Tribe doubling size of health center

BARAGA - The next couple of years are shaping up to be quite busy for the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.

This construction season, the tribe plans to double the size of their health center with a $600,000 Indian Community Development Block Grant.

"It's going to expand the number of exam rooms for the doctors that we currently have," said CEO Larry Denomie III. "We've included space to add a pharmacy and we're in the process of developing and putting a pharmacy in."

In the health care realm, the tribe also hopes to implement an electronic health record system.

"Our health facility is actually in the process of developing and instituting the electronic health record and we've submitted for funding to help us with that," Denomie said. "What the electronic health record does is allow access for individuals who have access to the system to really pull up anybody's record no matter where you're at."

The tribe also hopes to expand its community center to allow room for an early childhood development center that would put its early headstart and pre-primary program in one location, Denomie said.

"We've received grant funding for that and we're currently seeking additional funding for that project which is just under a $4 million project," he said.

Gregg Nominelli, KBIC economic developer, said the tribe is looking at several "green" ventures, one of which is to create a green energy park at the tribe's industrial park.

"We have submitted a request to Senator Levin's office and to Congressman Stupak's office to get funding so we can manufacture wind turbine towers," he said. "We're also in the process of preparing a grant application to conduct wind monitoring on the reservation so we can look at the potential of putting up wind turbines to power our casino, our tribal center, our community college, our bingo hall and the cluster of buildings in this area."

Nominelli said the wind monitoring could start this spring or summer and run for a year. If the project proves feasible, 2010 would be the earliest turbines would be erected, he said.

The tribe has also submitted a request for 2010 federal appropriation funding for a project that would partner the tribe with a local company to turn mining stamp sand along Lake Superior's shores into a material for roofing shingles, Nominelli said.

"It would be an economic development project as well as an environmental or remediation project and a reuse of that waste sand," he said.

Layla Aslani can be reached at laslani@mininggazette.com.