Kurtis Barker, Chief Executive Officer, gives updates about the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians for the month of October
Andy
Hello everyone. My name is Andrea Taylor, and I’m the public relations assistant for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. And today I have our CEO, Kurtis Barker.
Kurtis
Hello. It’s good to see you again.
Andy
Good to see you again. So let’s get right into it.
Kurtis
Yeah. We had a few things, that we wanted to sort of discuss and inform the membership on. It’s been a really busy quarter. And we still have, a really busy, rest of the month as we finish out this year. But we did want to provide the membership and those that listen to the podcast, some updates on some of our major projects that we have.
So I think first, do you want to discuss maybe the Lincoln City Clinic? I know that there’s a lot of, there’s been a lot of, feedback from the community and request, from when that clinic is going to open. Especially from, there’s a lot of interest, I think, from the employees that work at the casino.
We’ve moved that opening date to the Lincoln City Clinic. We plan on doing a soft opening on February 18th. So that’s going to be for tribal members and existing patients that, are currently registered, at the Siletz clinic. And then we hope to fully open on March 17th. And that would be open to, tribal members and non-tribal members that work at the casino.
Andy
And do you have a game plan about the services that will be offered during the soft and hard opening? I know we had talked about it expanding with time. Do you know that plan yet, or are we still working on it?
Kurtis
We do have a plan. We have a few vacancies that we’re filling right now, but, we also have some positions that have been filled that are training at the clinic, a current clinic nights. So they’re ready to be moved. And transition to opening the Lincoln City Clinic. We will have medical, and then we will have, two dental beds.
So we’ll have a full time dentist there. And we’ll also have behavioral health services.
Andy
That’s a good start. Yeah, it’s a solid start with that.
Kurtis
The clinic is. It’s really small. We found that it’s been pretty difficult to, renovate an existing building that wasn’t meant for clinical services into a clinic. So adding exam rooms and, everybody knows going to the dentist how big those spaces are.
Andy
Yeah.
Kurtis
So, renovating this building has been a challenge. But the staff, have been working with our team. It’s been a lot of work, but it’s. I think it’s going to turn out really great for the membership.
Andy
All right. I’m excited for that to open.
Kurtis
It’s going to be tied to a few change orders here and there, but, we’ve had to push out the date. It’s been it’s taken a little longer than expected. That’s whether that’s, just unforeseen circumstances. Once you take walls down, do you find things you didn’t expect?
Andy
So I know about that. I learned about that this year, working on my own kitchen.
Kurtis
Yeah, it’s it’s a challenge, but, we’re excited. That’s moving along. We have some other updates on that building here in a minute. But the next one that we have is the, new, pharmacy right here in downtown. So let’s, that building is just about done. We actually have our ribbon cutting, ceremonial ribbon cutting scheduled for December 23rd at 11 a.m..
Kurtis
The tribal council will be down there. And I think we’re having a few, like, orders and letting tribal members in the community be able to walk through it. Just to see what it’s going to be like. And then we’ll have our soft open, December 30th. And then that just allows us to sort of iron out any issues we may have with the workflow and, supplies and, just different functional things like that.
And then we’ll fully open on January 27th.
Andy
All right. So just kind of walk through the building, enjoy an empty building, and then the pharmacy will actually move in. And they’re just going to kind of soft open. Like is that like soft start. We fill a few things.
Kurtis
Yeah. They’ll be able to fill existing prescriptions for current patients. But taking in maybe members of the community or maybe, new patients that will be pushed off a little bit just while we make sure that we have everything, up and running smoothly.
Andy
And Will, did we discuss if there was going I don’t remember now. Is there going to be a drive through on that one? Will that be up and running? If there is.
Kurtis
Yes, it will be up and running when the clinic or when the pharmacy opens.
Andy
Awesome. That makes me happy.
Kurtis
Yeah, I think the community’s been very excited. We get requests and, for information almost every day. When is it going to open?
Andy
Well, it’s looking almost finished, so, like, get a little fancy. Yeah.
Kurtis
We’ve had a lot of change orders with that project as well. So it has it’s been delayed a little bit on the opening, but we want to make sure we get everything right. The tribal council has also approved, the mural that we plan to put on the side of it. So if we can, we’ll, we’ll provide an illustration of what that looks like, maybe on the website, on the clinic page.
