Casino news source: South Bend Tribune - http://www.southbendtribune.com/

[/quote]Berrien County deputies to patrol casino area
Sheriff's department to take over policing New Buffalo Township.

CAROL DRAEGER
Tribune Staff Writer

NEW BUFFALO -- The Berrien County Sheriff's Department has picked up more policing duties.

By summer, the department will provide five full-time deputies to New Buffalo Township, home to the soon-to-open Four Winds Casino.

Tuesday night the township board agreed to a contract with the sheriff's department.

The township, which has a population of about 3,000, has no paid police officers, according to Rolland Oselka, township clerk.

"We have services provided by the Berrien County Road Patrol as well as the state police, but it's on a limited basis," he said.

With the August opening of the estimated $330 million, 225,000-square-foot casino, the population is expected to swell to 11,000 visitors a day, Oselka said.

"The average is estimated at five million a year," Oselka said, adding, "It's a lot of people. If nothing else we'll have traffic problems. We hope we'll have no other problems. But we need to be prepared."

Funds to pay for the deputies' salaries and equipment will come from revenues the casino is required to pay local units of governments according to a compact the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians signed with the state, Oselka said.

Oselka is one of two members on the Berrien County Local Revenue Sharing Board, whose job it is to divvy up 2 percent of the casino's slot-machine revenues to local schools and government units twice a year.

Details of the contract between the township and the sheriff's department still need to be hammered out, he said.

Sheriff Paul Bailey could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The public safety contract isn't the first pact the sheriff's department has signed with townships.

Last year, when the Niles Township Police Department disbanded its small police force because of a lack of funds, it contracted with the county's sheriff's department for police protection.

The two signed a three-year contract, costing the township $700,000 a year.

On Jan. 1, Niles Township began the second-year of the contract.[quote]