PORT ANGELES — The Makah tribe continues to add economic development in Neah Bay and is working on a nine-hole golf course to increase tourism and recreational opportunities.
New activities and more accommodations for visitors is a large part of the tribe’s current focus, Mike Rainey, enterprise business manager for the Makah tribal government, told an audience of about 40 at a Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce luncheon Monday at the Red Lion Hotel.
A parcel has been set aside on the Makah reservation to build a nine-hole recreational golf course in Neah Bay for the use of residents and for visiting fishermen who would welcome an alternate activity, Rainey said.
However, he said, there is no new activity on a previously discussed concept to build a zip-line park on Makah lands.
“There are a lot of people talking about it and no one doing it,” he said.
Currently, the tribe’s 2013 budget expects $7.2 million income from its resort, cabin and camping offerings, marina, restaurant and mini-mart, he said.
Rainey said that additional guest cabins are being built with more planned to accommodate an expected increase in visitors.
The tribe had a choice of importing prefabricated cabins or building them on site, he said.
To provide jobs and to save money, a Neah Bay construction company has been started to build wood-frame cabins, he said.
Cabins and resorts have a wide range of nightly rates, he said, from $75 for a cabin to $200 for beach resort rooms.
The Warmhouse Restaurant, a tribe-owned eatery at 1471 Bayview Ave., now serves fresh, in-season fish and shellfish taken fresh from the Neah Bay fishing fleet, instead of purchasing frozen fish from Seattle seafood distributors.
“A lot of it was our own fish we were buying back,” he said of the Seattle purchases.
The Makah tribal government’s mission is to provide for the tribal members, he said, and that includes creating job opportunities as well as affordable housing.
Rainey said more tribe members are working their way into middle management, and in the past 18 months, seven such positions vacated by nontribal members have been replaced with tribal members.
There are currently 60 young Makah tribal members attending a variety of colleges, including Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., as well as skilled labor vocational schools, he added.
Additional housing is being built in a new golf community development with a combination of rental housing for nontribal employees, apartment buildings and single-family home lots.
Using about half of a $25 million settlement with the U.S. government over past mismanagement of tribal lands, the tribe has purchased 3,000 acres of timber and plans to purchase an additional 3,000 acres, Rainey said.
The Makah tribe owns the timber properties and hires logging companies to harvest the land for it.
About 200 tribal members operate 52 fishing boats in tribal fisheries, which are fishing areas set aside for their use only.
In 2013, the tribal fleet expects to earn about $800,000 in revenue, Rainey said.
Currently, the boats clean the fish but deliver it to fish processors in Seattle.
Rainey said he believes the tribe could double its profit by building its own fish processing plant and hiring around 50 workers.
Tribal fisheries are managed according to federal law, he explained, with annual negotiations for specific limits within tribal fisheries areas.
“We have a little bit of leeway,” he said.
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