And if they haven’t published it already in their digital newsletter. We’ll see if we can include that because just because of the weather, it might take some time to get the mural done. But we do want to, inform the membership of what that looks like. And the same thing for the Lincoln City clinic at the council meeting in November.
And the council approved the mural that will go on the clinic in Lincoln City.
Andy
Okay.
Kurtis
So we’ll see if we can get that published as well. And, it’s not a project that I don’t think we’ve really discussed before, but we’ve been researching and reaching out to different artists on doing a mural, going up quiz shirt.
Andy
Oh. On the brick wall. The retaining wall.
Kurtis
Yeah. The retaining wall. We do have some concepts in the council approved, the design for that. We’re not exactly sure when it’s going to kick off. That’s probably more of a spring next summer type of.
Andy
When the rain ends.
Kurtis
Yeah.
Andy
Yeah.
Kurtis
And we just trying to incorporate some different elements. Because that that’s a huge wall and there’s different sections of it. So, if we can we’ll see if we can publish that ahead of time, just so that people get an idea of what that looks like. But but that’s been approved. So those projects are moving forward.
The next project that we have that, has garnered a lot of interest and attention is the new museum. I know that there’s the tribal membership is really excited about it. The administration has been working along, with our consultants, our contractors, and with Starz to ensure that, the membership is informed throughout this process and that Starz has, an opportunity to provide input.
But, the contracts for that project are assigned to the council approved, those contracts, and we hope to start construction in the first quarter.
Andy
I’m hoping of 25. Yes.
Kurtis
Okay. I’m hoping that construction starts on that project in February, if not late January.
Andy
So very soon?
Kurtis
Yes, I know. I keep thinking I was like, oh, it seems so far away, but we’re already like in December, just December.
Andy
Yeah, it’s the end of the year. We’re wrapping it.
Kurtis
Up. Yeah. So we’re working on the final design elements of that building. And we’re getting our contractors in place for exhibits, and we actually have a position that’s been approved at the November council meeting for a museum project manager. It’s a two year, limited duration position that will work with the contractors and our staff on ensuring that, the exhibits that we have when we first open tell the story that we want to tell, and making sure that all those exhibits are being ordered on time.
There’s a lot of back orders on all those, supplies. So it’s really a it’s a limited duration position. Later on, as we get closer to finishing construction, we’ll, we’ll advertise the positions that will actually staff that building.
Andy
All right. I’m glad that we have a full time, you know, manager that’s going to work on just helping facilitate that and make sure it just keeps going.
Kurtis
Yeah, it’s it’s going to be a big task. And it’s not something we felt that the existing staff have the capacity to do. So hopefully we find some.
Andy
Know that that in its own as a full time job.
Kurtis
And it’s kind of a specialty type thing working in museums and doing curation and, and developing that story in a, in a way that works for a museum type setting is is a specialty. So we hope that we’re able to find some really qualified applicants so that we’re, bringing that person on, on board from the very beginning.
Andy
Good. That’s a good idea.
Kurtis
Let’s see the next project we have. And it seems like there’s more and more projects every, every time we provide updates. But the Salem housing project, is moving along very nicely. This project is being administered by the Housing Department, along with several other projects that we have going on. And I know that there’s a lot of tribal members in the Salem area that that go by there, that go by the development.
Andy
They’re watching the whole thing. They are watching in real time.
Kurtis
And, it’s exciting. The foundations. Well, first, all of the infrastructure is in the roads. The sidewalks, curbs and drainage are all done, and the foundations for all the houses are poured and they’re already putting up walls. So the construction of the actual homes has started. So I don’t have a specific, estimated timeline on when those will be complete yet.
But it’s moving along very quickly, even though we’re kind of in the middle of winter. That stuff, that stuff and those projects are still progressing, and I believe, the housing department has, has put out an interest form. So if you’re if you’re interested or have an interest in being put on a wait list for those units, again, it’s 39 units, various sizes from, I think two bedroom all the way up to 4 or 5 bedroom units.
And you can contact the housing department to be put on that, interest list. And it’s kind of a pre vetting list before the actual applications are available.
Andy
And do we do we have a potential guesstimate on when the project should be finished.
Kurtis
I’m going to guess the end of 2025 early 26.
Andy
All right. Fingers crossed then. Yes. Okay.
Kurtis
It’s a lot of work. We have, a really great contractor out there that’s working with us. But again, we don’t know if we’ll be hit with, things that are on backorder and whether it is always a, deciding factor.
