Employees prepare for opening of River City Casino
KSDK
March 1, 2010
This week the River City Casino is set to open. Monday morning, media and VIPs get their first look inside, then Thursday the property opens to the public.
Today, we went behind the scenes to see how they're preparing.
For three decades, the National Lead Site sat unused and unwanted. That is, until now. After years in the making, the new River City Casino is ready to open.
Crews are putting the finishing touches on the building, while employees are getting fitted for their uniforms. Dealer Chris Whitehead is one of them. He says, "I'm very happy to be here I mean with the job market today it's so hard to find a job."
In fact, the casino received a whopping 45-thousand applications. They interviewed 12,500 candidates and in the end hired 1300.
Human Resources Director Phyllis Wilbur says, "We kind of compared to what we did a couple of years ago when we opened Lumiere. The economy was totally different then and we got a lot more applications this time."
County Executive Charlie Dooley says he's pleased with the project and the impact it will have. He got a sneak peak today.
He says, "People have got big smiles on their faces, people are actually working, this is a great thing for south County but specifically Lemay."
In the kitchen they're smiling too. Staff says they can't wait to open, even though there's alot of work ahead.
Executive Chef John Johnson says, "My guys are so excited that when they're ready to go home, they don't want to go home. They actually try to stay to find more stuff to do cause they don't want to leave."
The casino has 6-restaurants, 90-square feet of casino space and cost $380-million dollars to build. But for those that work here, the impact is much more personal.
Whitehead says, "To get chosen out of that many people, we are really lucky, we're the lucky ones."
Again the casino opens its doors to VIPs tomorrow, then pending all approvals will open to the general public on Thursday.
