My position at Travois is communications coordinator. I work on publicizing our clients’ projects (did you see these recent AHP awards?), connecting with clients through social media (are you following our pages?), and planning our annual conference (details on the 2014 annual conference coming soon!). These job responsibilities keep me pretty busy at the office, and I don’t normally get a chance to visit clients — until recently!
My first client visit was to Warm Springs, OR, with Senior Project Coordinator Adam Rose, and it was such a cool trip to be a part of. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs are working on the first tribal Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) project in Oregon in nearly 20 years. The project will consist of 35 new homes and a community center. Our Travois Design & Construction Services team has drawn up beautiful plans for the project. The new subdivision is also really close to the new school being built on the reservation.
The purpose of our visit was to review and discuss project plans, get a construction timeline in order, and look over floor plans, and we had a full day dedicated to just that. I really enjoyed spending the day with the Warm Springs Housing Authority. Talk about a dedicated staff — they didn’t miss a detail. For example, they noted that most of their tribal members drive trucks, which calls for a taller garage — great catch! Their excitement for the project made the visit even better.
After a busy morning and lunch at Indian Head Casino, we visited the project site — an open field, with an amazing backdrop of Mount Jefferson. The site sits directly next to a playground and basketball court — perfect planning!
During my visit I was able to meet with housing staff, see the reservation and the project site, the mountains and beautiful scenery, and I got to see our team in action. We’ve got this LIHTC thing down! Adam was a great listener and problem solver, and he worked very well with the housing authority.
My involvement with this trip added many pit stops on the side of the road to take photos of the beautiful scenery. Here are just a few. I even got some of the scenery on video (see below)!
Help me get out on the road again. Tell your Travois project coordinator you want a visit from the communications department — I can’t wait for my next trip!
