City Council Report: Casino Hall Hours and Profiling Report

The La Grange Visitors Center and Main Street offices inside Casino Hall will no longer be open on Sundays.

Main Street Manager Caleb Parks spoke to the City Council at their meeting on Monday, Feb. 10, about possibly changing the facility’s hours of operation.

Parks said many visitors come to Casino Hall throughout the week, but Sundays are the slowest.

“The only days we broke double-digit visitors were Sundays when we had events at Casino Hall,” Parks said.

He said Casino Hall would open on Sundays for special events and rentals.

Casino Hall had been open to the public seven days a week: Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. and Sunday from noon-4 p.m. Following the presentation, Council voted to close Casino Hall on Sundays.

In other business, the Council voted to appoint Kelsey Brooks to the Main Street Advisory Board. She replaces Erich Lehmann, who had reached his term limit. Members of the board are limited to serving three consecutive two-year terms.

The Council also approved a racial profiling report from Police Chief David Gilbreath. The report comes from data recorded by police officers during every traffic stop. According to the report, La Grange Police Officers made 1,446 traffic stops in 2024. Listed below are the races of the subjects who were stopped:

• Alaska/Native American - 0.28 percent

• Asian/Pacific Islander 0.97 percent

• Black - 11.34 percent

• White - 60.51 percent

• Hispanic/Latino - 26.9

percent Officers knew the race of the subject in 14.8 percent of those stops. Officers did not know the race in 85.2 percent of those stops.

The report goes on to detail the reasons for stops, whether searches were made, whether contraband was discovered and whether the person was arrested.

Based on those numbers, Gilbreath said, “La Grange does not have a racial profiling problem.”