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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 2020)
sNok signflz JULY 1, 2020 11 Razing the grass Election office opens July 27 NOMINATIONS continued from front page Photo by Timothy J. Gonzalez Groundskeeper Anthony Quenelle mows the lawn in Tribal Housing on Thursday, June 18, while still enjoying the spring-like weather to get the job done. Polling location in Grand Ronde to be determined TRIBAL COUNCIL continued from front page Election Board to clean voting booths and erect plastic barriers if necessary. He also requested that Tribal Council allow the flexibility to move the polling location from the Community Center to a safer location on the Tribal campus if necessary. Tribal Council member Michael Langley said that since the election is still more than two months away, the Tribe needs to retain flexibility on where to house the polling site. In other action, Tribal Council: • Approved a $609,927 settlement with Central Petro Inc. of Bend regarding environmental damage caused by a gasoline spill into the North Santiam River in Decem- ber 2017. The Grand Ronde Tribe is one of the trustees regarding environmental damage to the river along with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Oregon Depart- ment of Fish & Wildlife and Siletz Tribe; • Approved accepting $3,657 from the Natural Resources Conser- vation Service to clear brush on the Tribe’s Ahsney conservation property north of Rickreall in Polk County; • Approved a contract not to ex- ceed $140,000 with J. Franco Reforestation to remove brush from 127 acres of the Tribe’s Rattlesnake Butte conservation property northwest of Junction City in Lane County; • Approved a memorandum of un- derstanding with the Oregon De- partment of Transportation that will facilitate Tribal consultation on the Fort Hill Road to Valley Junction highway construction project; • Approved the Housing Depart- ment’s application for $937,090 in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act Indian Housing Plan funding that is de- signed to help Tribes with costs association with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The fed- eral funding will reimburse the Tribe for such items as granting rent relief for low-income tenants between April 1 and June 30; • Approved accepting $14,724 in funding from the Oregon Depart- ment of Administrative Services to help fund Tribal Court’s Court Ap- pointed Special Advocate program; • Approved applying for a three- year, $788,228 Administration for Native Americans Esther Martinez language grant that would help provide a teacher and assistant teacher for an addi- tional Chinuk Wawa immersion preschool classroom; • Appointed Tribal Elder Gladys Hobbs as an honorary member of the Health Committee with a term ending in March 2022; • And approved the enrollment of one infant into the Tribe because he or she meets the requirements outlined in the Tribal Constitu- tion and Enrollment Ordinance. The entire meeting can be viewed by visiting the Tribal government’s website at www.grandronde.org and clicking on the Government tab and then Videos. Are you frustrated with your diabetes control? Do you have questions about diabetes? Do you need help managing your diabetes? If so… Call the Medical Clinic today at 503-879-2002 To schedule an individual diabetes education appointment for notching the fifth most years on the governing body. He also served one year as Tribal Council chair from 2006-07. He was nominated by Tribal Council Secretary Jon A. George. Langley, a former Spirit Moun- tain Casino employee, received 708 votes in 2017 – the most ever at the time until Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy received 712 votes the following year. He was nominated by Kennedy. Lisa Leno finished third in 2017 with 648 votes to garner her first three-year term on Tribal Council. She just missed being elected to Tribal Council the previous year, finishing three votes behind Denise Harvey in fourth place in 2016. She was nominated by Tribal Elder Ed Larsen. Reyn Leno, 69, retired from Trib- al Council service in 2017 after serving 21 consecutive years. Five of those years he was elected Trib- al Council chair. He currently is a member of the Tribe’s Timber Committee and was nominated by Tribal Council member Jack Giffen Jr. He finished fourth in the 2019 election. Grout, 45, ran for Tribal Council in 2018, but dropped out of the race before the annual Candidates Fo- rum was held, and finished tied for fifth out of seven candidates in 2019. He works as a surveillance techni- cian at Spirit Mountain Casino. He was nominated by Giffen as well. Nominations were held in the Governance Center Atrium in response to the COVID-19 corona- virus pandemic. Attendees were required to wear masks and main- tain social distancing. George gave the invocation and was joined by Chris Mercier to perform the cultural drumming to open the meeting. Previously, the smallest field of candidates was six during the 1993 and 2017 Tribal Council elections. Election office opens July 27 The Election Board office’s new reduced schedule for 2020 is that it will be open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from July 27 through Sept. 11. 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. A Tribal voter signature verification form can be obtained online at www. grandronde.org/media/1517/voter- reg-form.pdf. Ballots will be mailed to voters with verified signatures on Wednes- day, July 29. Tribal members may submit a verified signature form at any time up to and including Election Day on Saturday, Sept. 12. The Grand Ronde post office is no longer open to accept ballots on Saturday, Sept. 12. 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. 12. Candidate statements are due to the Publications office by 5 p.m. Friday, July 10, and will be fea- tured in the next edition of Tilixam Wawa, scheduled to be mailed out the following week. Candidates are limited to 600- word statements and candidates have to submit their statements via e-mail to dean.rhodes@grandronde. org or on a compact disk or memory drive. Hand-written statements are not allowed to avoid transcription errors and late statements are not 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. 2020 marks the fourth year that political ads will be allowed in Smoke Signals. Candidates can buy up to a cumulative full page of advertising in the July 15 through Sept. 1 editions of the Tribe’s in- dependent newspaper with the largest permissible ad restricted to a half-page in any one issue. A virtual Candidates Forum is scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday, July 22. Questions for Tribal Coun- cil candidates may be e-mailed to candidatequestions@grandronde. org. Please include your name and roll number. Ballots will be counted at the Community Center on Saturday, Sept. 12, and election results will be posted that evening on the Commu- nity Center’s front doors.