Andy
Yeah.
Kurtis
We struction.
Andy
Projects. We don’t build things in monsoon style rains and 50 mile an hour gale force winds. Not happening.
Kurtis
Exactly. But I go out there, every now and then, and, it’s been really great to see the, the progress on that project. It’s moving along very quickly.
Andy
Good.
Kurtis
But we’ll we’ll provide some more updates. And we’ll have more concrete timelines in the next couple of months.
Andy
Good. Yeah. We don’t I don’t I’m not interested in rushing a contract job. That’s not that’s not quality.
Kurtis
Yeah. Nobody wants, their home to be rushed.
Andy
Yeah, right.
Kurtis
We want to make sure that they’re quality built. And we have a great contractor. And our staff are doing great on working with them.
Andy
So good job.
Kurtis
Huge kudos to the housing department. The housing department is managing the projects for, not only in Salem housing. They managed the projects for the pharmacy and Lincoln City clinic, and they’re managing the project for the rec center.
Andy
So it sounds to me like they’re killing it and doing amazing.
Kurtis
They are. And it’s really hard to have, so many projects of this scale are going on at the same time. Requires a lot of meetings or requires a lot of, back and forth.
Andy
Travel time.
Kurtis
Travel time. I mean, there’s constant meetings with with the architects, with, the weekly meetings with each of the construction crews on top of maintaining the services that they offer in the housing department. We didn’t add any staff to their team to take on all of these projects. So it’s it’s a monumental task. It’s kind of one of those things that we’ve been forced to do just because of, the Arpa funds that we received and, and the strict timelines that we’ve been put on, to, to expend those fund.
But, it’s it’s going to be a huge benefit to the tribe and to the membership once these projects are done.
Andy
And just for our listeners. Arpa is for the American Rescue Plan Act.
Kurtis
Yes. It was, Covid related funding that we received a kind of right at the end of Covid to, to help us build back, the of course, during Covid. A lot of organizations and tribes lost a lot of revenue. So it’s kind of meant to, to supplement, the revenue that the tribe lost. And we have very specific timelines on when it has to be spent, and when it has to be obligated.
So we received, a significant portion of funding, and we’ll just I mean, I can just touch on this for a little bit, but, all of that funding had to be obligated by the end of December of 2024. It has to be under contract. So these projects, that’s why they’re all.
Andy
Happening right now.
Kurtis
Yes. Because we had we had a significant amount of funding that had to be distributed right away. So and then we have two years to spend it. So we have all of the funding that we currently received is under contract. And then we have two years to expend it. So these all of these projects will be done by the end of 2026.
Andy
Okay.
Kurtis
And the last one that we, can touch on for just a little bit, it’s probably the project that, it’s one of the projects that, that’s been really challenging, but that’s the rec center. And so let’s, we’ve had some we’ve had to do additional coordination with the city, with the with the design team and with our Geotech people.
We’ve had to make some alterations to the design. And I think it’s just where we decided to locate that facility was challenging. It was vacant land, and we had to do. It’s require a lot of change orders in order to put the building in that location. So, I believe they’re doing the foundation work next week.
So those of you that listen to this and and live in around Siletz, we do get a lot of interest from the outside community. We get people from Lincoln City and Newport, even those, members that go to the Newport Rec Center. Asking when ours is going to be done because they want to come to ours instead of, other facilities.
So we know that it’s going to be, used. We do still anticipate the project being completed. Sometime towards the middle to end of 2026. Just because the facility is so big, it’s going to be, I think, 40,000 square feet.
Andy
And it’s just chump change. Small.
Kurtis
Yeah. So I mean, it’s a it’s a huge facility for Siletz. Yeah. And, to some of the design challenges have, created small delays, but the construction crew is back on site. Rebar is coming in this week. Foundations are going in next week, and pretty soon, hopefully before. I mean, within the next couple months, we’ll start to see some walls go up.
Andy
That’s exciting. Yeah, I am excited for that. You know, just because I was even just telling you before we started this, you know, I take I have to take, you know, for something to do, especially in our rain season. Going to the pool is a really good mom activity. Hello, kids. Dump them off, like, have some time, I love you.
Andy
That’s that’s. It’d be really good to have our own.
Kurtis
Yeah. And we do get, I was even asked today whether or not the rec center is going to have a pool. And this this facility won’t have a pool. And we know that it’s been part of our comprehensive plan for many, many years. So, it’s something we’ll have to plan for in the near future.
