1987-03-24 Char-Koosta News

              Tribal headquarters fire damage moves towards $1 million mark
Twelve years to the day the Tribal Council of 1975 narrowly approved of building new headquarters in Pablo, the place caught fire. Damage estimates so far equal about what it cost to build the central offices in the first place: around one million dollars.
The Complex proper consists of three buildings - the Henry Burland Law and Order building and the
unnamed administration office building, which were built in 1977, and the two-story Liberty annex, which was built in 1981-82 for around $1.3 million.
Sometime late March 13 or in the early-morning hours of March 14, the accounting section of the main administration building caught fire and was destroyed on the inside. The roof overhead also collapsed.
According to a number of fire inspectors, the fire was caused by a short in a wire leading from the building to a dusk-to-dawn light just outside.
The fire was reported at 4:05 a.m. by the Tribal dispatcher then on duty in the Burland building who noticed smoke swirling around outside. A clock in the burned room stopped at 2:10 am., though, indicating that the fire must have been smoldering for a few hours before discovery.
Credit for stopping the fire's spread was given to the Pablo volunteer fire department, which used fog nozzles to cool the blaze so the building could be entered and hot spots dealt with quickly. Reports are that 28 fire-(Continues on page'two)
Rumor-squelching time: Credit, per capita
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"It's been kind of a weird week," Elmo Council member Laurence Kenmille understated last Friday, between the fire, the snowstorm and power outages from Flathead Lake to St. Ignatius.
Adding ammo to that assessment are two interesting rumors making the rounds these days.
One rumor says fhe Credit Department's records were destroyed so that they don't know who has an active loan. WRONG. First of all, each day's business is logged into a computer, then stored overnight in a secure place precisely as insurance against theft or fire. Second, of all the offices most
seriously hurt, Credit got off relatively lightly, in comparison to, say, the contracts-and-grants office, a room away.
So, Credit is carrying on pretty much as usual, just across the highway.
A second rumor making the rounds is that the upcoming September per capita payment will be cancelled so the money can be used to rebuild. Again, WRONG. The Complex was fully insured against fire and the September payment will go out as planned.
If any other similar suspicious information reaches your ears, please feel free to call your district's Council member for the facts.