A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
From left: Executive Director Tsiorasa Barreiro, Capital Projects Manager Colleen Thomas, Construction Manager Brent Herne, Bureau of Indian Affair's Transportation Chief Leroy Gishi, USDA Acting-State Director Scott Collins, Tisdel Associates Principal Engineer Aaron Jarvis, P&I Director Thompson, Water Plant Manager Shawn Martin, Chief Beverly Cook, Chief Eric Thompson, Sub-Chief Agnes Jacobs, Sub-Chief Shelley Jacobs, and Chief Michael Conners. Photo by MJKS.
Ernie Thompson, Director of Planning and Infrastructure, speaking at the ribbon cutting and open house to celebrate years of visions, developing and planning for a new building.
Leroy Gishi (Navajo), BIA representative remarked how impressed he was by the accomplishment of the talented staff and departments of the SRMT. He said, "The new building will benefit all community members."
Brent Herne, standing in front of the heavy duty lifts inside the garage. Here they can do regular maintenance of their vehicles and equipment without having to contract out.
Colleen Thomas made the building come alive. Aside from the exterior siding and roof, Colleen made virtually every decision on what went inside the building from the floor plan to the tiles on the bathroom walls, to the furniture inside each office.
Shawn Martin in his spacious and well-lit office. Their old office building has serious air quality issues as well as heat and lighting concerns.
Rebecca White is there to welcome and assist everyone who enters the Planning and Infrastructure building.
Visitors gathered in the new board room to relax and enjoy the provided lunch.
After years of extremes of hot and cold offices, constantly breathing in dust and working in cramped and poorly lit offices, the Planning and Infrastructure staff now appreciate their spacious and well lit work place at the Planning and Infrastructure Building located on Route 95. Most of all they can breathe clean air. Their previous work place was the former Akwesasne Hogansburg Volunteer Fire Department building located on River Street in the center of Hogansburg.
The 11,600-square-foot building provides a modern, safe and healthy workspace for construction staff and includes five large garage bays, eight workstations, a conference room and two locker rooms. Designed in accordance with NYS's Energy Conservation Construction Code the building includes a radiant floor heating system, high-efficiency lighting and sensors, and roof-mounted solar photovoltaic panels. The building also features two distinct areas separated by a fire-rated wall.
Brendan White, SRMT Communication Director welcomed Chiefs, dignitaries and community members to the official ribbon cutting on Tuesday, August 1, 2017 at 10:30am. He introduced Chief Eric Thompson who worked closely with the Planning and Infrastructure Department to bring the new building to fruition.
Chief Thompson stated, "I want to thank the Planning and Infrastructure Department for doing a thank-less job. You have a great team that works 24/7 to keep things going. This is one of the few opportunities we have to say thanks. I first visited the P & I office site with Paul Thompson, soon after I was sworn in as Sub Chief. You did an amazing amount of work out of a cramped workspace. It was Ernie Thompson's vision to move out. I would like to thank Colleen Thomas, Ernie Thompson, Brian Murray, Danko Construction, Gloria, Heather and many others for making this all possible."
Scott Collins, Acting State Director, USDA Rural Development, Tsiorasa Barreiro also congratulated the Planning and Infrastructure Department staff.
Director, Ernest Thompson thanked the entire Tribe for the vision and forward thinking to bring a vision to reality.
Thompson remarked, "People generally don't think of infrastructure until it doesn't work. I would like to express my gratitude to Brian Murray, USDA, Leroy Gishi, BIA, and most of all to thank all the people behind the scenes who worked so hard.
Mr. Gishi stated, "Hats off to USDA for taking a role in infrastructure. Rural areas have a difficult time in finding public and private partnerships to boost the economy."
He went on to say to the SRMT, "You folks are the experts. This is a great achievement".
Reader Comments(0)