CHOUTEAU – Chouteau Mayor Brenda Cunningham is praising the Cherokee Nation for the assistance provided to her city to upgrade roads and infrastructure.
Within the CN reservation, Chouteau sits in District 15, which is represented by Tribal Councilor Danny Callison. He worked with Cunningham and District 2 County Commissioner Darryl Yoder to pave 5.8 miles of road in Chouteau using $200,000 in CN tag compact funds. Each councilor has a certain amount of funds based on tag revenue to help improve roads and bridges in their districts.
“Every small town has to rely on their sales tax to pay for their law enforcement, fire, water, sewer – everything is depending on that sales tax, and when you don’t have a lot of businesses in town it’s hard,” Callison said. “I was glad to help them out. We did 5.8 miles of road that’s chipped and oiled in collaboration with District 2 County Commissioner Darryl Yoder. We furnished the supplies, the cost of all of the materials, and he did the work. I was just glad to help. They need help as much as everybody else does.”
Callison added he is appreciative that money generated through the tribe’s tag compact with the state is available to help with road projects.
“That’s where it goes, it goes back into the communities,” he said. “And everybody gets to use the road, not just Cherokees, because of the Cherokee Nation. It’s a win-win situation.”
Callison said Mayor Cunningham had informed him there is about 20 miles of road inside Choteau, and he is glad CN funding was able to resurface about 25% of those roads.
He said he hopes collaborations continue with Chouteau and Mayor Brenda Cunningham.
“I have the greatest job in the world. I get to help folks every day in a lot of different ways. I just love what I do,” he said.
Chouteau and CN citizen Don Bendure, who has been helping Chouteau apply for grant funding for infrastructure projects, said he is proud of the work the Cherokee Nation does in making the lives of not only Cherokee citizens but all citizens of Oklahoma better.
“They do a great job of providing health care, but also many in other areas like our roads, drinking water, and sewer plants,” he said.
Cunningham, a CN citizen, said she is looking forward to continue working with the Cherokee Nation and Danny Callison in the future.
“We did over five miles of roads with the Cherokee Nation and Danny Callison. We are very, very grateful for them for considering to help us. Our roads are in pretty bad shape. We still have a lot more roads to do,” she said.
She added an important aspect of the new roads are that they service the city’s school and a housing addition where some Cherokee Nation citizens live.
“We literally were able to fix some roads in every section of town,” she said. “Roads are expensive, and when you’re just a small, rural community, to be able to have somebody like the Cherokee Nation come in and help us; we are very thankful. Danny Callison is good to our community. We are very thankful for him and what he does for the school and community. The Cherokee Nation just does so much for our community that goes beyond roads.”
City officials have been meeting with CN officials to discuss making other upgrades to the city’s infrastructure. Cunningham said the tribe is working with the city, which sits at the intersection of Highways 69 and 412, to implement approximately $13 million in grants to improve the city’s infrastructure.
“Our infrastructure is so bad. If we didn’t have Cherokee Nation helping us, I don’t know what we would do. They are coming in and helping us write grants and helping us with funding. We’re having to do a lot of legwork, but they’re showing us how do to it,” Cunningham said. “I am thankful to be a Native, I’m thankful to be a Cherokee citizen, and I’m thankful to be a part of the town of Chouteau and to live in the Cherokee Nation.”