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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (June 22, 2006)
June 22 , 2006 Spílyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon Page 11 W.S. Construction angles to catch more jobs Application for 8a status almost complete B y M aren Cohn Warm Springs Ventures Past years of frustration and inactivity have handed some tough times to Warm Springs Construction, but the combina tion of perseverance and strong leadership is positioning the en terprise to become a real asset for the tribes. Construction general man ager Glenn Carpenter and as sistant manager Leslie Cochran- Davis are cautious in predicting a significant turnaround, but their steady and committed work is quietly paving the way for success. “Leslie has shown incredible determination in leading Con struction through numerous obstacles” says Jeff Anspach, chief financial officer of Warm Springs Ventures. “She’s a natu ral leader and she doesn’t give up. Even after giving birth to her daughter last fall, she was back on the job within a week, com ing in to take care of payroll and other accounting duties. She has a great work ethic and good business instincts. Her ability to track costs makes a huge dif ference in our ability to manage the business and assess our strengths and weaknesses. What more can you ask for?” Cochran-Davis’s account of herself is a little briefer: “I needed to come in after the baby was born. I was the one most familiar with the software. I was happy to do it, too. I like working here.” Cochran-Davis’s accomplish ments include passing the Or egon Construction Contracting Board’s licensing exam. Getting hfr CCB license will have sig nificant implications for the fu ture of Construction. With a li censed manager, the enterprise has met one of the requirements for the Small Business Administration’s section 8a cer tification. Once obtained, new opportunities for jobs will open up, enabling Construction to grow and acquire greater stabil ity and autonomy. “I’m really excited about the prospects for Construction,” says Ventures board member and tribal chief financial officer Ray Potter. “It’s one of the few ar eas where the tribes can increase job growth in the short to me dium term. We have lots of long- range ideas, but this one is hap pening right now. I believe that Construction can realistically quadruple its staff over the next three years. And I’m talking about good, high-paying jobs, Davis-Bacon jobs,” Potter af firms, referring to the Congres sional act whereby companies receiving federal monies must pay competitive wages in their field. Ventures chief executive of ficer Clyde Hamstreet likes Construction’s potential, too. “They are well-focused in a niche market of road-building and utilities,” he says. “They offer the kind of outdoor, sea sonal, work that many tribal members like, and they’re very well-managed by Glenn and Leslie. The 8a status will help them expand.” Change for the better Dependence on others has hampered past efforts. As things stand now, Con struction gets most of its jobs and money through the BIA, relying on a steady annual rev enue stream of about two to two and a half million dollars. The allocations can only be drawn down, however, once plans for specific projects have gone through a complex ap proval process that involves both tribal and federal authori ties. The process is slow and gets bogged down frequently. But until all the approvals come through, Construction can only wait. Its role doesn’t start until the very end, when the bidding process begins. “The problem with the cur rent situation,” says Anspach, “is that Construction’s workload totally depends on other people, and sometimes they don’t act very quickly.” As a result, Construction never knows when a job is go ing to come through. Last year was particularly tough, with the enterprise drawing down only one million dollars from the BIA allocations. The lack of control is frus trating for the company, which has to wait out the permitting process. Carpenter and Cochran-Davis keep things run ning with an occasional job or land works project, but they find it difficult to deal with a chroni cally uncertain workload. So do the field crews, who get hired and laid off in unpredictable cycles, as the need for their ser vices rises and falls. With the re cent addition of crews coming over to Construction from Geo Visions, that problem affects even more people now than in the past. “We’d like to create a more structured work environment over there,” Anspach says. “The limited-duration status of the crews is hard on everybody - not efficient for Construction, which always has to train new staff, and obviously not great for the workers either.” Strong start in 2006 Despite these built-in prob lems, Construction has gotten off to a profitable start this year and is running ahead of bud get. The enterprise has used de ferred funds to build infrastruc ture for the Sunnyside subdivi sion, expected to be done by July 4, and it just got started on a new $1.3 million Seekseequa project. Those two jobs will add lots to the reservation housing pool, and they will keep Con struction crews busy through August. What happens after Seekseequa, however, is still up in the air. It’s that kind of un certainty that Construction and Ventures hope to change by obtaining the 8a status. If granted, the certification will entitle Construction to compete for off-reservation jobs as an economically and socially disad vantaged company against a lim ited field of other 8a firms. Con struction would use the new jobs to boost and stabilize revenues. One Ventures enterprise has already embarked on a similar course. Warm Springs Geo Vi sions obtained 8(a) certification in November, 2005. Where Geo Visions once fell within Natural Resources, it now op erates quasi-independently as a Ventures entity. Its field crews have been moved into Construc tion, where they work on out door jobs like fencing and tree planting alongside the road crews. The rest of the staff, consisting of technically skilled workers, is freed up to compete with professionals in the same field from all over the world. Although Construction is not as specialized in its work as Geo Visions, achieving 