Tribal Council OKs budget increase to purchase Noble Oaks property

By Dean Rhodes

Smoke Signals editor

The Grand Ronde Tribe is one step closer to owning the entire 667.5-acre Noble Oaks Preserve outside of Willamina after Tribal Council approved a supplemental budget for 2019 to purchase an additional 2.75 acres at the site.

During its May 15 meeting, Tribal Council approved a resolution to accept a donation of most of the preserve from The Nature Conservancy and assume wildlife management at the site.

However, the conservancy’s donation to the Tribe did not include the additional acreage that includes a 4,502-square-foot home. The supplemental budget change is for $542,400.

Noble Oaks Preserve was home to endangered animals and operated by former Portland lawyer Richard Noble and his wife, Nancy. The Nature Conservancy purchased the property in October 2014 for $1.5 million.

Once the Noble Oaks Reserve property is acquired, it will join Chahalpam, Chankawan and Rattlesnake Butte as the Tribe’s land holdings that are being managed for wildlife and conservation purposes.

The purchase passed in a 3-2 vote with Tribal Council members Steve Bobb Sr. and Jack Giffen Jr. dissenting. Bobb and Giffen later recanted their “no” votes because they said they thought they were voting on the supplemental budget to purchase Blue Heron Paper Mill.

Tribal Council also had another “noble” action on its agenda in naming Cynthia Kaufman-Noble, a McMinnville Municipal Court judge, to succeed David Shaw as the Tribal Court’s chief judge.

Kaufman-Noble was admitted to the Oregon State Bar in 1992 after earning a law degree from Willamette University in Salem the same year. She graduated from Syracuse University in New York with a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1981. She also has a family law practice in McMinnville.

Kaufman-Noble takes over as chief judge on July 1 and her term runs through June 2021. Shaw served the Tribe as chief judge for five years, beginning as interim chief judge in May 2014.

In other action, Tribal Council:

• Approved applying for a $50,000 Tribal Heritage Grant from the National Park Service for the Grand Ronde Depot, which is the only local building on the National Register of Historic Places. The grant, if received, would be added to a $75,000 Spirit Mountain Community Fund grant to repair the foundation, cedar roof, gutters, siding and trim, windows and doors, among other needed repairs;
• Appointed Steve Bobb Jr. to the Fish & Wildlife Committee with a term expiring in March 2021;
• Appointed Mike Colton to serve as an alternate on the Election Board with a term expiring in March 2021;
• And appointed Brian Krehbiel to the Tribal Employment Rights Commission to serve out the term of Matt Thomas through March 2020 and Simone Auger to a full three-term expiring in March 2022.

Also included in the June 26 Tribal Council packet were approved authorizations to proceed that authorized purchasing a sign for the Bob Mercier logging unit to recognize his commitment to and service on the Timber Committee and Tribal Council, OK’d the Tribe’s participation in the 2019 American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Family and Child Experience Survey and authorized Economic Development Director Bruce Thomas and the Lands Department to pursue a solar leasing opportunity on up to 78 acres of the Risseeuw property for a minimum of 25 years. The Risseeuw property is located northeast of the Grand Ronde and Hebo roads intersection.

A video of the entire meeting can be viewed on the Tribal government’s website at www.grandronde.org by clicking on the News tab and then Video.