LOLETA -- With the ground already broken for the upcoming construction of the Bear River Casino off Singley Road, nearby residents express ongoing concerns about the impacts the casino will have on safety and their way of life.

The Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria plans to construct a 32,000-square-foot casino off the rural road that winds among the hills between Fortuna and Eureka. This is the tribe's second attempt to get the casino off the ground. The plug was pulled the first time after a deal was struck with the state Attorney General's Office to wait for a gaming compact with the state to materialize.

The fact that the project's financiers backed out, and that the National Indian Gaming Commission had yet to give the tribe clearance to game on the land didn't help. There was also substantial opposition to the project from the community.

With the current casino, the tribe said it's doing whatever it can to lessen the impacts and help their neighbors.

Negotiations between tribal leaders and county and state officials are ongoing, but some neighbors still doubt the tribe's environmental report adequately addresses those issues.

"What happens here determines whether I leave Singley Hill," said Noel Krahforst, whose property borders the reservation.

"We could mitigate until we're blue in the face, but the mitigations they want is the doors not to open and that's not going to happen," said John McGinnis, executive director of gaming.

Residents are concerned over increases in traffic flow, safety on Singley Road, lighting, water quality, wastewater treatment, noise and other issues.

The county has expressed similar concerns in a letter commenting on the tribe's environmental evaluation.

"Singley Road is a narrow winding rural road with many blind spots, and we are concerned that it may not safely accommodate the increased traffic that would result from this scale of a project," county planner Michael Wheeler told the tribe.

The county also raised concerns about the casino's conflict with the zoning of surrounding county land.

"While the tribe has authority to establish its own land use laws, the department does not support initiation of a land use that is not compatible with the land uses of the surrounding area," Wheeler wrote in a letter to the tribe.

Resident Suzi Fregeau said in a letter, "Additional traffic will interfere with the safe delivery and pickup of school-age children."

Fregeau suggested land adjacent to U.S. Highway 101 in Fortuna.

In a letter to the tribe, a representative from the California Department of Transportation expressed concern about increased left-hand movements from the northbound offramp of Highway 101 onto Singley Road.

Rancheria officials responded to many of these concerns in the environmental document and in an interview at the tribal office Tuesday.

"We're a sovereign nation -- we ultimately decide what we can or cannot do here, but we're going to take the county's interest and everybody's issues here, and we're going to be the good neighbor," McGinnis said.

Tribal Chairman Leonard Bowman said that with the earlier casino, the tribe had been ready to sign an agreement with Humboldt County to widen Singley Road and do other improvement work.

"All that stuff was made in an agreement even though we were fighting with the neighbors at the same time," he said. "They kept complaining that we weren't trying to do anything."

McGinnis said the tribe is negotiating with the county about improvements to Singley Road, and that it will put in a fire hydrant, fund a bus service for residents of Ferndale and Loleta and will donate money to Loleta Grammar School.

As for the touted Fortuna location, McGinnis said the seller was trying to make a quick buck at the tribe's expense.

"The guy bought the property for $350,000 and wanted to sell it to us for between $5 million and $6 million," he said.

County Assistant Planning Director Kirk Gothier said the tribe has met with the County Administrative Office and others about lessening impacts and developing an agreement and there now "needs to be more specificity."

Ann Jones, spokeswoman for the California Department of Transportation, said, "Caltrans is still working with the tribe and feels confident that we'll be able to mitigate issues prior to the casino opening to ensure the traveling public's safety."

In a letter to the Bear River Tribal Council, Krahforst said the rancheria "have been good neighbors," but that the planned location of the casino "divides the community."

The tribe is required by a compact with the state to make a good-faith effort to mitigate impacts from the casino.

"We believe this project is not a good-faith effort on the part of the tribe," Krahforst said.