HOWNIKAN DECEMBER 2015 13

Tribal Chairman - John “Rocky” Barrett

large scale renovations are ongoing as we finish up the construction of the new club house. In addition to that, which should be completed in the coming months, our course staff have been upgrading in-frastructure – from bridg-es to irrigation – around the course.

In McLoud, FireLake Ex-press Grocery is nearing its opening date, providing our members and neigh-boring communities in the northwest part of the county a grocery store like our already successful op-erations in Tecumseh and FireLake.

October saw the comple-tion of a service that will benefit all of Pottawatomie County, regardless of race, location or circumstance. The Tribal Police Depart-ment is now home to the Pottawatomie County 911 Dispatching Center, pro-viding the county two sep-arate call centers in case of an emergency. Agen-cies across the county are using the system free of charge, allowing money to flow directly back to first responders. The Tribe spent $500,000 in renova-tions of the building and radio infrastructure before counting the 10 additional employees and dispatch-ers now working as Tribal employees. In the end, this was a great opportunity to help those who help when the worst happens, and it is a benefit for anyone in the county when they have an emergency.

In October we finalized an agreement with Saint Gregory’s University for a

figures on a paper. They’re proof that what tribes, and more specifically CPN, bring to this state are vital and important everybody. It’s because of this we’re able to give a high school student their first job at the grocery store, or provide excellent health care to an individual who would oth-erwise be using services at a local, non-tribal clinic.

I write to you in this sea-son of cherishing our friends and families to tell you that the CPN is as strong as ever, providing what it can for the good of our Tribal members and neighboring communities. Keep those thoughts with you as we move forward into the New Year. Have a Merry Christmas!

Thank you for the priv-ilege of serving as your Tribal Chairman.

Migwetch,

John Rocky Barrett,Keweoge(He leads them home)Tribal Chairman

2015 also saw the con-struction and completion of numerous storm shel-ters for Tribal members living in the CPN jurisdic-tion through a partnership between the Tribe and the American Red Cross.

In June we had another round of Tribal elections, with incumbents David Barrett, Lisa Kraft and Bobbi Bowden retaining their seats. The annual Tribal budget was also approved, allowing us to continue employing more people in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma than any other employer while providing increasing ser-vices to our members and neighboring communities.

In September, the CPN Veterans Organization or-ganized and hosted the Vietnam Veterans Ban-quet, an event at which more than 100 veterans and their families attended at the Grand Casino Hotel Resort. It was an honor to attend and speak to such a brave group of men and women.

At FireLake Golf Course,

Bozho Nikanek (Hello my friends)

Often times I get caught up in the challenges facing our Nation when writing these columns and forget to mention the many pos-itive things happening for our Tribe. 2015, like most recent years at CPN, has been a year of growth and accomplishment.

The first ever HEARTH Act business, BDC Gun Room, held its grand open-ing in late March. The Gun Room’s utilization of the HEARTH Act, which al-lows tribes to partner with private companies without “long-distance” regulation from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is just the begin-ning in a bright future of tribe-private sector part-nerships.

$5 million prepaid tuition program to provide full scholarships to CPN mem-bers in the coming years, as well as college credit for internships at Tribal operations.

Our Fry Bread Taco and Pizza enterprises have now each been open one year and as has Flame Bra-zilian Steakhouse. Grand Casino recently opened another new restaurant, Soto Sushi, which we ex-pect will do well. Iron Horse Industrial park will begin laying rail soon and we hope to have our first tenant in the spring. We’ll also be working to have the Cultural Heritage Cen-ter reopened in time for Potawatomi Gathering of Nations in July.

Overall our Tribe has a $540 million economic impact in Oklahoma. We paid $28.9 million in tax-es and payment in lieu of taxes, while contributing more than $2.2 million to local community organi-zations.

These numbers aren’t just

The McLoud FireLake Express Grocery and gas station is nearing completion.

The FireLake Golf Course Clubhouse should be open in early 2016.