By Joe Morey
News Department
Last week, the ARPA Department reported most large projects under their management were either completed or nearing completion. Some of those projects included the Emergency Operations Center, Miskogiizhig Apartments, LCO Country Store/Grindstone Creek Casino Improvements, and the LCO Ojibwe School improvements.
LCO Chairman Louis Taylor told staff members of the department while at a recent Tribal Governing Board (TGB) meeting that they have done a great job.
“You’ve done an outstanding job managing all of this and you haven’t lost track at all,” Taylor stated. He acknowledged the projects that have been completed and said our tribal leadership has total confidence in the current projects underway, including the Reserve Elder Center, HIP Homes construction and the Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF), which as 171 homes currently in progress of improvements on the Reservation.
In the ARPA report, 50 homes have already been completed under the HAF program for up to $30,000 in rehabs. The report stated that whichever homes weren’t funded under this program by ARPA funds, would be funded under a Medicaid eligible program and that all funds have been set aside by the TGB.
The ARPA Department is also still working on funding for the 60-acre 30-home Mandaamin homeownership community with two-and three-bedroom units located at the four corners on Froemel Road. Much of the infrastructure for this planned community has already been developed or underway, which include water, sewer, roads, and utilities.
The ARPA Department has many other projects under its wing, which include Covid//Emergency Homes, Women’s Shelter Operation, Inflation Assistance, Job Training, LCO Boys & Girls Club assistance, The Landing docks, Utility Assistance, Youth Service donations, Land purchase for housing and subsistence, architectural & engineering services, Surveys, Tower Road modulars renovation, Sewer & Curb stop repairs, Trails/Parks Improvements, Boat Landing, Giiwedin Lift Station and Water Tower Improvements.
And others completed or near completion include Pipestone Creek Eco-Tourism Site Improvements, Akii School Building, Head Start Facility Repairs, Spring Clean Up for 2021 through 2024, Hearth Act Implementation (Improvements to CDC Building, Trading Post and Old Tribal Police Building in order to build tribal land management capacity), Broadband Feasibility Project, LCO Pow Wow Grounds Improvements, Kinnamon Visitor Center Improvements, and Big Fish Golf Improvements.
