MISSION – The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) Incident Command Team (ICT) is working on several plans to ensure the safety of the entire community. The ICT continues to monitor and manage the emerging situation concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a very serious situation with Tribal, Local, National and International implications.
- Yellowhawk completed its first round of the CTUIR COVID-19 Surveillance Study last week. Over one hundred employees of the CTUIR and its entities who have continued working throughout the past two months and often had job duties that required exposure to the public received testing for a current infection of COVID-19. One hundred percent of test results returned negative, indicating that no one who participated in the study had a current infection of COVID-19. These study participants will be re-tested two more times at two weeks interval to determine how the infection rate may change over time.
- If you are an employee of CTUIR or one of its entities and will have childcare needs as you return to work, please fill out this survey: www.surveymonkey.com/r/CTUIRChildcareNeeds. The CTUIR ICT has established an interdisciplinary team comprised of staff from Department of Children and Family Services, Education, Enrollment, Public Works and Yellowhawk to assess the childcare needs of employees as CTUIR reopens and employees begin returning to work. The survey will close on Friday, May 22, 2020 at 4:00pm.
- The CTUIR Board of Trustees approved CTUIR COVID-19 Credit Relief under Resolution 20-047 today, providing a waiver of CTUIR Credit Program loan fees through June 26, 2020. The Relief also temporarily defers Credit Program loan payments until June 26, 2020 for CTUIR members who are unemployed or furloughed due to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Current CTUIR members that are having trouble making their usual loan payments to the Credit Program should contact Credit Program Loan Officer Marlene Hale by phone at 541-429-7152 or by email at MarleneHale@ctuir.org to discuss their options.
- The CTUIR Board of Trustees approved an amendment to the Tribal-State Compact for the Regulation of Class III Gaming in Resolution 20-048. The amendment, for the year 2020 only, allows the Tribes to waive its obligation to fund the Wildhorse Foundation. Due to the closure of the Wildhorse Resort and Casino March 2-4 and since March 18, Wildhorse revenues are expected to be significantly lower in 2020. Therefore, under the proposed Compact amendment, the BOT directed that the Wildhorse Foundation contributions be paid into the Tribal Contingency Fund if funds are available for such payments.
