The fight to finish the contest over who’ll win a casino permit to operate a news casino in Pope County intensified yesterday, with the county taking moves to solidify its control of the process over the city of Russellville.

County Judge Ben Cross issued two letters approving different sites for a Cherokee-owned casino — one on unincorporated land outside Russellville and one in the city limits of Dover, just a few hundred yards north of the Russellville city limits.

Russellville, left out of specific benefits in a $38 million economic development package given by the Cherokees to Pope County and assorted governments and nonprofits in the county, has been trying to wrest control with a separate casino review committee, thought to be aligned with the Choctaw tribe’s interest in a casino.