railroad tracks.
The Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise board has the final say on where the casino goes. Confirmation of five of the nine board members also is on the council’s agenda Friday.
Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. has recommended the appointments of: Martin Lieberman of Scottsdale; Jack Jackson Jr., a former Arizona state representative from Fort Defiance; Susan Ann Lambert of Upper Fruitland, N.M; and Sean McCabe of Albuquerque, N.M.
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