BY CHRISTOPHER S. PINEO
NAVAJO TIMES
WINDOW ROCK — Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye brought backup with him for the 2017 Winter Session State of the Nation.
Vice President Jonathan Nez, Chief of Staff Arbin Mitchell, and Navajo Public Safety Division Director Jesse Delmar flanked the president as he spoke at the Department of Diné Education Auditorium.
After congratulating newly elected Navajo politicians including Speaker LoRenzo Bates, he gave a summary of many of the issues the Office of the President and Vice President have made progress on over the past year.
He and Nez highlighted an internal audit of the Department of Navajo Veterans Affairs’ Veterans Housing Program, the Building Communities of Hope project to prevent suicide, a $9 million project that will create 150 jobs as the Navajo Division of Economic Development installs a shopping center in Ganado, proposed a federally chartered corporation to mandate 40 percent of net earnings from Navajo Nation’s 14 enterprises and corporations back to the General Fund and the Permanent Trust Fund, and other economic issues.
Nez pointed out that OVPV had made a priority of building youth centers on the Navajo Nation.
“We want to build more public youth centers out there,” Nez said.
Begaye confirmed that the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development had allocated funding for a specific project.
“We just received a letter from HUD approving the Shonto Youth Center, so that will be a project we’ll continue,” he said.
The address turned into a discussion about issues that directly impact the council delegates and their constituents – roads and the economy.
“Every day we hear from our constituents about the need to fix our roads, especially at this time of the year,” Begaye said early in his talk.
When the presentation turned into a discussion, delegates reacted with almost two hours of questions and comments.
Council delegates Kee Allen Begay (Many Farms/Round Rock), Dwight Witherspoon (Hard Rock/Forest Lake/ Piñon/Black Mesa/Whippoorwill), and Leonard Tsosie (Littlewater/Pueblo Pintado/ Torreon/Whitehorse Lake/ Baca/Prewitt/Casamero Lake/ Ojo Encino/ Counselor) all keyed into the roads issue.
Tsosie noted the potential impact of winter weather on citizens traveling the roads of the Navajo Nation.
“I would like to know how the Navajo Nation intends to cope with the emergency management evolving from the snowfall,” he said.
He said leaders should give more attention to managing the dirt roads on the Navajo Nation. He noted that not all roads could be paved or graveled, but that maintaining dirt roads should take a higher priority as an issue facing communities throughout the Navajo Nation.
“We should become experts in dirt road management,” he said.
Witherspoon spoke about roads as an opportunity to make an impact on a broad spectrum of issues.
“How can we get everyone to agree on a way to address roads and infrastructure and help job creation, and help your elders, and help your youth, and help public safety? Because, roads are used every day,” he said.
With the division director on hand, Council Delegate Amber Crotty (Toadlena/Two Grey Hills/Red Valley Tse’alnaozt’i’i’/Sheepsprings/Beclabito/Gadiiahi/To’Koi) noted an abundance of unsolved missing children cases in Arizona took the opportunity to raise the issue of the Amber Alert System.
“I would like to see within the next 24 hours a test be done and that every individual here in this room and across the Navajo Nation receive that Amber Alert,” she said.
Delmar responded that the Navajo Nation had gone with an All Hazard Alert System that would function like the Amber Alert, but would include other updates as well. He said the department was working on the system, but didn’t give a timeline as to when that would start working.
NAVAJO TIMES | DONOVAN QUINTERO
Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye gives his State of the Nation address Monday in Window Rock.