Enterprise Rancheria members handed out key chains featuring an artist's rendering of the proposed Yuba County hotel-casino at a Citizens for Economic Progress event Saturday at the gazebo at Ellis Lake in Marysville.

Members Enterprise Rancheria and other volunteers gathered some 200 signatures from Mid-Valley residents Saturday to back the tribe's proposed hotel-casino and move the project forward.
The group of about 40 spread out in Yuba and Sutter counties, covering downtown Marysville, the Albertson's shopping complex near the 10th Street bridge and The Mall at Yuba City, said spokesman Mark Capitolo.
The day was co-organized by Citizens for Economic Progress, a group of about a dozen business leaders that includes Vickie Lizardo, Bruce Porter, Ed Fleming and Frank Crawford who support the casino plans.
About 60 percent of residents who were approached Saturday favored the project. The rest were opposed or skeptical, Capitolo said.
"There were a lot of questions on the status of the project and some people who weren't supportive and didn't want to sign," he said. There was also "a lot of comment on the fact they were anxious to see it happen and put in a job application. It was consistent with what we knew all along: That people are hungry for some development."
The seven-story hotel-casino is proposed on 40 acres on Forty Mile Road, near the Sleep Train Amphitheatre, within the county's sports and entertainment zone. Enterprise Rancheria has more than 600 members and is based in Butte County.
Capitolo said the tribe hopes to gather signatures each weekend as part of efforts to "become part of the community." The petition will be used to show the state and federal government there is community support for the project - an important factor in the approval process.
The tribe has completed its environmental impact statement to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to take the land into trust, said Chairman Harvey Angle. The document is under review.
A compact with the state also is needed.
The tribe, which held three town hall meetings late last year, plans to schedule another community meeting within the next two months. Angle said the forum would allow tribal members to clarify misconceptions about what the hotel-casino will do and give people a chance to ask questions.
In December, the Yuba County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to approve a memorandum of understanding under which the county will receive $73 million in the first 16 years of the casino's operation. Supervisors Don Schrader and Hal Stocker voted no.
About 68 percent of the people who spoke at that meeting - 19 of the 28 - opposed the casino or asked the board to delay a vote. Many critics question whether a casino is the right move for a community where many cannot afford to gamble.
The unemployment rate was 14.8 percent in Yuba County, 16.2 in Sutter County in April, according to a state report. The figures are more than double California's rate at 6.7 percent.
Angle said the hotel-casino will cut unemployment by producing about 900 jobs, of which at least 75 percent will be full-time. Jobs will come with health and retirement benefits, he added.
"Unemployment and welfare rolls are high," Angle said. "It's a depressed area. Across the United States, it (unemployment) has been high. I can't tell you how much it'll pay, but we believe in one parent working to support a family instead of two parents, two jobs to pay the rent. Kids need guidance, what more help can they get than from a parent."
The project will bring tourism, economic growth and serve as a "stepping stone" for more development in the sports and entertainment zone, he added.
"Sutter County is growing really heavy and here's Yuba County toward the bottom," Angle said. "There's been nothing here in 18 years, we've got to do something for these people."
He said the tribe won't let employees gamble their earnings at the casino. Security and surveillance cameras will help deter drug use there.
"We can't stop all of that, but we can keep it off our property," Angle said, adding employees will be drug-tested.