It’s going to mean a lot to us to have room to become comfortable.”

“We’ve been operating on a postage stamp for 10 years. “We know we have pent-up demand, and want to do everything we can to serve the community in Duluth the way we do on the reservation,” Norrgard said. The larger clinic and expanded staff will mean far more patients can be served. The staff is slated to grow from 50 to 100 within the next five years. The pharmacy will expand, along with counseling and case management services. More medical providers, social service workers and nurses will be employed. Many of the Duluth center’s clients will be able to walk to it, or take the bus. Those who need it now are sent to the band’s Cloquet facilities for treatment, which is expensive and time-consuming, Norrgard said. The expansion of the Center for American Indian Resources will bring adolescent and adult outpatient chemical dependency treatment to central Duluth. Opiate addiction has “erupted” in the community in the past five to seven years, said Phil Norrgard, director of human services for the band it’s seen in both adults and youth.

The growth of opiate addiction within the area’s Native American community means more behavioral health and chemical dependency treatment is necessary.

The casino project is “probably a lesser remodel than we might have planned but it was so overdue that we’re going to move forward with these improvements anyway,” Diver said. The dispute, begun in 2009, remains unsettled. The band had hoped to do the casino work when litigation with the city over casino revenue was finished, to have a better idea of its finances. It waited on the health care facilities in part until the Affordable Care Act was finalized, to ensure the band could support the revenue stream necessary for expansion. Another $4 million will go into expanding the Min No Aya Win Human Services Center on the Fond du Lac Reservation next year.Īll of the investments have been in the works for several years, as the band set aside tribal revenue for the projects, said band chairwoman Karen Diver. Planned are a $12 million expansion and rebuild of the Center for American Indian Resources on Fourth Street and a $5.5 million renovation of the Fond-du-Luth Casino on Superior Street. Two long-awaited Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa construction projects will begin this summer in central Duluth.

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