Planning takes decades

Naabik’iyati Committee started its meeting with a Report from the tribal Design & Engineering Department on the renovation of tribal government Administration Buildings 1 & 2. The tribal Division of Natural Resources building was recently closed. Buildings 1 & 2 have been closed for more than 2 years because of health and safety reasons such as mold being found in Buildings 1 & 2.

DELEGATE ROSCOE SMITH
There has been so much money invested in Finance Building/Administration Building 2. But there has been no measure of the depreciation or value of the Finance Building. And there’s no funding for maintenance of government buildings, which is what I do when I have the oil changed on my vehicle.

DESIGN & ENGINEERING SENIOR PLANNER SCOTT HOUSE
I can’t process payments in timely manner because of the tribal procurement process. And there is a need for revised procurement laws which would immediately be followed by a tribal Building Code. Right now we are using the international building code.

We have estimated $10.5 million for new building. And for a master plan, we need to offer $800,000, not $100,000, for the development of a master plan. And there were problems with the Division of Community Development and Division of Economic Development agreeing on what should be in a master plan. We also need “demographics” because we also need to include the development of infrastructure.

And planning takes time. I’d estimate that it would take a good decade for development of a master plan. Project development is not a one-man show.

SITTING WITH SCOTT HOUSE IS DESIGN & ENGINEERING DIRECTOR GIL ARVISO AND ARCHITECT ED PRESTON.

SPEAKER NAIZE ANNOUNCES THAT NAABI HAS QUORUM AT 2:20 P.M.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *