General Council briefed on emergency services and preparedness

By Danielle Harrison

Smoke Signals editor

Tribal Emergency Services Assistant Fire Chief Torey Wakeland and Tribal Emergency Services Preparedness Coordinator Brandy Bishop gave the first presentation of the 2026-27 General Council meeting cycle Sunday, Sept. 13.

Wakeland started the presentation by giving a brief history of how emergency management evolved into emergency services.

“Prior to 2020, emergency management was the main focus and emergency services were provided by the West Valley Fire District,” he said. “They started experiencing some essential issues and in 2020, a five-year plan was developed for Grand Ronde to take over services from West Valley and start providing our own service to the area. That plan was incredibly expedited and switched to a 10-month implementation plan. So, there was a lot of stuff that had to be fast tracked to get things going and we were successful in doing so. That was taking place in 2021.”

By September 2021, the Tribe was providing both fire and emergency services throughout the West Valley Fire District area and in 2023, administrative services were added to that contract when the Tribe took over services at the fire station in Willamina. It  provides complete emergency services in Grand Ronde and to Willamina through a contract. 

Some highlights of Wakeland’s presentation included:

• Emergency Services external programs include emergency management, emergency medical services, fire suppression, technical rescue, wildfire deployments, community resiliency and a volunteer program. Internal programs include a training division, recruitment and retention, college student program (pilot phase), high school program (under development), CPR training, and health and wellness;
• Emergency Services has deployed to15 fires this year, with the state reimbursing wages and equipment rental costs, and a total reimbursement of $340,000 that will go to the general fund and $260,000 that will go the enterprise fund.
• Emergency Services has responded to 1,300 calls, 85% of which were medical, and brought in $600,000 in firefighting revenue and $700,000 in annual ambulance revenue.

Bishop gave an update about emergency preparedness and resiliency 2026 accomplishments and priorities for 2027 and 2028.

“The overall direction is simple,” she said. “We are building CTGR’s ability to take care of our people, communicate when our normal systems are disrupted and recover effectively after an emergency.”

She added that most of the work this past year has focused on strengthening the foundation and the next step is turning that foundation into sustainable operational capability.

“Our goal is a prepared, connected and resilient Tribal community,” Bishop said.

Some highlights of her presentation include:

• In 2026, there was a major emergency operations plan updated, and the Tribe’s Early Childhood Education program and Youth Education strengthened their emergency planning. Emergency Services has also continued pursuing grant funding for emergency communications, community resilience, preparedness activities and other capacity building projects.
• In 2027 and 2028, the focus will be on building operational capacity capability by continuing to strengthen the Emergency Services station as a resilience center with better communications technology. Another major priority is increasing radio, HAM, satellite, Starlink, portable repeaters and interoperable systems, which will provide multiple communication methods if commercial systems fail. Training and preparedness exercises will continue to be critical.

After the approximate 20-minute presentation, Wakeland and Bishop answered seven questions from the membership.

“Thank you for your report, it was excellent,” Tribal Council Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy said. “I appreciate all of the work that you do you and I really appreciated the youth that went through your program this summer, that was great.”

In other action, Tribal Election Board Chair Shannon Simi delivered the Tribal Council election results from Saturday, Sept. 12, that saw two incumbents – Matthew Haller and Lisa Leno – re-elected to three-year terms. Challenger Valeria Atanacio was elected to the third seat.

For more information on the results, see the Tribal Council election story at smokesignals.org or in the Oct. 1 print edition.

Kennedy thanked the Election Board members.

“I want to thank the Election Board for all of the hard work and the long day they had yesterday,” she said. “We also have our legal team who attend that and I’m glad that everyone was there. It’s a good team.”

Kennedy also expressed her appreciation for Tribal Council Vice Chair Chris Mercier, who chose not to run for reelection after serving 21 years on council, from 2004 to 2013, and then 2014 to 2026.

“He has put in many years of service not only as the vice chair, but in different capacities,” she said. “He served as chair before and as secretary. Good job and I really appreciate your time, your attention and your ability to help us navigate through some very difficult times. I really appreciate you.”

Mercier said that he would be back at some point but was unsure when.

“I do love this job,” he said. “But there are some personal things I want to do that I’ve been putting on the back burner and stepping away 13 years ago did wonders for my mental health. … I didn’t take the decision to not run lightly but I feel right about it and I’m happy to see new leadership come on board. I think the Tribe’s going to be OK.”

The next General Council meeting will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 4, in Tribal Council chambers and on Zoom.

Leroy Good, Alicia Petite and Deborah Gilbert each won the $100 door prizes. Stehpanie Shandy, Kim Contreras, Melissa Palanuk, Kyle Wilmot and Elvin Buter won the $50 door prizes.

The meeting can be viewed by visiting the Tribe’s website at www.grandronde.org and clicking on the Videos tab.