President
Message, Bob Reece
May, 2023
It has been a most unusual
and challenging year for staff at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National
Monument (LIBI). If you remember, December 31, 2021 Chief of
Interpretation (CI) Ken Woody, and Chief Law Enforcement Officer (LE)
Michael Stops retired. Then, July 1, 2022 Superintendent Wayne Challoner
retired. Together, LIBI lost about100 years of experience overnight. Now,
you can understand why it’s been challenging.
A New CI and LE Appointed
What followed was a planned
rotation of acting superintendents and CI’s. The CI office rotation has
been led by Ranger Marvin Dawes, Stan McGee, and Scott Hill. The
superintendents were Christy Fleming, Ephriam Dickson, and Todd Arrington.
The great news is that Stan
McGee was selected as LIBI’s new CI. I’m incredibly excited about this
decision. Stan is the ideal candidate to replace Ken Woody. You can read
our report and interview with Stan in our 2022, vol 3 newsletter. Stan
began is position at LIBI on April 11, 2023. I think it will be fun and
productive for Friends working with Stan.
Additionally, the new LE
Justin Nowicki started in September 2022. If staff required support from
police, they had to call the BIA police. They were quite responsive the
few times they were called. Now, LIBI has Justin on site. I haven’t met
Justin yet, only talked to him on the phone. I look forward to meeting him
in June.
A New Superintendent
The search for a new
superintendent has finally been selected. Beginning the week on June 12,
2023, Dustin Sene begins as LIBI’s new manager. Friends will soon have an
interview with him in our next email/newsletter.
Visitor Center
News of a new VC is the
theme of this newsletter. You’ll see articles throughout this issue on
that subject.
Foundation Grants
Friends secretary Lola
Mauer and I have been working with the National Park Foundation in
applying for grants to support construction of the new visitor center. See
article Foundation Grants on page of this newsletter for all the details).
The Last Bugle Call
Frankly, LIBI is extremely
lucky that it’s permanent and seasonal staff comes with a lot of
experience, otherwise it could have been a disaster under acting
leadership. Case in point: last summer, I worked with the interpretation
staff at the visitor center over the anniversary week. It was a very busy
week. Marvin Dawes was acting as CI then, and his staff of seasonals like
Mike Donahue, Steve Adelson, and Mike Hasch knew what needed to be done.
Day-today operations worked smoothly.
LIBI has also been lucky in
that the individuals working as acting superintendents (noted above)
managed the design of the all-important processes for demolishing and
constructing a new visitor center. They have been exceptional in keeping
all of that moving forward.
I’ll see you on Last Stand
Hill.
Bob Reece
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