Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
July 18, 2018
Businesses: project manager on board
Courtesy WSCAT
A conceptual drawing, by Hacker Architects, of the Small Business Incubator building.
(Continued from page 1)
In the basement will be space
for artisans to produce their work.
Outside would be a variety of food
carts in the food court pavilion; and
the nearby service building.
This will all be done in phases,
with the main Commissary work
the initial phase. The Community
Action Team began the project a
few years ago, with an open house
and information and opinion gath-
ering session with the community.
People mentioned more retail
space and business offices, and
small business support, as among
the biggest needs in Warm Springs.
The Old Commissary—once relo-
cated to a new site—was identified
as the best option for an incubator
project.
The team studied two different
sites, and with more community
input they identified the highway-
Paiute Avenue site as the best. A
benefit is its close proximity to the
highway, and there is infrastruc-
ture already in place.
Tribal Council gave their sup-
port, and provided the Commu-
nity Action Team with a 10-year
lease of the Old Commissary.
The Community Action Team
has hired Marissa Ahern as the
Small Business Incubator project
manager.
Ms. Ahern is a graduate of the
University of Colorado, where she
studied Environmental Design in
the Architecture program, and is
completing her Master’s Degree in
Community and Economic Devel-
opment.
Dave McMechan
Examples of small business incubators
What is a small business incuba-
tor? One definition reads:
Business incubators are organi-
zations that offer startups shared
operation space.
In doing so, entrepreneurs en-
joy a collaborative work environ-
ment with invaluable mentoring and
networking opportunities, funding
support and shared equipment. In
short, they offer fledgling young
companies a warm, safe place to
grow and prosper.
There are many examples in
Oregon, each one a little different.
The Warm Springs Community
Action Team has looked at several,
such as the Gaucho Collective of
Klamath Falls.
The Gaucho Collective features
working space, laptop stations, a
Purpose statement
of incubator project
The Warm Springs Com-
munity Action Team states the
purpose of the Small Busi-
ness Incubator with these
observations:
Currently, small businesses
on the Warm Springs Indian
Reservation provide fewer
than 200 jobs for War m
Springs tribal members, far
below the estimated 1,000
needed to stabilize the job
market and create a healthy
economy on the reservation.
To address this problem,
the Warm Springs Community
Action Team seeks to develop
a small business incubator
that will serve as an anchor
for small business in the
War m Springs downtown
area.
The Small Business Incu-
bator project will be the first
effort in decades designed to
improve the small business
environment for community
members in Warm Springs.
This project will address a
community need for places
and spaces where community
members can meet, and
where social and economic
relations may be intertwined.
kitchenette, printer-copier-scan-
ner, a meeting room, lockers for
rent, and Wifi.
For the Warm Springs small
business incubator, there are so far
two businesses identified so far: a
café and the Tananáwit shop. The
operator of the café is still not de-
termined.
The rest of the space at the
Warm Springs incubator would be
available to other small business
owners.
Further business space—for
food carts, for instance—would be
available outside the main build-
ing.
The Hacienda Community De-
velopment Corp. is an example of
how the food court area may de-
velop, said Christ Watson, Com-
munity Action Team director.
The Hacienda CDC, in Port-
land, has a food court area and a
service teaching those interested
in the food service industry.
Page 5
Tananáwit artists group to have
shop at small business center
Tananáwit is an artists’
project, working in partnership
with the Warm Springs Com-
munity Action Team.
Tananáwit artists will have
a first-floor store at the Small
Business Incubator building,
with artist work space on the
basement floor.
The group this spring re-
ceived its non-profit 501(c)3
status. The board members
are
chairman
Gerald
Danzuka, Tamera Calhoun,
Marge Kalama, Shayleen
Macy EagleSpeaker, Tamera
Moody and Aurolyn Stwyer.
Emily Courtney will be
working with the Community
Action Team to establish the
Tananáwit shop at the new
business center. Leah Guliasi is
the Community Action Team
liaison to the Tananáwit board
and membership.
If you would like informa-
tion on joining Tananáwit—
meaning ‘Our People’ in
Ichishkeen—stop by the Com-
munity Action Team office,
1136 Paiute Avenue, or call
541-553-3148.