OST allocates $6 million to each District

Money to be used for multi-purpose steel buildings

PINE RIDGE—Each of the nine districts on the Pine Ridge Reservation has been allocated $6 million by the tribal council for construction of a multi-purpose facility. The $54 million allocation came from the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund (FRF).

“They are giving each district $4.5 million for the buildings,” said Anna Solomon, District Chair for Pass Creek, “and $1.5 million for infrastructure. The largest districts probably need more funding, but we are happy with the 6 million, happy with that amount financially to even give our districts the opportunity to build these types of facility for our people.”

In March 2021, Congress approved the American Rescue Plan (ARP) establishing the FRF funds to be administered by the Department of the Treasury. Tribal governments were allowed to use FRF funds for anything economically impacted by the pandemic, including health care response costs, especially the reduction of tribal revenue due to the social distancing and lockdowns.

According to the allocation ordinance passed by tribal council, the funds to be used for construction of nine multi-purpose buildings are permitted by the “broad language” guidelines of the Treasury Department. Many communities presently lack multi-purpose facilities, partly because previous facilities fell into disrepair and disuse, or they were repurposed for other tribal programs.

Solomon stressed that each district has its unique needs, and the tribal council gave them an extra thirty days to submit a report detailing those needs. “Each district was given until the end of October to come up with their own plans and ideas about what their districts would need,” Solomon said. “Like other districts will need childcare services, but at Allen we already have childcare services. But we don’t have remote services or any office space to provide programs, and the ability for our people to communicate remotely.”

Currently, communities like Allen are addressing the pandemic as best they can, given they lack the proper facilities to apply all the programs.

“We have a COVID-19 Task Force,” Solomon said. “Half of us work voluntarily. Like myself, I do a lot of volunteer work with our COVID-19 cases, we work with other services, such as childcare. We are able to provide quarantine families with relief. We ask people to donate medicine to these families. A lot of the services we do, it’s a 24/7 job, because you never know when anybody is going to end up with COVID and need help.”

Solomon’s involvement in the actualization of a multi-purpose facility will go through some stages.

“Right now, my involvement is just creating a business plan,” Solomon said. “Building design plans and working with our district elected officials. Asking our community what their needs are and coming together with these informational meetings and developing plans that are going to benefit all of us.”

The multipurpose building itself is sorely needed in communities like Allen and Solomon addresses some of the problems the facility could alleviate: “We really need a community multipurpose building to provide COVID vaccination information, because a lot of the people out there misunderstand what help the vaccinations provide, and there is so much false information out there on the vaccine it would be important to have an area where they can come to, to get factual information on the vaccine. Because we’ve lost too many lives to COVID and even one death in our community, one death in our tribe was too much.”

Solomon also said that remote access capability will save community members from long drives that would expose that would further expose them to the pandemic.

As far as when the buildings will be constructed and ready for use, Solomon doesn’t know any specifics. The ordinance states that the Tribal Council “intends the Tribal District government service buildings and emergency programs, services, and assistance to address some of the following needs:

• COVID-19 response and prevention
• Assistance to Households (including home repair programs and food distribution programs)
• Access to Government Benefits (meaning programs or services that facilitate or improve public health programs, social services, and economic relief)
• Job Training Programs (including but not limited to people who have experienced unemployment during the pandemic)
• Housing Programs (programs or services addressing homelessness, lack of affordable housing)
• Educational Programs (including programs to address the academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs of students.
• Child Health and Welfare Programs (including programs designed to mitigate the impact of the pandemic health, education, recovery from mental health and substance abuse)

There is nothing in the ordinance that addresses a timetable for construction and completion of the multipurpose facilities. It is presumed construction will get underway in the spring after all the individual district plans have been approved, because the ordinance does state plans will be rejected if they do not meet FRF guidelines.

Given recurring variants, what lies ahead with the pandemic is unknown. Although it would seem any building construction solution would lag far behind an emergency response timetable, these multipurpose buildings were long needed in Solomon’s Pass Creek District, and in many other reservation districts, long before COVID, and these districts will put them to plenty of good use long after the pandemic is behind us.

(Contact James Giago Davies at skindiesel@msn.com)

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