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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1998)
2 News Smoke Signals Meet the people behind Spirit Mountain Development Spirit Mountain Casino, with nearly 200,000 square feet and acres rising out of what was a fal low field only three years ago, offers the most vis ible evidence of Spirit Mountains Development's achievements. At the direction of the Tribal Coun cil, Spirit Mountain Development built the Casino as the first step in the Tribe's efforts to diversify economically and begin to achieve self-sufficiency. As Oregon's most popular attraction with 3 mil lion visitors annually, Spirit Mountain has become one of the most successful start-up businesses in Oregon history. , Now Spirit Mountain Development Corporation (SMDC) is continuing to diversify into other types of economic development as planned. SMDC, in partnership with an experienced real estate devel oper, is building a retail and commercial center in Salem. Other projects will follow. The Tribal Council appointed a highly qualified board of directors to guide the affairs of Spirit Mountain Development. The board of directors, in turn, has built a management team of very ca pable people. DIRECTORS: Tribal member Mike Larsen has served as Chair man of the Board since late 1995. Mike works for the Tribe. Ed Larsen has served on Tribal Council for five years and is the Tribal Vice Chair. He is a mem ber of the Service Integration Team, the Yamhill Community Action Plan Board, the Yamhill County Head Start Board, and Grand Ronde Water Asso . ciation. Ed is the founder of the highly successful Spirit Mountain Stampede. Tribal Council Secretary Ed Pearsall has served on the board since 1996. hi addition to working on several subcommittees of the Tribal Council, Ed represents the Tribe with a number of outside organizations, including the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). Jim Sizemore is a shareholder and officer of Stra tegic Wealth Management, the Tribe's Financial and Investment Management Consulting firm. In 1997, he was commissioned by the Northwest Port land Area Indian Health Board to update the publi cation Determining the True Cost of Contracting Federal Programs for Indian Tribes. Jim remains active at the tribal, regional and national level on these issues. Since 1993, tribal member Clyde Stryker is the PresidentCEO of Spirit Communications, Inc. Prior to 1993, he served as co-owner and service manager of Data Devices which included develop ment and staffing of service departments in Or egon, Washington, and Idaho. Clyde was educated at Portland Community College. For nearly 25 years, Len Bergstein has been in volved in Oregon public policy issues and political affairs. He is also the political analyst for KPTV (Oregon's-12) and several radio stations through out Oregon. In 1981, Len founded Northwest Strat egies, Inc. and has advised companies on a num ber of the region's most sensitive issues including environmental regulations, health care, financial services, Indian gaming, business development, land use and transportation. Clyde Hamstreet is the founder and president of Hamstreet and Company. He has over twenty five years of business experience with the last twelve in business consulting, crisis management and turnaround situations. Clyde has a B.S. in Busi ness Administration from Oregon State University. MANAGEMENT: The Corporation's President is Bruce Thomas, a tribal member and former partner with Stoel, Rives, Boley, Jones, and Grey (Oregon's largest law firm). As an attorney, Bruce specialized in commercial law, real estate and corporate reorga nizations. In addition to his law degree, Bruce has a Master's degree in Business Administration. . David Harjo is the Corporation's Vice President of Development and was Vice President of Con sulting with Little Six, Inc. where he coordinated gaming and consulting projects. David obtained an Engineering Science degree from the Univer sity of Oklahoma. E. David Blum serves as the Business Develop ment Manager. He has over seven years of expe ' rience working for the Oregon Division of State Lands as a Project Manager where he was respon sible for all strategic planning functions for com mercial and industrial property development. Ed has a Master of Urban Planning degree from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Sci ence in Economics from Wharton School. Chuck Galford is the Corporation's Marketing Director. Chuck was a member of the NIKE mar keting team that planned and implemented the suc cessful Air Jordan campaign. He has operated his own marketing consulting firm with clients such as NIKE, Adidas, the City of Portland, and the U.S. Olympic Committee. Chuck has a Bachelor's de gree from the University of Michigan and a Law degree from Yale University. Terry Contreras is the Corporation's Chief Fi nancial Officer. Previously, Terry was the Chief Financial Officer for a major Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and the District Manager for 40 Sears cata log stores. A native Oregonian, Terry has a Bachelor's degree in Finance from Oregon State University. . Shelley Hanson serves as the Corporation's De velopment Specialist and has over ten years of busi ness planning and consulting experience. Shelley has a Bachelor's degree in Marketing from Oregon State University and a Master's of Management degree from Willamette University. Tribe is awarded Welfare-To-Work grant Water meeting continued from front page own compromise settlement to the Association Board. A decision on the Tribe's proposal is ex pected at the April Association Board meeting. The Tribe's proposal would allow the Associa tion to charge its normal hook-up fee for each home in the park but the Association would credit the charge for the actual construction and installation costs of the water delivery system paid entirely by the Tribe. In addition, each home would receive a membership to the Association and each member would be allowed a vote. Tribal officials remain hopeful that this matter can be settled fairly, honorably, and to the satis faction of both parties. SEATTLE The Grand Ronde Tribe has been awarded a $75,785 Welfare-To-Work grant from the U.S. Labor Department. The grant is one of the first of $15 million in Welfare-To-Work grants to help Native American tribal governments trans form the lives of long-term welfare recipients. The Tribe plans to provide participants with unsubsidized employment opportunities. If subsi dies are needed, they will be used in ways to assure the participant's employment goals are met. Activi ties include employment opportunities, job training, job retention, and post-employment services. . The Indian and Native American Welfare-To-Work grants are part of a $3 billion national effort Notice of Public Hearing Tribal members will be receiving a special mail ing detailing a 1998 SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET PROPOSAL. The information is for membership review and comment. Tribal members wishing to comment on the budget are encouraged to do so through oral or written testimony. Written testi mony may be submitted to the Tribal Council any time between March 16, 1998 and 5:00 p.m. on May 15, 1998. All written testimony must be signed and either mailed or hand-delivered to the Confed erated Tribes of Grand Ronde, 9615 Grand Ronde to combat dependency among welfare recipients who face the most difficult obstacles to employ ment. One percent of the $3 billion is set aside for Indian and Native American tribal governments. The Grand Ronde Tribe is one of 26 tribal gov ernments who will be receiving funding, because their plans have been approved by the U.S. Labor Department. The grants may be used to fund sub sidized and unsubsidized employment, work ex perience, on-the-job training and post employment retention services, such as child care and trans portation assistance. For further information about this grant, please contact Bob McElderry at the tribal offices at (503) 879-2301. on Supplemental Budget Rd, Grand Ronde, OR 97347, Attn: Lauri Smith. Tribal members will be given a chance to give oral testimony during the General Council meet ing on Sunday, April 5, 1998. All testimony is limited to enrolled members of the Tribe who will be 18 years of age or older by April 1 , 1998. Please take time to review the 1998 Supplemental Budget proposal mailing and feel free to comment. Any questions regarding this information, contact Pat Mercier, Financial Officer or Greg Archuleta, Ad ministrative Officer at 1-800-422-0232.
