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Tribal Council OKs three
fall rounds of virus
relief payments— pg. 5
september 15, 2020
Incumbents
reign again
Smoky skies
Voters return Mercier,
Langley and Leno to the
2020-21 Tribal Council
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
F
or the second year in a row,
Tribal voters said they like
the status quo on Tribal
Council and returned all three
incumbents to their seats for three-
year terms, according to official
results released by the Tribe’s
Election Board.
Vice Chair Chris Mercier and
Tribal Council members Michael
Langley and Lisa Leno were the
top three vote recipients out of a
field of only five candidates – the
smallest field since 1983’s Resto-
ration – during the Sept. 12 Tribal
Council election.
Former Tribal Council Chair-
man Reyn Leno, who was making
his second attempt at returning
to Tribal Council after retiring in
2017, finished a distant fourth. Pe-
ter “Boon” Grout, who was making
his second run for Tribal Council,
finished fifth.
Mercier, Langley and Lisa Leno
set new benchmarks for the most
votes received in a Tribal Council
election, surpassing Tribal Council
Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy’s
712 votes received in 2018.
Mercier, who received 966 votes,
will begin his sixth term on Tribal
Council and will become the third
longest-serving Tribal member on
council at the conclusion of his term
in September 2023.
See ELECTION
continued on page 6
Photo by Timothy J. Gonzalez
The new Spirit Mountain Casino message board glowed under the smoky sky that hung over the Grand
Ronde Valley on Wednesday, Sept. 9. The smoke was the result of numerous wildfires in western Oregon. To
read more about the Tribe’s response to last week’s wildfire emergency in western Oregon, turn to pages 8-9.
Tribe moving forward with home-ownership development
By Danielle Frost
Smoke Signals staff writer
A
s early as December, the Tribe
could break ground on its second
single-family housing development
in Grand Ronde.
It’s been 23 years since Grand Meadows,
located on Tribal property at McPherson and
Grand Ronde roads, opened a 36-lot manu-
Photo by Timothy J. Gonzalez
factured home subdivision to Tribal families.
Housing Department officials say a second
development is long overdue.
“Home ownership has been in the Commu-
nity Development Plan for some time, but
hasn’t gotten prioritization until recently,”
See HOMES
continued on page 7
Farm equipment sits on the Rink 2 property where Tribal members will eventually be able to
purchase a lot to build a home. The property encompasses approximately 86.5 acres and is east
of the Grand Meadows development.