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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 2006)
soft U n i v e r s i t y o f Oregon L i b r a r y R e c e iv e d on: 0 £ -£ 7 ~ 0 6 S p ily a y tym oo. Or Co 11 E 75 .86 8 v. 31 no. 4 F e b ru a ry 16, £006 P.O. Box 870 Warm Springs, OR 97761 Spilygy Tymoo ECRW SS . Postal Patron o(° ^ 6 C oyote News, est. 1976 February 16, 2 0 0 6 Vi U.S. Postage PRSRTSTD Warm Springs, OR 97761 50 cents Business Plaza to house computer technology center center may privatize B y Dave M cM echan Spilyay Tymoo B y B rian M ortensen Spilyay Tymoo The Warm Springs Small Business D evelopm ent Center, which served 300 clients in 2005, saw its funding cut through a reduction in force in the tribes’ last budgeting process late last year. But the center may be able to con tinue through an effort to convert it to the private sector. Jolene Atencio, manager of the cen ter, said she estimates that full transi tion from a tribal entity to a private entity could happen within two years. For now, the center is open Mon day through Thursday from 8:30 until noon, until Feb. 28. After that date the future o f the center is up to Tribal Council, which will decide on the Small Business Development’s transition plan. “We have several o f our partners who have stepped up to take major functions,” Atencio said. A major part ner is the Oregon Native American B u sin e ss E n te rp rise N etw o rk (ONABEN). “What they’ll do is take on all the responsibility o f managing the finances o f this organization,” Atencio said. The transition plan is expected to be finalized this week, and Atencio can then take the plan to the transition team Friday. The proposal will include not only requests for funding but changes in policy as well, Atencio said. Atencio plans to be able to stay in the building that currently houses the Sm all B usiness C enter, located on Wasco Street. The hope is to enter into a two-year lease, which would include the use o f the equipment in the build- ing. “We’re still working on the budget. I w o u ld say w e ’d p ro b a b ly n eed $100,000 to operate,” Atencio said. “A big part of that would be outside money, through grants, and we already have that money in place.” She said her office will work with W orkforce D evelopm ent and Voca tional Rehabilitation. Workforce Devel opment, Atencio said, is willing to al low her an office manager trainee. In addition, a group that plans to develo p an a rtis ts ’ v illa g e , led by Apollonia Santos, will share the build ing. The Warm Springs Community Technology Center will be located at the Plaza, according to a newly developed plan approved by Tribal Council. When open, the center will have com puters w ith high-speed Internet available to the public. The center will also offer com puter courses, computer repair ser vices, and some computer equip ment for sale, said Lloyd Phillips, manager o f EagleTech Systems, the tribal enterprise that is developing the center. A coffee shop will open as part of the center. Starbucks Coffee has indi cated an interest in opening a store at the location, said Phillips. The center will have print shop ser vices, digital photo printing, web-site development services, an ATM m a chine, drive up w indow for coffee, among other features. There are many reasons why the Plaza is a good loca tion for the technology center, said Phillips. Perhaps the main reason, he said, is funding: The center will have to oper ate on its own without relying on tribal general fund money. “And we’ll need to hire three to five people to staff and run the center,” said Phillips. The Plaza location offers the oppor tunity to attract people driving past the center on the highway, people who might want to stop for coffee or to use the Internet. “The technology center is a business, not a program ,” said Phillips. Therefore, its future depends on the generation of operating revenue. While future operation o f the cen ter depends on attracting customers, the developm ent o f the center is being funded through a $695,000 Rural Utili ties Services grant o f U.S. Department o f Agriculture. The initial plan had been to develop the center at a site on Warm Springs Street by the police station. The idea was build a structure 2,100-square-feet in size. See PLAZA on 9 Casino plan gains support B y Dave M cM echan Spilyay Tymoo Dave McMechan/Spilyay Gavin Begay carries one of the flags during Grand Entry on Saturday at the Lincoln’s Birthday Powwow in Simnasho (more pictures on page 6). The Coquille Indian Tribe recently expressed its support for the gaming expansion plan o f the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. “The development o f this facility will benefit the economies o f the local gov ernments, the state o f Oregon and the Confederated Tribes o f Warm Springs, and carves new ground in tribal-state partnerships benefiting the local com munity,” wrote Coquille chairman Ed ward Metcalf. “The federal governm ent’s lon g standing policy has been to promote the self sufficiency o f Indian tribes. Eco nomic development such as