TAHLEQUAH — Reports given at the Executive and Finance Committee to the Tribal Council members Monday, shared good news about generated revenue and the progress being made on closing the Cherokee Nation Landfill in Stilwell.
Ben Blosch, vice president of strategic initiatives, reported on the state of the budget.
“On a revenue basis, Cherokee Nation Businesses is up 11% from Sept 2022 and 26% for our budgeted forecast,” Blosch said. “From a business perspective, CNB is up about 25%, Cherokee Federal beat budget by 28% and our Cultural Tourism and Economic Development team more than doubled their forecasted revenue for the month of September.”
In terms of profitability, CNB has been exceeding on a month-to-month basis the forecasted profit numbers, Blosch said.
“That trend held true for the whole year in 2023,” Blosch said. “For the entirety of the year CNB exceeded our net income budget by 13.5%. Some of that growth was achieved organically but some was due to our expanding offerings across all three of our lines of business.”
Employees of CNB number about 9,500 employees, and where preference can be applied, over 60% are CN citizens. Counting those enrolled from other Native tribes two-thirds of CNB employees are Native American, Blosch said.
Economic Development Director Hunter Palmer reported on a two-day staff training at the end of September to update employees on the upcoming adjustments to program services.
“We’ve been working closely with Samantha Hendricks in the human resources office on weekly recruitment and job fairs to try to get more tribal citizens to fill CN jobs, and more specifically, a lot of our clientele who are looking for jobs,” Palmer said.
District 8 Tribal Councilor Codey Poindexter asked about the status of the landfill.
Natural Resources Secretary, Christina Justice, said the landfill has an overall management plan, and that plan is being followed step-by-step to close the landfill. The current cell will be full about October 2024, Justice said.
A question was asked about equipment purchased for $1.3 million and how that equipment will be reevaluated – the need based on maintenance.
“As the management plan goes forward it tells us when those equipment pieces need to be replaced. We will follow that as well but it is not part of this budget at this time. As we go forward we will address the need,” Justice said.
The projected end date for the closure of the landfill is one of the items addressed in the adopted master plan. The plan doesn’t put forward a specific date for closure but puts forth benchmarks that have to be met for compliance.
Lee Guthrie writes for the Tahlequah Daily Press.
