Robbinsville – The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will be offering services to its own in the shopping center next to Ingles Market in Robbinsville, as it constructs a new tribal complex that will replace the dated facility in the Snowbird community.
The temporary facility will be known as the Snowbird Operations Center and will house the services offered at the Snowbird Complex, as the older complex is demolished and a new, multimillion dollar facility is erected in its place.
Construction of the new complex and the creation of the temporary Snowbird Operations Center are considered part of the same project, and work is being handled by the Jefferson-based Vannoy Construction Company.
Director of Snowbird Cherokee Community Services Dale “D.J.” Robinson Jr. said the tribe was renting space in the shopping center, like any other entity would.
“We only plan on being here for two years, hopefully, while the work is done out,” Robinson said.
Robinson said seven programs would be located in the operations center including transit, health, family support, a library, housekeeping, recreation and representatives from the Junaluska Museum.
“Community health, transit and family support will be the three main ones that people will actually come here for,” Robinson said. “A lot of those other ones are auxiliary programs, so it’s not going to be a whole lot of traffic with people coming into those programs every day, that type of thing. We do expect that our community health group and our family support group will get quite a bit of people coming in.”
He said the facility was further for many of the tribe members in Snowbird and the surrounding area. However, he said the proximity to Ingles and the post office meant that tribe members could likely take care of their business on the same trip as grocery shopping.
“It is inconvenient, especially for people who live up on Big Snowbird, that type of thing,” Robinson said. “It’s not optimal for them, but at the same time, they have to come here and get their groceries.”
He said the tribe was continuing to move from the facility, and anticipated the full move being complete within approximately two weeks.
“When it’s operational, I think day in and day out, it’s going to be really smooth day in and day out,” Robinson said. “When I came in and they said ‘Oh yeah, you need to facilitate a move of all of these programs,’ it was really hectic figuring out who’s going where, plus under the restrictions from COVID like we are, that’s been a big headache.”
He said the EBCI’s strict COVID-19 protocols made the process of moving more difficult, although he said the rules were needed.
“They’re really wanting to protect the elders, and the best way that they know to do that is to put up a lot of barriers to getting COVID into our buildings, so that’s what they’ve been working on,” Robinson said.
More than 14 people will work at the Snowbird Operations Center. The permanent complex will be put in the same place in Snowbird currently occupied by the older Snowbird Complex. The older complex will soon be demolished to make way for the new facility. Upon its completion, the new facility will hold all the services that will be offered at the operations center, along with a gym, a multipurpose room and a satellite office of the EBCI Tribal Police Department.
The new facility will also be two stories and substantially larger the older tribal complex.
“We’re proud to serve our people,” Robinson said. “We’re proud to have a facility that’s better going to serve those individuals.”
Robinson also acknowledged several members and former members of the EBCI tribal council for their role in making sure the project became a reality.
“Four or five people on our council have bartered hard for this, have pushed really hard for us to have a new facility,” Robinson said.