Andy
Future plans. I’m okay with that.
Kurtis
Yes.
Andy
Still, the rec center is going to be great, though.
Kurtis
Yeah, it’s going to be. It’s going to be really, really nice.
Andy
All right, well, let’s move on to some other highlights that we’ve got. Where do you want to start?
Kurtis
I think we’re going to cover some of the things that, are some highlights from maybe the special tribal Council meeting that happened in November and maybe the regular council meeting. Just some highlights to inform the membership on, we did have a request from Tribal Council to expand, PRC services for tribal members. So that tribal members within the state of Oregon would be covered by PRC.
Andy
Not just the 11 county.
Kurtis
Correct.
Andy
Oh, nice.
Kurtis
So, the administration in the clinic has, done sort of the background work on putting that request into IHS. So we’re just waiting for a response. We’re not exactly sure how long that process takes, but hopefully within some time within 2025, we get a response that that we will be allowed to provide, PRC services to, all tribal member residents over in Oregon.
Andy
So be on the lookout for that. That’s going to be amazing.
Kurtis
It is. And that’s and that’s, largely due to how successful the clinic has been at sort of generating third party revenue and generating the resources that it’s going to take to expand these services, because it likely won’t come with additional funding. So we’ll be using existing, clinic funding to expand those services, which is which is what we want to do.
Anyway, so it’s a good use of those funds and, it’s really, the clinic has done an amazing job at generating revenue, and we have some really great plans for 2025 on how to even grow that more. So, and we get to do great things like this, because of that.
Andy
Yeah. Well, and there’s, I mean, there’s a lot of need and I, you know, the best we can do to serve our members, right?
Kurtis
Exactly.
Andy
Yeah.
Kurtis
As part of, the regular council meeting in November, the council approved our 2025 budget presentation. That’s taken a lot of work. And we have a new self-governance and budget director who’s been working with our staff to prepare, our indirect clinic budgets, our self-governance budgets for 2025. We held, I think it was 1 or 2 sessions with the Budget Committee.
We had a separate workshop with the council to discuss those budgets. And so they were ultimately approved in, the November meeting. And then kind of the result of that is there’s often like new positions that are that are funded within those budgets. So you’ll start to see some of those positions posted to our website. So keep an eye out for those.
And then those those budgets will be published. A summary of those budgets will be published in a confidential newsletter, so that tribal members can review those. Some other highlights. I know that there’s been a lot of discussion regarding enrollment. I know the committee has been, really involved with staff and having conversations with Tribal Council regarding, some enrollment eligibility criteria.
That’s been, I think, confusing. And, it’s been brought up and it’s been discussed at the last couple of general council meetings. We’ve had public comment regarding, rules and records. I think the Tribal Council kind of kind of resolved that issue by removing, just for those that are familiar with, removing footnote four in the in the enrollment ordinance kind of created a lot of that question and a lot of that, contention regarding enrollment eligibility.
So hopefully that’s that that resolves the problem. That we were experiencing with, processing enrollment applications. So that’s that that’s been something that’s, probably been going on the last year. So there was hopefully a fix to that this last month.
And if you want some more information on that you can read the Tribal Council minutes or review the enrollment ordinance posted to the website.
Andy
All right.
Kurtis
Other exciting news is the tribe purchased a new office for the Eugene area, which is where we’re really excited about this building. For those of you that that live and access services in the Eugene area, you know that, the building for one is not big enough. We haven’t been able to expand services within that area in a long time because we’ve been at capacity.
We’ve also had a lot of safety issues because it’s located, in an area that’s not ideal, for safety. We’ve had several incidents, that have been concerning. So moving that office has been one of our top priorities. We’ve also had structural issues that we’ve had to address. We’ve had to.
Andy
Work on the foundation once, didn’t get, so we had to completely redo the foundation. Yeah.
Kurtis
It’s just yes. And not in an ideal location. So they redid the parking lot and, this, I don’t have the specific address on me, but the new office is located pretty close to the the Costco area. Right off of Crescent Avenue. So, we’ll be providing more information on when the office will officially move.
We’re hoping by the end of first quarter that we’ll have all of the staff moved over there
Andy
First quarter 25. Yes. Okay.
Kurtis
First quarter of 25. We hope to have everybody fully moved. And of course, the Eugene area is, very well known for hosting events. I’m sure will host an open house that, and make it available and open to the public so that they can see what it looks like.