8(a) status should also bring autonomy in competing for jobs. “We’d like to .have more con trol over our own fate,” Carpen ter says. “Being able to bid for off-reservation projects should help us get that. Then if we don’t have any work at least it will be our own fault and not because of someone else not doing something.” Construction’s 8(a) applica tion is nearly complete. Ventures Administrative Officer Sandra Danzuka expects to send it off within a few weeks. “Assembling the documenta tion takes a while,” Danzuka says. “One hurdle was Leslie getting the state certified contractor’s license. Also, since it’s a Tribal construction com pany, we had additional obstacles to overcome, but we’ve worked through most of those. Receiv ing 8(a) is not guaranteed, but the approval process should be expedited because of Geo Vi sions paving the way. We won’t have to prove the “economically disadvantaged” requirement this time around.” Danzuka also points out that once Construction achieves 8(a) status, it will automatically re ceive the valuable Small Disad vantaged Business (SDB) certi fication, which is recognized by the State of Oregon and Oregon Department of Transportation. If all goes well, the 8a certi fication will supplement a workload already in the process of growing. Potter, for one, is confident: “We have some jobs in the works for tribal funds, some for 638 and other federal money, and once we get the 8a certification we’ll be able to get sewer and road work in Madras and highway projects around the reservation. All of this means a lot more high-paying jobs on the reservation. I’m excited aboutit.” Shuttle service available for workers at Kah-Nee-Ta A shuttle for Kah-Nee-Ta youth and college employees launched the maiden trip on Wednesday, June 14. The shuttle is a pilot project funded with tribal operational savings at a total cost of $23,830. The project will deter mine the impact of providing transportation on retention of student employees, number of tribal members employed, and workforce stability throughout the summer season. The project was initiated by Julie Quaid, Chairman of the Warm Springs Community Ac tion Team, as part of a larger effort to establish transportation supports for Warm Springs. Due to the high cost of gas and a focus on tribal member em ployment at Kah-nee-ta, the time was right to work together on the shuttle. Janell Smith and Scott Moses played a key role in focusing summer employ ment efforts on youth and col lege age tribal members. The resort set aside $125,000 for tribal member youth and col lege employment. The group met over three months to dis cuss timelines, work schedules, vehicle leases, and prepared a funding proposal, which was ap proved by Jody Calica, tribal secretary/treasurer. The shuttle will provide three shuttles a day through Monday, September 4 and will operate weekends and holidays. The drivers are Brenda Scott and Esten Culpus and the substitute driver is Jonathan Culpus. The vehicle is a dual-wheeled twelve- passenger van leased from the tribal vehicle pool. A primary goal of the shuttle is to provide youth a job at Kah- nee-ta without the anxiety of how to get to and from work each day; reduce the amount of money earned spent on gas to get to work, and to provide VW\RM SPRINGS 732 SW 6th St., at the “Y ” in Redmond I Mon1 11 Pi-Ume-Sha programs, departments and individuals who Health Fair 9-2 Community work with children and youth in the W arm Center Springs Community, to help families involve Booster Seat Distribution th e ir children in positive and healthy 10am activities this summer. Summer Summer 25 1pm Rodeo 2pm-Grand Entry Recreation Old Mill Movies Trip TUES 6/27—> Summer School programs: HOME FURNISHINGS-REDMOND Locally Owned & Operated since 1980 Q__ . . . . 1JJ 'your favorite 'Home Tumisnincjs T-or Hess 24 8arn-10k/5k Run 8-Horse Race } lam - Parade Skate Park Fun 1pm Rodeo 4pm - Boxing 29 30 July 1 Recreation KNT Play Day Trip Swim lessons at Kah-Nee-Ta ECE 9:30AM Warm Springs Head Start is Summer Kah-Nee-Ta "Don't Ditch the accepting registrations for Junior Golf Library Ham the 2006-2007 school year for Dinosaurs" Begins @ FR C 3 and 4 year olds Fl/N RUN Madras High School June 26tih - July 1st: High School Credit Recovery 8th Grade Summer School; 6-7 Title 1-C Summer School; and Special Ed Summer School. 10-6 Mon.-Sat. 11-5 Sun. 23 PI-UME-SHA Boarding School Orientation 6pm Outgoing at Education Center Queens-2006 Royalty-Round PI-UME-SHA Dancing-Youth PI-UME-SHA 7pm~Grand Grand Entry Night/Concert Entry 1pm & 7pm Library 19-7/28 yo u ng er BEGINS 11am @ The Family Resource Center Swim Lessons at Kah-Nee-Ta Suicide Prevention Cam p at He He Longhouse 26 27 28 PI-UME-SHA Open 7 Days a week TFT 22 A collaborative e ffo rt between all the — FR EE DELIVERY to M O S T Central Oregon areas. ■ w ir Tue 21 for anyone 18 Desks, Living Room, Dining Room, Tables, Lamps, Recliners, Mattresses, Bedroom, Daybeds, Sleepers, Bunk Beds, Leather, Entertainment Centers, and MORE! J qodq © weep the Kids Busy SUMMER PLANNER ¿un fa se AMERICAN Kah-nee-ta with a reliable tribal member workforce. Please encourage youth to ride the shuttle to and from work every day. It leaves from the Family Resource Center on the campus and there is a parking area to park and ride. (See the shuttle schedule on page 10 .) July 2 NORTH AMERICAN INDIGENOUS GAMES IN DENVER Boys and Girls Club Opens at new location at V em Jackson Home 7/10 3 W arm Springs Boys and Girls Club Closed t h is week— > MONDAYS ©Summer Rec Golf, Kickball, Scooter Games, SPARKS Carol’s Room “Book Games” 4 5 6 7 Warm Springs Summer 4th of July - PAW S CLAW S S C A L E S A T A L E S Academy July 5-28 9am-noon Tribal and BUSES WILL RUN A HALF HOUR ©Summer National LATER THAN DURING THE Library 11am Holiday SCHOOL YEAR TUESDAYS WEDNESDAYS THURSDAYS FRIDAYS ©Summer Rec ©Summer ©Summer ©Summer Dodgeball, Recreation Recreation Recreation Archery, Weights, Carol’s Room Carol’s Room Badmitton, Hoops “Nothing to Do “A Stitch In Carol’s Room Carol’s Room Activities” Time- Saves "How Now "How Now Multnomah Nine” Brown Cow" Brown Cow" Falls Trip SUMMER HOOP Co-Ed League Saturday Nights 6pm July 1st - August 26th For Updates - Tune in fo r the Community Calendar on K W SO 91.9 PM
