Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Coquille Indian Tribe, and its Coquille Economic Development Corp,  Thursday failed to pay North Bend $115,000.

It's not the first time the tribe has failed to pay, but the city upped the ante this week by suing the tribe.

The tribe owns and operates The Mill casino near the city of North Bend.

Ethan Lindsey has the story.

This fight is about how much the tribe has to pay the city for services such as police, fire, and even sewer.

The tribe and the city made a deal 15 years ago. It said the city would supply the casino with services for a fee – because the tribe doesn’t have to pay any taxes.

The tribe says that  deal is outdated and needs to be rewritten – it says it won’t make any payments until a new contract is signed.

Neither side commented to OPB on the lawsuit, aside from trading strongly-worded press releases.

The city says it has responded to more than 70 emergency calls at the casino  since the tribe stopped payments.  Now, the city is threatening to cut off sewage treatment services to the casino.

The city’s public works director says that would be difficult – but in the past, the city has dug up pipes to residential customers who failed to pay their bills.