Andy
I like that. I’m also excited for them. I know that they’ve had a, several people in, in one small office or they, you know, I think they cleaned out a a janitorial closet once. Yeah, for a staff member.
Kurtis
We had to add a window to a storage room so that we could convert it to an office. Their copy room, which is just like a side room. The outer door we had, we converted that to an office. This office location is much larger. We know that a lot of people attend events at the Eugene area.
They’re they’re very well attended. One of the probably one of the highest out of the area offices that we have. And, they take a lot of pride in that. And there is a lot of community space in this building.
Andy
Oh, I like that.
Kurtis
That would be really hard to fill. This one.
Andy
But the good news is that that does expand our services to our members in the area. And again, serving our membership. Top quality.
Kurtis
Yes, we’re having conversations. Or we’ll be having conversations with the council on what expansion looks like for Eugene.
Andy
Oh for sure. Now that’ll take time. That’s not going to happen immediately. Right? But I am excited for possibilities.
Kurtis
Yes. And, the membership is more than welcome to provide input on what kind of resources and services that they would like to see in the Eugene area. Because there are programs that do want to expand out there. We just haven’t had that space and then we have an opportunity. So it’s going to take an investment, on behalf of our programs, to provide more staff out there.
Andy
I’m excited for that.
Kurtis
Yeah, it’s as you can see. I mean, just from the basic updates we have, we have a lot going on. The council has requested, I believe it was the regular council meeting to provide more information to the membership regarding the the properties that the tribe owns. So we hope to, provide more information in the next couple.
Siletz newspapers. Different portfolios that the tribe owns. So we have a number of properties that have been acquired for conservation purposes. We want to be able to provide the membership on like when these properties were acquired, what their intended uses, the size, location, how they were acquired. So we will be putting some, releases together, some media packages together here in the next, couple months.
We figured we’d probably do it in a series. So that we’re just being transparent and informing the membership on the on the properties of the tribe owns.
Andy
Right. Well, and those are some of those are pretty awesome.
Kurtis
Yes. We had, just since I’ve been in this position for almost three years, we’ve had a number of, property acquisitions. Not just for, conservation purposes, but, just because they’re, strategic, strategic moves that we want to have for future growth, whether it’s future growth with housing or, other services that we want to provide.
But we want to be transparent to the membership. So, you’ll be seeing in the next couple newsletters. Information regarding those properties. And you’re more than welcome to contact the administration if you have any questions. We’re hope to make this information also available and more, intuitive on our website. So that you’d be able to go to the website, access the, a parcel that the tribe owns, and find some factual information about it.
We want to be able to provide pictures.
Andy
Kind of more interactive, self learned or self, self driven. You know? Yeah. Information, I like that.
Kurtis
Exactly. And I think one thing that you’ll see, I mean, the December newsletter had a number of very exciting announcements in it.
Andy
It did.
Kurtis
And I think we can probably jump right into that.
Andy
Let’s do it. I’m excited about those.
Kurtis
Yes. And for those of you that that attended restoration, the tribal vice chairman, but then read a statement into the record and basically made the official announcement that the tribe purchased, some significant land around table Rock. So, I think it was in I think it was in the middle of or right at the beginning of November.
The tribe announced that they’ve purchased approximately 2000 acres of privately owned property within the original Tamarack Reserve in southern Oregon. And I’m just going to read a little, blurb from the December issue of the Siletz News that we published. But, this dates the. So let’s tribe’s history is inseparably linked to table rocks in southern Oregon.
In 1853, table Rock treaty was the first confederation of Oregon tribes, and the first treaty signed by an Indian tribe in the West, to be ratified by the Senate. So by that act, the table Rock reserve on the north bank of the rogue River became Oregon’s first reservation. And this land is now, owned by the tribe, so.
Andy
That’s so amazing.
Kurtis
It is. And if you read the December issue of the Siletz News, I encourage you to read not only the December issue of. So that’s news, but we highlighted table Rock and how it’s tied to the tribe. It’s our I mean, how culturally significant it is to us.
Andy
It’s ancestral land, right?
Kurtis
Yeah. And the October issue. So the October issue, we sort of did, highlight of Table Rocks, some history. And then the announced the official announcement in the December issue, and it was announced at restoration. So 2000 additional acres approximately to the tribe’s land holdings. It’s really exciting. In addition to that, in the December issue, we announced, along with a pretty big a significant media release.
