Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 2019)
smok signflz JULY 15, 2019 Police Department has non-emergency text line The Grand Ronde Tribal Police Department has created a non-emer- gency text line at 541-921-2927. “Even though this is mostly designed for children, I don’t want adults thinking that they can’t use it as well. If you have a non-emergency situ- ation or question, feel free to contact my officer via text through this line,” said Grand Ronde Tribal Police Chief Jake McKnight. “When one of my officers receives the text, they will call you back when they have time.” McKnight said that emergency situations still require calling 911. For more information, contact McKnight at 503-879-1474. Voter is responsible to make sure ballot arrives by Sept. 7 ELECTION continued from front page He currently is a member of the Tribe’s Timber Committee and was nominated by Lonnie Leno. Grout, 44, ran for Tribal Council in 2018, but dropped out of the race before the annual Candidates Forum was held. He works as a surveillance technician at Spirit Mountain Casino. He was nominat- ed by Giffen. Cureton, 67, also ran for Tribal Council in 2018, finishing fifth out of eight remaining candidates with 383 votes. He works for the Tribe as a Community Health driver and serves on the Tribe’s Election Board. He will be replaced by an al- ternate during the election season and was nominated by Ed Larsen. Younger, 66, is making his first “and only” run for elected Trib- al office. He has worked as the maintenance supervisor at Spirit Mountain Casino, as well as Public Works director for the Tribe. He also has served on the Board of Di- rectors for Spirit Mountain Gaming Inc. and on the Tribal Employment Rights Office Commission. He was nominated by Cassandra Scott. Election office opens July 22 The Election Board office has a new schedule for 2019. It will be open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from July 22 through Aug. 30. Office hours are from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with lunch from noon to 12:30 p.m. The Election Office is located in the Tribal Community Center, 9615 Grand Ronde Road, and the phone number is 503-879-2271. For convenience, blank signature verification forms will be placed in a hanging basket outside the Elections Office door. Completed forms with a notarized signature or legible copy of ID, including your signature attached — (driver’s license, member ID card, passport, etc.) — need to be mailed to the Election Board for processing. The form will not be processed unless it has been notarized or includes a legible copy of ID and your signa- ture attached. Ballots will be mailed to voters with verified signatures on July 24. Tribal members may submit a verified signature card at any time up to and including Election Day on Saturday, Sept. 7. The Grand Ronde post office is no longer open to accept ballots on Saturday, Sept. 7. For members’ convenience, there will be a ballot box in the Gover- nance Center during the election season and also on Election Day there will be a ballot box in the Community Center where com- pleted ballots can be cast. Ballots will be available, as has been the practice in the past, for those mem- bers who want to come in and vote in person. It is the voters’ responsibility to ensure the ballot is received by the Election Board on Election Day – be sure to allow adequate time for the ballot to reach the Election Board by Sept. 7. Candidate statements were due to the Publications office by 5 p.m. Friday, July 12, and will be fea- tured in the next edition of Tilixam Wawa, scheduled to be mailed out the following week. Candidates were limited to 600- word statements and candidates had to submit their statements via e-mail to dean.rhodes@grandronde. org or on a compact disk or memory drive. Hand-written statements were not allowed to avoid tran- scription errors and late statements were not be accepted for any reason. Candidate statements run “as is,” meaning the Tribe’s Publications staff does not edit the submissions in any way other than to ensure they do not exceed 600 words in length. 2019 marks the third year in a row that political ads will be allowed in Smoke Signals. Candi- dates can buy up to a cumulative full page of advertising in the July 15 through Sept. 1 editions of the Tribe’s independent newspaper with the largest permissible ad restricted to a half-page in any one issue. A Candidates Forum is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 31, in the Tribal Community Center in Grand Ronde. Questions for Tribal Council candidates may be e-mailed to candidatequestion@grandronde. org. Please include your name and roll number. Ballots will be counted at the Community Center on Saturday, Sept. 7, and election results will be posted that evening on the Commu- nity Center’s front doors. At the end of the special General Council meeting, Maxine Rock, Earnest Norton and Barbara Fee- han won $100 door prizes and Bud White, Rick