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Optimistic officials pleased with
progress on health facility By Dorreen
Yellow Bird As you come
over a rise near the Fort Berthold Community College a few miles east of New
Town, a valley stretches out below. It’s
Kelly green and surrounded by rolling hills.
Just below the hill the new Elbowoods Memorial Health facility,
beginning to take shape. On Friday,
visitors from the Corps of Engineers, contractors, BIA, Indian Health Services
and the tribe, walked the rough terrain.
Recent rains turn the bladed prairie into mud. The
barebones structure of the back wall is up. It now stands on a firm foundation of
cement and iron, said Ron Paige, Comstock Contractors. The rotunda and entrance to the facility is
shaped and more cement was being poured into the rounded shape. And, like a forensic chalk drawing, the
outline of the building is there in either the beginnings of walls or other
markers. It’s a busy
place with earth movers, trucks, cars, men and equipment filling the large
stretch of tribal land near FBCC. Engineers
and contractors moved about the area pointing and gesturing to where each part
would soon fit. It’s still a puzzle for
outsiders, but the plan is clear to the builders. Paige says
that they are ahead of schedule, it could be completed as soon as June 2011
rather than September, but between now and then time will tell the story. If there’s good weather and no construction
problems, the facility should be ready.
Delay, however, is one of the expected problems in construction
especially in an area like North Dakota. |
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Marcus
Levings, tribal chairman and Scott Eagle, council representative for New Town
are pleased with the progress and are eager to see the “giant” take its first
working step as a health facility. Also
watching the progress closely is Jim Foote, who oversees the project. The second
phase of the construction will be building housing for the staff at the
facility. Housing at Fort Berthold, and
particularly New Town, is critical. |
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