The trip partnered with a number of agencies to reclaim ancestral homelands on the Oregon coast, which is what we call key weather. It’s approximately 27 acres. And we were able to purchase this with a significant grant from NOAA. It was about $2.1 million. There’s been a lot of conservation, efforts the last several years with various organizations on conserving those natural areas and the Oregon coast from developers.
So just to name a few of the partners that we worked with. The tribe worked with, Lincoln County, the Nature Conservancy of Oregon, the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, and the McKenzie River trust to all see that this land, now be stewarded by the tribe. And that’s that’s some acrylic really exciting news.
You can read the full story in the December issue. I think we’ve also published it on our official Facebook page. The story.
Andy
I think. But if not, we need to get Kat to publish that for us.
Kurtis
Yes. And it’s it’s been available on various news outlets. We’ll provide some more information and pictures as we get them, hopefully on the website. And then we also have several other conservation properties that will likely be coming online. January, February, 2025.
Andy
New or old new ones.
Kurtis
So again, more partnerships with local organizations to bring to basically, the tribal owned these properties for conservation purposes. Not using, tribal dollars to do that. If there are tribal dollars used, it’s very minimal or we’re helping with the due diligence costs. But we have probably some more announcements to make in January or February.
Andy
So keep your eyes and ears ready for those.
Kurtis
Yes. And that takes a lot of work. That takes a lot of coordination, not just with, guidance from Tribal Council, but the natural resources staff, are pretty much the hub of where this coordination takes place. So they’ve been very, very busy on securing these partnerships, nurturing them over the years. And right now, it’s just a really paying fruit.
And you’ll be able to see those things when we publish our first, list of properties that we’re going to publish will probably be those properties that we have in conservation or, or that we have, holdings on for conservation purposes. So we’re really excited to announce those.
Andy
All right. And then do we have, we have one more.
Kurtis
The let’s see what else did we have? We had the consent decree.
Andy
Yep. That was also in the December issue of Siletz News.
Kurtis
Yes. This was in probably one of the. Well, all of the issues of select news are exciting, but.
Andy
This one was a good one this year. It was a banner.
Kurtis
Yeah, we had three very, very, good things for the tribe happen. And it’s all on the front page of the December issue. So. Yes. October 30th, the federal court vacated the consent decree that limited the silhouettes trans rights to hunt, fish and trap and gather. And this came after years of work from the tribal council, natural resources partnerships with the state of Oregon.
Our federal partners. And it’s one of we have one more step to fully vacate. The consent decree. And that’s having the state of Oregon rescind the Oregon Administrative rule that still mentions that the, 1980 consent decree, but the staff are working on that process. We hope to see that, that language removed from the state, rules by the end of first quarter.
In 2025. So, it’s been a huge effort. On behalf of the tribal council staff, our legal team, to ensure that this, that this is all corrected and we’re already seeing huge benefits from it. We’ve been able to create new rules, new seasons for hunting, fishing and gathering that the membership is taking advantage of.
The natural resources department under hunting and fishing has been very busy.
Andy
Oh, sure, sure.
Kurtis
Issuing new tags and, I, for one, know that tribal members have been very successful at, their deer and elk hunting.
Andy
So that’s good.
Kurtis
Yes. It’s, many people back out there hunting.
Andy
Fishing and gathering is is not only just our natural roots, but it’s also just a really sustainable way to, like, feed your own family.
Kurtis
Yeah. And it’s, a lot healthier than.
Andy
Processed.
Kurtis
Things that are probably processed or from the store where there’s constant recalls happening right now and different food groups. So, yeah, it’s, we’re really excited for the membership to, take advantage of those additional, hunting seasons and those additional rights.
And hopefully we’ll be providing some more news at the end of first quarter.
Andy
So more guidance, new rules hopefully you know new. Because we don’t want to irresponsibly hunter gatherer. That’s not the goal here. We want to sustain it but correct. We have we want more rights.
Kurtis
We entered into a, a hunting fishing agreement with the state of Oregon in 2023. Yes. Knowing that this is part of the process and, having the federal courts vacate the consent decree is that we had to have another agreement with the state. But that agreement is very, I wouldn’t say it’s flexible, but it does provide that, that flexibility for our natural resources department to evaluate, those resources that we have, for hunting and gathering and to work with the state to set, specific bag limits and things so that we’re not, I mean, overharvesting and right where we don’t want to do that ourselves.
