Baseball Revived at Cheyenne River

Baseball is Revived at Cheyenne River

“Do you like baseball?  I like baseball..”

Back in the day, 1990s there were two Little League teams the Bears & Red Sox.. Greg Bourland, Rob Gangji, and Alvin Rivers amoung others were the coaches.. Soon after this group merged into a Teener Baseball League team was called “Cheyenne River Royals”.  Back then the teams were operated on donations and chip-ins from the parents.  For some reason, after the “CR Royals” there was a gap where there was no more baseball, no Little League or Teen League. 

Baseball practice

However, recently the game has been revived at Cheyenne River!  The CRST Youth Affairs Coordinator Alyssa Beniost was key bringing back baseball to the reservation.  The funding for the Youth Affairs Coordinator was provided by the CRST Alcohol Beverage Control Commission to provide actives for our Youth here on the prairie.  The Coordinator has been busy with the putting together a schedule of activities for summer and into fall.  So far we have Baseball, Softball, Tball.

Good to see the boys playing ball

Baseball for boys ages 8-10 year olds and 11-13 year old.  Some the Teams are the Yankees, Phillies, Avengers, ect.

Softball for Girls ages 8-10 year olds and 11-13 year old.

T-Ball for the Younger ages Boys & Girls.

There will be a 6-8 game season for the baseball / softball/ t-ball.

The Youth Affairs Coordinator had purchased all the equipment: bats, balls, bases, mini score board, some gloves, even a pitching machine (to learn how to hit the ball) and t-shirts (as jerseys).  The City of Eagle Butte was kind enough to pitch in on all this with allowing the children the use of their “upper field”.  The City also made improvements to the baseball field with new dug outs and fresh gravel for the infield. 

pitching machine

Shout out to all the parties that have made this a success Tribe, City, Programs, and to all parents, volunteers and coaches!

The Baseball / Softball / Tball games have begun!  And yes your children can still join!  Play Ball!  Aho!

“Do you like baseball?  I like baseball..”

RJ helping out

schedule 

Nursing Home.. Medicine Wheel Village

Update on the Medicine Wheel Village

For our elders..

A couple months a Task Force was formed in order to get moving on the Nursing Home’s operations and to address any issues with the building.  The building is done, sitting idle with a few construction issues that have been part of the opening delay.  The tribe was able to secure a loan for start up costs in the amount of 1.3 million.  The consultants Health Dimensions were brought back after months of not working because the Tribe did not have the funds to pay them.  The tribe was thinking of using TECA (jtac) dollars to fund this operation but due to that timing of the TECA $ would only become available at the end of the summer.

Assisted Living Facility --> Skilled Nursing Facility.

We will start with a “Assisted Living Facility”..  which is basically a step under the full fledged Skilled Nursing Home.   The tribes goal in this is to eventually develop into a Skilled Nursing Home for our elders.

The task force had identified some of the issues that are prolonging the opening of the facility.. But more importantly  have solutions.. 1) The concrete is draining the wrong way – into the building.  

2) The heating and cooling units on top of the roof are burning out because they are too close to an outside wall.  

3) the roof itself is falling apart or getting ripped apart because of the wind.  The roof is shingles.   So will need a steel roof.  Good thing about the roof it is covered by insurance. 

Sadly the other two major  problems are not covered by the insurance. . Just shoddy construction work by the First Dakota construction company.

Unrelated to our project but same company    http://www.justice.gov/usao/mt/pressreleases/20110809132410.html

Getting Sioux’ed.

How dare they!! Haha  

We the Tribe are being sued by First Dakota for being negligent on how we broke our contract with them.  First Dakota Inc v. Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe .. they saying we owe them some $300,000.00. Nonetheless, instead of waiting for this litigation to be finalized by some judge which could take months even years.  We the Council are taking the advice of the Medicine Wheel Village Task Force and looking at getting bids to have another construction company fix the faulty construction listed above.   Moving forward so we will soon get that place opened for our elderly ki lena.   

OPENING DATE for the Nursing Home

expenditures thus far from the Loan

We as Council Reps and Executives have stopped telling folks dates when the facility may open.. Instead we've been saying “90 days till the Health Dimensions come back”.  Now that the consultants are back we just been saying “soon”.  But the good news is the MWV Task Force will be visiting the communities to provide updates and information to the folks.  See the schedule..  Wicasa Yamni le miye..  Hechetu pelo.

3 month budget