George, Laura Glea- son, Cassandra Scott and Lewis Younger won the $50 door prizes. Name changes in court Tribal Court provides both minor and adult name changes to enrolled members for a filing fee of only $30. If you have any questions or would like to request a packet, contact Tribal Court at 503-879-2303. Notice of planned ICDBG application & Community Development statement Early Childhood Education Building Addition Project The Grand Ronde Tribal Council collected comments and sug- gestions from the Tribal community regarding recent, current and proposed ICDBG projects, including at the June 12, 2019, Commu- nity Input meeting. Tribal staff are proposing an ICDBG project that provides: 1) an 850-square-foot classroom addition to the ECE Building for the K-2 after school program; 2) a renovated classroom on the adjacent wall to the addition as a new Early Head Start (EHS) classroom (707 square feet); 3) renovation providing bathrooms and storage space for both these classrooms, 4) a 270-square-foot addition to the kitchen and 83 square feet of kitchen renovation for the Early Head Start & Head Start programs; and 5) a 146-square-foot HS/ EHS office area addition. The project funding includes $208,032 from this HUD ICDBG request, $167,000 in local IHBG matching funds, $79,750 in Spirit Mountain Community Fund monies, $124,080 in Early Head Start funding and $76,138 in Tribal funds. The Grand Ronde Housing Department included this general project in the Tribe’s Indian Housing Plan. The Tribe has received expanded Early Head Start funding to cov- er the operating cost for this additional EHS classroom. The added building space will increase facility operation and maintenance costs by an estimated $18,000 a year. To comment on this application, contact Kim Rogers, Planning & Grants manager, at 503-879-2250, kim.rogers@grandronde, or mail them to him at 9615 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, OR 97347. Comments should be provided by 8:30 a.m. July 23, 2019. Tribal Council also will collect comments by their July 23, 2019, Legislative Action Committee meeting and at their July 24, 2019, Tribal Council meeting where they will consider authorizing this application. The resulting application will be available for review. NOTE: This ICDBG application is an amendment to the Tribe’s 2015 grant award when the Tribe applied to add preschool classroom and kitchen space to the ECE Building to benefit the EHS program. The Tribe would like to swap rooms so that the added classroom (larger) is used by the K-2 program and the renovated (smaller) classroom is used by EHS (which has class-staff ratio limits) and so that all the EHS rooms would be co-located while K-2 would be on the wall nearest Youth Education where the rest of the After School Program operates. The HUD review/approval process for this change requires resubmit- tal of the Tribe’s application in the way of requesting an amendment. [This proposed amendment was specifically included in the materials (fliers, banners, and PowerPoint presentation) at the June 12, 2019, Community Input meeting.] Competitive Supplemental Indian Housing Block Grant Application for low-income housing: 5 Fourplex Appartment buildings & 3 Elder Duplexes The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is so- liciting for grant proposals up to $5 million with scoring favoring construction of new low-income housing units. The Tribal Housing Department is recommending applying for $4,766,250 from this new IHBG competitive funding to construct the three low-income Elder duplexes now under design (north of the current Elder duplexes) and five additional fourplex apartment buildings which will be just north of the two currently under construction and which are already de- signed. The grant requires the Tribe to provide a 25 percent cost share and the Tribe plans to use as match $983,075 from Tribal Housing’s formula IHBG funds, $525,000 in new BIA road construction funds and $80,000 from the value of the land to be used in this construction. This project is proposed due to the waiting list of Tribal family households needing affordable housing in Grand Ronde. The project will provide 26 housing units much faster than had been planned and than otherwise could be afforded. To comment on this application, please contact Kim Rogers, Plan- ning & Grants manager, at 503-879-2250, kim.rogers@grandronde, or mail them to him at 9615 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, OR 97347. Comments should be provided by 8:30 a.m. July 23, 2019. Tribal Council also will collect comments by their July 23, 2019, Leg- islative Action Committee meeting and at their July 24, 2019, Council meeting where they will consider authorizing this application. Upon completion of this project (if selected for funding), the waiting list for the next phases of Tribal housing will greatly be reduced. Please contact Leon Ramos at 503-879-1310 if you want to be added to the waiting list of eligible families. 5