Andy
No.
Kurtis
We want to protect all those things into the future and make them available. So, we will be recruiting, probably. I think we do have some positions open within natural resources because we do have this expanded new need. And, yeah. If you have any questions regarding what that looks like, you can contact Angela. She’s our new natural resources director.
She’s doing a wonderful work in that department, as well as the rest of the staff.
Andy
All right. Yeah, I’m excited about that one. Do we want to talk about job opportunities, or do you want to skip over that? You have it in there. But we did skip it.
Kurtis
We could touch on it for a second. Okay.
Andy
So let’s move on to our next, you know, closing part of our agenda. We have, job opportunities.
Kurtis
Yeah. I think we touched on this just a little bit, but, towards the end of the year, we often have, I think for the last several years, many years, there’s always at least, a handful of positions where, existing staff who have been here for a number of years are retiring. So there’s usually opportunities for, tribal members to apply for jobs that maybe haven’t been opened for a number of years.
Andy
Right?
Kurtis
Yeah. So keep an eye out for the, on the website. And then again, like I mentioned, as the budgets get approved, and as we get closer to 2025, we’ll be recruiting for positions that have been included in that budget, right?
Andy
New budget, new positions, new grants, new positions.
Kurtis
We do. And we’ve had, I think maybe a topic for the next one is, an update on some grants that we’ve received.
Andy
Okay.
Kurtis
That will create new opportunities. I don’t have all the specific details with me to include in this podcast, but I think that’s a good agenda item for the next one, I agree. But just lately, within the month of probably November December, we have varying opportunities. Like I mentioned, the museum project manager was advertised.
We had positions open within our garden property, throughout all different departments within the clinic. And that’s, in part due to the expansion of the clinic in the city.
But we also have new positions that have been created within behavioral health, and we’re trying to expand some services in that area as well. We have a number of positions that have been open in the accounting department. Emergency preparedness, elders, youth services, and even some positions open in culture.
Andy
Yes.
Kurtis
So there’s really a wide range of positions that have been open the last couple of months. And if you have any questions, you can contact the HR department, because we do have several of those that are open until filled. But this is a really good time to check the website.
Andy
All right. And thank you so much, Kurtis. I feel like this is a good wrap to you.
Kurtis
Yeah, I think we’ve covered a lot that we, we have a lot going on. So, please, if you’re, reaching out to the staff, various departments for services, we do have, we kind of our, in our, winter season mode. So, you can watch our Facebook page to see if offices are going to be delayed due to weather.
Kurtis
We have a number of staff who go on vacations this year, which will be notifying, if you contact our offices, you should be notified if staff are out. Not in the office, but, yeah, if the membership could be patient with our staff and departments, we would appreciate it.
Andy
Yes. It’s the end of the year. It feels. It’s like a race. It’s a race. The last quarter of this of the year, it’s there’s so much and so little time.
Kurtis
There is. And it’s an exciting time. It’s a very, very busy time. Yes. We are trying to provide as many services as we can and be available to the membership as much as we can. So keep keep an eye out for the Facebook pages for official notices, because we do have adverse weather this time of year where either the office will be, on an open.
Andy
Delayed start.
Kurtis
Delayed start, or we might close altogether and have staff working from home. So.
Andy
You know, an ice pocalypse could come through.
Kurtis
I know you never know. It could turn into another, January where we were.
Andy
They are predicting snow. Heavy snow this year.
Kurtis
Yes. So, that we’re not so excited about. But, we do have office closures due to holidays, the tribal offices, the clinic. And I believe childcare will be closed on December 24th and December 25th for Christmas.
And then the offices are also closed on January 1st for New Year’s.
Andy
All right, check the website. Check Facebook. Stay updated. Give us a call if you have any questions.
Kurtis
Exactly.
Andy
Thank you, Kurtis, so much for providing all of this wonderful information. I’m excited about this one. This is a good you know, there was so much breaking news, information, amazing things that we’re that we’re doing as a tribe.
Kurtis
Agreed. Thank you. And again, thank you to our staff and our teams. It takes a monumental amount of work to make all this happen as seamlessly as we make it. Look. Sometimes we don’t make it look so seamless, but, again, I appreciate all the staff, the tribal members, patience. And hopefully everybody has, a good Christmas and holiday season.
Andy
All right. Thank you.
Kurtis
Thank you.