MARIANO LAKE, N.M.—Navajo Housing Authority celebrated 21 housing units for the community of Mariano Lake.
Souers Construction built the homes and finished just before Christmas in 2024. On Jan. 13, Nathan Wilke, project manager for Souers Construction, said his crew began construction in Feb. 2024 and that the last remaining item was getting utilities transferred from Navajo Tribal Utility Authority.
“The interior finishes were done nicely. We upgraded the water system, sewer system, and brought it down to the studs, included cement sliding boards, and new roofs,” he said. “It looks like an entirely new housing project.”
Wilke said he had about a crew of 40 working on the project, most of which were Navajos.
For NHA, Teri A. Silversmith was the project manager for the Mariano Lake development, aka NHA Project No. NM15-552, which was a design-build contract with Dyron Murphy Architects and Souers Construction.
The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the project, said fellow project manager Edison Johnson. It was ready to go into construction when the country went into lockdown and isolation, he added.
“When COVID hit, the prices for building materials and construction went up,” he said.
The project went out for rebid and Silversmith had to seek supplemental funding to meet the increase in prices. She pushed through these challenges and kept her project on track while working with Souers Construction and others to bring the project in on schedule.
A housing dedication ceremony was scheduled for Jan. 29 at the NHA Mariano Lake subdivision. However, a broken waterline at the community on Jan. 28 resulted in cancellation of the event.
Despite this, the NHA Government and Public Relations Department traveled to the Mariano Lake the morning of Jan. 29 to distribute cake and punch with the community at the chapter administration office.
They met with chapter leadership and community members to listen to concerns and share refreshments during the emergency. The community did not have access to potable water.
Later in the day, NTUA was able to provide a temporary fix to the broken waterline and made potable water available to residents of Mariano Lake.
Despite the waterline break, Silversmith distributed keys to families to move back into their newly renovated homes.
###