LAWTON, Okla. ? Youth groups and volunteers across the nation hold car washes as a clean way to raise money.
The Comanche Nation has taken a page from their book and added a twist they hope will add income for low-income tribal housing.
Although the new truck wash the Comanche Nation acquired won’t have scantily clad teen-agers standing on corners to lure prospective vehicles, the old fund-raiser may get tribal members in tribal houses and off a long waiting list.
The nation’s long waiting list for low-income tribal housing has been compounded by the fact no extra funds have been available.
The $2.3 million allocated for housing this year will be spent primarily on rehabilitation and maintenance of the 500 homes already built. The search for the much-needed extra money for additional housing led to the old-fashioned car wash, multiplied.
Not only will the new truck wash along Interstate 44 in Oklahoma generate badly needed income for the tribe, it will provide jobs.
It all started when the Comanche Nation Housing Authority bought a former beer distribution plant for $400,000. The idea was to provide new headquarters for the authority’s offices and the center included warehouse space and a truck wash.
Originally no one even gave the truck wash a second look, but when the numbers were added up and officials realized the revenue that could be generated it started to look like a gold mine.
‘We didn’t even want the truck wash, but it came with the property,’ Don Parker, executive director of the Comanche Nation Housing Authority, said. ‘Then we started looking more closely at the equipment and found out most of it was still very useable. So we decided to make the most of the equipment.’
The plan for the truck wash includes hiring five full-time employees to operate the facility and hiring more employees as the business expands to include oil and tire changes for trucks and showers and laundry rooms for truck drivers.
‘We thought we might be able to raise money for low-income housing and provide jobs for our Comanche people at the same time,’ Parker said, and only time will tell how well the effort will pay.