Morning roundup: Spring Festival, casinos & Dollar General
Carnival goers whirl on a carnival ride at the Moses Lake Spring Festival Saturday. The event was well attended after a two-year hiatus.
Joel Martin/Columbia Basin Herald
Springfest draws ’em in, tribal casinos add to the pot and Soap Lake salutes the General. Here’s what’s happening in the Basin today:
Packed park
The Moses Lake Spring Festival drew record crowds over Memorial Day Weekend, filling hotels to capacity and catering to so many people that food vendors had to make store runs. Moses Lake’s biggest annual event had to take a hiatus for 2020 and 2021, so this year’s festival made up for it with estimated crowds of 8,000-10,000 on Saturday alone.
Tribal gaming brings in big bucks
Tribal casinos added $5.6 billion to the state’s economy in 2020 despite the pandemic and provided about 55,000 jobs, according to the Washington Indian Gaming Association. The 29 federally-recognized tribes in Washington are the seventh-largest employer in the state, with more than 70% of those jobs going to non-tribal members.
Soap Lake Dollar General opens
There’s a new store in town in Soap Lake. Dollar General, a Tennessee-based chain of discount stores, recently opened a location at 79 Highway 28 West. The store plans to commemorate its opening by donating 100 new books to a local elementary school.
Today’s obituaries
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