this casino will help the Confederated Tribes and its members become self-sufficient and provide for future generations.” The Coquille are the second tribe in recent weeks to write a letter o f sup port to Stanley Speaks, regional direc tor o f the Bureau o f Indian Affairs. The Confederated Tribes o f Siletz In dians also wrote to Speaks advocating developm ent o f the B ridge o f the Gods Casino, to be located at Cascade Locks. In the Coquille letter to the BIA, C h airm an M e tc a lf says, “P lease make a prom pt decision to approve th is p ro p o sa l, and p le ase rem ain m in d fu l o f the ch alle n g e s o f the Confederated Tribes, m any o f whose m em bers struggle to m aintain a de cent standard o f living.” See CASINO on 9 Biomass energy production a major project for tribes B y B rian M ortensen Spilyay Tymoo The possible benefits o f the biom ass power project to the Warm Springs community are such that it could be its m ost profitable venture besides the proposed Cascade Locks casino, the m anager o f W arm Springs’ sawmill said at a workshop last week. A b o u t 40 m em b ers o f W arm Springs governmental, business, and natural resources communities met in a two-day workshop on the project at Kah-Nee-Ta High Desert Casino and Resort. The workshop included a field trip to the Camp Sherman area, last Thursday and Friday. “This is a big project,” Warm Springs Forest Products Industries general manager Larry Potts said. He estimated the development cost at $26 million. “To me this is the biggest project, next to the casino, the tribe has in front of it.” It is a large project, “But I am very confident that the team we have put together to develop this has a tremen dous amount of knowledge and expe rience behind it.” Last Friday, five members of the W arm Springs Tribal Council voted unanimously in favor of a resolution to allow the Warm Springs Biomass Energy Development team to complete the 15.5-megawatt biomass energy gen eration project. This includes complet ing necessary engineering of the pro cess, securing financing, and negotiat ing a sales agreement with an electrical utility that would buy electricity gener ated through the biomass energy plant, located at the mill. The resolution allows for creation of a legal entity, a subsidiary of WSFPI, to operate the biomass electrical and steam generation facility, along with an equity partner, a silent partner that would invest in the project. The spe cific arrangement would be approved by Tribal Council. Under the resolution, a financial advisor would be sought for use on the project. The resolution called for these stipu lations with the date of Dec. 31, 2007. That would be effective deadline for the biomass energy plant to be in op eration in order to earn a $1.1 million production tax credit. Each facet o f the resolution was discussed in detail during the 13-hour workshop. The resolution comes on the heels of a 20-year Memorandum of Under standing (MOU) the Tribal Council signed Jan. 25 with the U.S. Forest Ser vice and Bureau of Land Management. The 20-year agreement provides that the public agencies would work to pro vide a steady supply of small-diameter trees, slash and debris from logging and thinning projects to provide fuel to run the plant. And Cal Mukumoto, a management consultant to WSFPI, said the power sales agreement should be signed within 60 days, and he said engineering and perm it processes need to start soon to give investors and potential customers in the power sale sufficient inform a tion. The employment estimate was 75 new jo b s at the m ill alone, not counting contract employees f o r functions connected to the project. Jim Manion of Warm Springs Power Enterprises, and a member o f the bio mass energy committee, described the energy the Warm Springs biomass plant would produce as “green,” or renew able energy. This has appeal to power suppliers and consumers. Some states even place mandatory conditions on power suppliers to buy certain percentages o f green energy, that comes from wind, biomass, geo thermal or hydro-electric energy. Fuel supply A power sales agreement favorable to the Warm Springs biomass group, and the production tax credit, would both be favorable to courting an invest ing equity partner. Another key component is where wood fuel for the biomass plant will come from. The fuel is most cost-efficient if it is harvested within a 75-mile radius of the Warm Springs mill. The M emoran dum o f Understanding ensures that fuel will come from federal lands over a sustained period. One o f those areas that will con tribute fuel is in an area known as the M eto liu s H e ritag e A rea at C am p S h erm an , se rv ic e d by the S iste rs Ranger District o f the Deschutes N a tional Forest, in conjunction with the Friends o f the Metolius, a conserva tion organization. The workshop at Kah-Nee-Ta in cluded a field trip to the area and a meeting with Sisters District Ranger Bill A ntho ny and G regory M cC larren, p re s id e n t o f th e F rien d s o f the Metolius, who described the genesis of the Heritage project. See BIOMASS on 9
