WATONGA — Officials with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes were in Watonga last Tuesday, Aug. 31, to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Emergency Response Center.
Cheyenne and Arapaho Gov. Reggie Wassana was on hand for the ceremony, as was Lt. Gov. Gilbert Miles and Leg. Billie Sutton of Arapaho District 1. According to a Facebook post from the C&A executive office, other speakers included acting planning and development director Casey Peyton and emergency management director Alan Fletcher, who gave the invocation.
"Tribal members Eugene Blackbear, Jr., Kendall Kauley, OT Sankey, Phoenix Whiteshirt and Roger Davis provided the honor and flag songs," the post says. "Both Gov. Wassana and Lt. Gov. Miles are glad the Watonga community continues to have facilities for tribal members and their families."
The night before the ribbon-cutting, Wassana spoke about the role of ERCs during the Watonga Chamber banquet at the tribes' Lucky Star Casino.
"We wanted to do a staging area because, as some of you know, the cities are just full. The ICU wards — you can't fit anybody in," Wassana said at the banquet. So the tribes constructed ERCs in Watonga, Kingfisher, Woodward and Hammon, while also converting community halls in Seiling, Geary, Clinton and Concho for the purpose.
"We have showers, we have laundry amenities there, we have kitchens," he said. "So if anybody ever has to, if the pandemic gets to that point, we could actually stage them. You would have everything you wanted in there. You could quarantine."
Building the ERCs was made possible with money allocated in federal coronavirus relief bills, Wassana said.
The Watonga ERC is located just east of Lucky Star Casino.