Inside - Seminole Tribe of Florida

The Seminole Tribune 11 April 7, 2006GLIHA, USET Hold Joint Housing MeetingHUD Assistant Secretary of Public and Indian Housing AttendsBy Shelley MarmorHOLLYWOOD — Two prominent NativeAmerican organizations, the Great Lakes IndianHousing Organization (GLIHA) and the UnitedSouthern and Eastern Tribes (USET), held a meetingthe week of March 6–10 at the Seminole Hard RockHotel & Casino.Several organization officials includingAdministrator ofEastern/Woodlands Office ofNative American ProgramsKevin Fitzgibbons, USETChairperson and Seminolecitizen Joel Frank andGLIHA Chairperson CherylParish made brief introductoryspeeches.Frank offered amicableremarks to those in attendance,saying: “Welcome toSouth Florida, SeminoleCountry and the SeminoleHard Rock.” He added thatthe conference would largelycover natural disaster preparedness;a topic the effectsFlorida immensely, but alsothe rest of the nation.“It’s not any onearea, its all areas” Frank said.“We need to be prepared andminimize disaster.”Following thesespeeches, NarragansettCouncil RepresentativeHiawatha Brown offeredinvocation.Immediately following,keynote speaker OrlandoCabrerra representing theU.S. Department of Housingand Urban Development(HUD), addressed the conferenceattendees. Cabrerra, the HUD assistant secretaryof public and Indian housing, continued Frank’sremarks on natural disaster preparedness.“I wanted to begin with something close tohome,” Cabrerra said. “…Close to home for Floridiansis hurricanes.”In addition to disaster preparedness, Cabrerradiscussed housing. He said the Bush Administration“has made no secret that home ownership is the cornerstoneof economic development.”He commended the Seminole Tribe for theiradvantageous use of HUD’s Section 184 LoanProgram, the Indian Home Loan Guarantee Program.According to the HUD website,www.hud.gov, “The program is designed to offerhome ownership, property rehabilitation, and new constructionopportunities for eligible tribes, IndianShelley MarmorOrlando Cabrerra representing the U.S.Department of Housing and UrbanDevelopment (HUD).Housing Authorities and Native American individualsand families wanting to own a home on their nativelands.”The Seminole Tribe of Florida was the firstNative American Tribe to take advantage of this program.With these funds, the Tribe was able to improveexisting housing as well as add housing on the reservations.The conference continuedwith additional activediscussions on the topic ofdisaster preparedness. Anintensive Tribal DisasterPreparedness Training sessiontook place on March 7.RegionalCommander for theWisconsin State Patrol DacePichette and Director ofTraining for the State ofWisconsin’s Patrol AcademyDarren Price facilitated thiscourse.Price informed theattendees that “this isn’tsomething we started after9/11,” admitting the twowork with compromising situationsregularly as patrolpersonnel. He added thathimself and Pichette travelthroughout the U.S. conductingthis seminar.“This is not goingaway,” Pichette said. “This issomething you folks have tounderstand.”The topics coveredin this seminar included:civil disturbance, natural disastersand large, plannedevents. The two showedvideos of incidents such asHurricane Katrina in New Orleans, La., fires and carcrashes showing examples of good and poor responses.The conference continued with other seminarssimilar to this Tribal Disaster PreparednessTraining session. Some of the other seminars included“Creating Tribal Reality and Probate Functions toSupport Housing,” “HUD Supportive Housing forElders and for Persons with Disabilities” and also generalmeeting of both the USET and GLIHA organizations.On the final day of the USET/GLIHA meeting,March 10, attendees were able to enjoy a full dayof activities in Big Cypress. They took a much neededbreak from their official duties with a trip to the BCreservation complete with visits to the Ah-Tah-Thi-KiMuseum and Billie Swamp Safari.Felix DoBosz(Seated L-R): Steve Simonton, Ray Collier, Lisa Pepe, Aaron Billie; (Standing L-R): Bob Green, ShaneRuiz, Troy Clay, Joel Frank Sr., Pete Russo, Tony Castrenze, Don Fulton, Peggy Reynolds, John Madrigal,Keith Samuels.Good-Bye Ray Collier of the Housing Dept.By Felix DoBoszHOLLYWOOD — Ray Collier is retiring?No way, say it isn’t true. Ray has worked as a supervisorof construction for the Seminole Housingdepartment since 1984, and before that he worked forthe Tribe as a general contractor for three years.Monica Wasco, Ray Collier and Jackie Jones.Felix DoBoszFelix DoBoszRay Collier checks out his brand new fishing gear.He has been a South Florida resident for thepast 72 years, and was born and raised in Okeechobee,Fla. Ray Collier a veteran of the Korean War, decidedit was time to retire and spend sometime catching upon his favorite pastime, fishing, and remembering allhis good times working for the Housing dept.His friends and co-workers decided to throwhim a little good-bye, thank you luncheon at theSeminole Hard Rock Casino & Hotel on March 23.They sat around the tables talking, joking and laughing,with Ray about all the ups and downs that they allexperienced working together for so many years.Many of his co-workers and friends in theHousing department had kind words to say aboutCollier at his farewell luncheon.Troy Clay, director of Housing, said: “Ouroffice is like one big happy family and we will reallymiss him.”Pete Russo, assistant director of Housingadded: “He’s synonymous with housing in Brighton;he’s always stepped up to the plate whenever asked.”Aaron Billie, housing construction managersaid: “He was very dependable and very knowledgeableand didn’t mind sharing his experience with others.”Ray looked serenely around the huge ballroomand said softly: “I’m really going to miss everybody,but I look forward to relaxing and fishing.”