PEMBROKE — A resolution reorganizing the board of directors of Lumbee Tribe Holdings Inc. passed Tuesday by the Lumbee Tribal Council.

The reorganization will improve the company’s ability to win federal contracts and oversee the distribution of revenue generated from these contracts, said Al Locklear, Economic Development Committee chairman. The tribe owns 100 percent of the company’s stock.

“This is big,” Locklear said. “It shows we are open for business and looking for partners with federal contractors.”

The reorganization sets up the board as it was several years ago when the company was established as it will now include Tribal Council members. The board was changed by former Chairman Paul Brooks to include only the tribal chairman, the tribal administrator and the tribal housing director, Locklear said. The board will now include the tribal chairman, the chairman and vice chairman of the council’s Finance Committee, and the chairman and vice chairman of council’s Economic Development Committee.

It is important to have council members on the board because economic development is an area in which the council has the ultimate decision-making authority, Locklear said. The chairman alone does not have the authority to commit the tribe to economic contracts.

In other business, council members:

— Heard a presentation from tribal member member Robie Goins about concerns raised by construction of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which will transport natural gas from West Virginia to Robeson County. The line will end where it connects to Piedmont’s existing line in Pembroke.

Goins said the pipeline’s construction needs to be watched closely because American Indian burial grounds and archaeological treasures could be damaged. He called for public hearings at the state and local levels to make people aware of the potential dangers.

— Observed the swearing-in of Maryland Spaulding and Telethia Goins Clark to the Board of Elections.

— Approved supporting an American Indian-owned company that provides medical laboratory services to American Indians. Oklahoma City-based Tribal Diagnostics wants to provide services in Robeson and surrounding counties.

— Approved a resolution supporting the establishment of the Chairman James “Jimmy” Earnest Goins Memorial on N.C. 71, where Goins was killed in a one-vehicle accident in June 2015. He served two three-year terms as tribal chairman.

Al Locklear
https://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_Al-locklear201742653918849.jpgAl Locklear

By Bob Shiles

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Bob Shiles can be raeched at 910-416-5165.