A second hearing about the effects of a proposed casino on Highway 190 will be held Dec. 2, Tulare County supervisors announced Friday.

Eagle Mountain Casino, on the Tule River Indian Reservation, hopes to close its current location and

build a new casino, hotel and entertainment hall between Porterville and Springville.

Opponents are invited to speak from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., and proponents can speak from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the board chambers at the county civic center in Visalia.

The announcement comes a few weeks after the first meeting last month about the casino's proposed move.

During that hearing, three opponents were interrupted by Chairman Jim Maples, who encouraged them to stay on topic. None of the supporters of the casino were cut off.

Dozens of angry letters, e-mails and phone calls followed, and on Friday, supervisors announced the second meeting.

Maples said after last week's supervisor meeting that the casino supporters also strayed from what supervisors wanted them to talk about.

"We wanted them to talk more about water and such things," he said.

"I coached a bad game," he later told The Bee. "I was wrong. I admit it."

The supervisors will seek comments at the December meeting about impacts the casino would have on the land and people living in the communities around it.

The county is negotiating privately with the tribe about how to handle such impacts.

In a news release announcing the Dec. 2 hearing, supervisors stressed that they have no jurisdiction in the casino's proposed move. Gambling is legal on the 40 acres of trust land where the Tule River tribe proposes to build, they said.

But the tribe needs approval for the casino from the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and the governor. The Secretary of the Interior is required to consult with local officials to determine the impacts of a casino on the land and people around it.

The board will not make policy decisions during the meeting.

The Tule River Tribe has asked the supervisors to support their relocation, but any consideration of that decision would be publicized and done in a public hearing, Maples said.

The reporter can be reached at bclough@fresnobee.com or 622-2421.