Spilyay tymoo., October 06, 1978, Image 1

IN THIS ISSUE
Sports
Outdoor School
U S. POSTAGE
BULK RATE
PERMIT NO. 2
WARM SPRINGS, OR.
S p ily a y T ym oo
Coyote News
Housing
VOL. 3 NO. 20
WARM SPRINGS, OREGON 97761
OCTOBER 6, 1978
Tribes Take Over
HUD Housing Project
by Sandy Rangila
Having become totally fed
up with delays and poor per­
formance, the
Confederated
Tribes last week terminated the
contract with Marshall N. Dana,
the 50-unit HUD housing con­
tractor.
The Confederated Tribes
took over the project on Septem­
ber 27 and are completing it, with
Les Yaw as contracting officer.
Included in the project are thirty
family homes in West Hills and a
senior citizen complex above
Elliot Heights.
The expiration date for com­
pletion of the project was to have
been on June 15, then due to bad
weather conditions the date was
extended to June 25. But now that
the contract is over 90 days past
due, and the contractor has given
non-specific reasons for more
delays, the Tribes have put down
their foot and. have taken over
the project.
According to Yaw, the Tribes
will hire the subcontractors next
week and within two weeks, the
first people can begin moving in.
“Organizing takes a while,’’.said
The Confederated Tribes hosted Associated Press Managing Editors Yaw, “but once we line up our
at Timberline Lodge September 28, feeding them salmon, erecting a» ducks and get over that hurdle,
tepee and performing traditional dances. See page 3 for story.
those homes should finish up
pretty quickly.’*
“The main concentration at
first will be focused on getting
the senior citizens homes above
Elliot Heights completed,” said
Yaw. He explained that he and
officials have gone through each
of the houses, one at a time, and
they compiled a list of needed
corrections.
The senior citizen homes are
essentially complete, according
to Yaw. “Even the wood-burning
stoves are in?’ The basic prob­
lem is with the water services to
the houses, and that’s what
brought the conflict with the con­
tractor to a head, said Yaw.
“We requested the contract­
or to change it (the hookups) to
the way it would work, and they
refused on a technicality,” ex-;
plained Yaw. The hookups for
the sprinkler systems were ap­
parently installed on the high
pressure side of the valves.
The Tribes and Dana had
been communicating through
lawyers, having reached an im­
passe in
direct negotiations
about the problems.
Although the- houses are
basically complete, Yaw does
not want anyone to move into
them yet because the people
would be without water for about
a, week while the system is being
hooked up properly.
Once the water services are
corrected and restored, people
can be moved in as each home is
completed, said Yaw. Crews will
also be tackling the 30 family
homes near completion in West
Hills.
The Tribes’ terminating the
services of the contractor follows
a long history of problems which
began shortly after the project
was begun in April of 1977.
Initially, bids were too high,
then construction had to be
halted on the senior citizens
homes that summer when it was
discovered that the foundations
were faulty.
Waves of vandalism hit some
of the nearly completed West
Hills units that summer and fall,
and isolated incidences of van­
dalism and window-breaking
have occurred throughout the
project.
Yaw said that terminating
the contract was a drastic step,
but that people could have been
in those homes for four months,
already. He and the Tribes are
just interested in getting the
homes built, he said.
Gerard's Visit Focuses On Tribes7 Model Finance System
The Assistant Secretary of
the Interior for Indian Affairs
was in friendly territory when he
visited Warm Springs last week.
Having accepted an invitation
from general manager
Ken
Smith, who supported his nomi­
nation to the top post in the
Bureau of Indian Affairs; last
year, Forrest Gerard received a
warm welcome from both tribal
and B.I.A. employees during his
24-hour visit September 28 and
29.
Fresh from a debate with
longtime adversary
Senator
James Abourezk at the Associ­
ated Press Managing Editors’
annual meeting in Portland and
not long after a rather hostile
interaction with angery fisher­
men and Hoopa tribal officials on
the shut-down Klamath River in
California, Gerard was no doubt
relieved to be the guest of the
Warm Springs Reservation. He
believes that there exists here
“one of the better working re­
lationships between a
tribal
entity and our own Bureau staff,
programs and efforts.” '
Based at Kah-Nee-Ta Lodge,
LO
SEPTEMBER HI
which had not been built when he
36
80
20
was here last, Gerard ventured
49
75
21
forth to take an air tour, dine
42
71 -
22
with tribal and B.I.A. officials,
42
86
23
visit with the Tribal Council and
48
85
24
take a look at the Tribes’ budget
50
84
25
and accounting system.
46
96
26
“I’m intrigued with the inte­
54
74
27
grated financial system designed
48
76
28
and used by the Tribes,” the
42
81
29
assistant secretary said. The
47
77
30
Tribes have centralized their
OCTOBER
payroll, budgeting, and contract
38
1
74
activities, and have adopted the
36
1
76
management - by - objectives
37
84
3
approach to program planning.
44
4
77
The average high for the Federal funds are coordinated
past two weeks is 80 degrees'with under the same umbrella.
This, apparently, is one of
no measureable precipitation.
the most sophisticated tribal
accounting systems in the coun­
try and Gerard had to see it for
himself. He said he plans to
assemble a small government
team and send them out to learn
the finer points of the successful
accounting, administrative, and
management controls developed
by the Tribes and examine the
potential for tailoring them to
other reservations.
k
“We’ve got to help tribes
strengthen their infra-structures
(Continued on Page 12)
Weather
GETTING INPUT - Forrest Gerard, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, (center) was
introduced to the Tribes’ computer during his visit here. The top B.I.A. man spent time with Data
Processor Jan Wallan, General Manager Ken Smith and Superintendent Jim Cornett, learning about
Warm Springs’ internal controls.
CDSPhoto