All right, so here's the awkward part.
Do you hear it?
That's fine.
Yeah, I got it.
All right.
Well, that was pretty painless.
It's painless, but it's a little awkward.
Right before you start talking serious stuff.
Anyway, so now we will.
And the first thing I want to do is thank you very much for sitting down with us.
Yeah, no problem.
It's my pleasure.
So describe for us what that opioid crisis looks like among tribal nations in Wisconsin.
Well, the opioid crisis looks like any other community throughout Wisconsin.
Not just tribal.
And, you know, as we move forward and the tribes are seeing the crisis and needing to react.
We need to make sure that we have a safe place, safe space where we can have an opportunity to save our kids.
Save other people's kids throughout the whole state.
And so as this facility is planned, you know, over 20 years in the making of the thought and moving forward and the need, you know, it's really about, you know, making sure someone has a good place to go.
And, you know, it's just about any type of trauma or incident.
There's a background.
There's a story for each individual.
And we need to have a place where they're comfortable telling that story in order to move forward.
Did the problem with opioid and substance use and abuse kind of explode during the pandemic?
Yeah, it's, I don't know if it exploded or if it really just come to the surface because it forced people to really.
Look and see what's going on, you know, along with the homeless issues that we see across the whole state in the country.
You know, a lot of times we had people that were couch surfing and then COVID and pandemic hit.
And they could no longer just go to the friends house or distant relatives house or whatever it may be.
And that brought that to the surface.
This is a hole.
We really have a problem, you know, so I think it just highlighted the issue.
And, you know, I think it was even, you know, before the pandemic.
You know, we talk about opioids and pharmaceuticals and stuff like that is really, you know, what, when we've seen the.
The bad things happening, you know, it's.
And these and these issues and the drugs that, you know.
That I always only seen on TV and the issues of, you know, like in the big cities and then to come to see that these things are actually happening.
Around us, you know, it's, it's kind of scary.
What does it do to tribal communities?
Well, it's, you know, like, like everything, like every community, you know, when you have a death, that's, that's hard.
When you look and see people struggle, that's hard, especially when they're your relatives.
And, you know, in our tribal communities where we're also tight knit, you know, that, you know,
we, everybody's like our immediate family almost, you know, that's our communities are pretty tight.
And so it's, it really has that enhanced effect on our communities when, when things like that happen because we, we're also close and we know each other.
And, you know, it's, it's not just affecting one person.
And so, you know, when, when someone's dealing with problems.
We see that and, and it's, it's hard, especially when we can't figure out ways right away of, of to, to correct that.
You know, especially as tribal leaders and we want to make sure as we're elected into the positions that, you know, we, and sometimes people expect us to, to be quick to come up with a solution to fix the problem.
You know, and this is, this is just one way of trying to come up with that solution.
So what is the status of the construction of the recovery center right now amid the local opposition?
Well, we're still moving forward with things.
We're waiting for the approval to the Oneida County for a conditional use permit.
There are some questions we've provided answers and concerns.
If there was concerns, we try to be solution oriented with this project and, and move it forward in a good way.
But, you know, we've cleared trees.
We put wells in everything that's, you know, permitted through DNR.
You know, we're following all the, all the permit process.
But, you know, in order to do the construction, now we just wait for approval on that conditional use permit.
What do you think about the concerns on the part of the local government?
Well, I, I respect their concern.
And even through, from the beginning after we purchased the, the tribes purchased the land.
The first thing I did is reach out to the local government, the town board, and said,
Hey, I want to be a good neighbor.
I'd like to share what we're planning on doing here with this, with this project.
And, you know, even invited the chair to my office.
She showed up and, and we talked about it had conceptual drawings of the facility.
You know, because there was some fears of, of thinking it was like a detention center or juvenile prison type setting.
And, you know, I wanted to demonstrate that, that was nowhere in the plans.
I had the look wasn't that and, and the purpose isn't that.
You know, it's, it's for individuals that really want to be at a place and get to a place of, of wellness.
And it's not, it's not meant to be institutional because that's not conducive to, to healing.
You know, when you, you know, it's the stigma's already there.
And when someone's going through and having a problem with, with substance use or even mental health, we, we really want to
destigmatize that and keep those elements out of the, out of the property and out of the whole sense of,
I don't even like using the word treatment because that further stigmatizes individuals and is not conducive to, to true healing and to wellness.
So, you know, moving things forward as, and explaining just that too, when you talk about concerns of the local government,
of making sure they have that understanding of really what the project is.
And, and the efforts that the tribes are putting forth, not only for our, our tribal member, children and families, but for non-tribal as well.
You know, if there's a need and it's only 36 bed with very limited resources and facilities within the state.
You know, we want to make sure if there's a, if there's a place and someone has a need, no matter who you are or where you come from, that we're going to try to help.
And we want to do that in a way to really set the gold standard in a process, fully licensed facility, fully accredited with licensed professionals.
So, just moving forward in, in that way and, and acknowledging concerns and explaining it.
You know, I think it's, it's important is, you know, everybody's going to have a question and want to make sure that they're comfortable while I'm giving them the answers.
Did it surprise you the opposition?
It did a little bit, but, you know, with anything, any new development with, without all the information, you know, people speculate.
And, and that goes through the community and making sure, and I wanted to get ahead of that.
And to just, to say, hey, you know, it's not a, it's not a prison.
These are bad people.
So, you know, we're, we're coming into the community and we're actually going to do things as we develop to, to bring resources to that community.
You know, with upgraded broadband, we'll need that for our facility.
Upgrades in the power.
You know, I'm looking at bringing natural gas to that community because it just doesn't jump and go right straight to our facility.
In upgrading the roads.
You know, those are all things that, that benefit everybody, you know, within that township of that community.
Excuse me, one minute.
A light.
That one right behind you.
So, I only have one last question.
So.
Is it a tough one?
Uh-huh.
Can you use the rolling?
No, I cut.
Okay, let's go.
I've been hit with a lot of tough ones with this project.
I bet.
I haven't put in some.
I gather that.
But you have.
Different situations.
The county's going to.
Yeah.