Eight is enough.
So says Tom Cramblett about his decision not to run for election for mayor.
“I’m not a person necessarily in favor of term limits, but I’ve paid my dues, and it’s time for someone else to step up,” said Cramblett, who is close to completing his fourth two-year term leading city government in Cascade Locks. He served on city council two years before coming mayor.
Bob Walker, who currently serves on city council, and Samantha Verschuren have filed for the position of mayor in the Nov. 3 General Election.
Cramblett said he views the City of Cascade Locks in good position to continue well, especially given its partnership with local agencies, Port of Cascade Locks in particular.
“I was on a really good council, we had a lot of good leadership in the council and I think we accomplished a lot of things for our community,” Cramblett said. “There are things to be finished but I believe in other people stepping up and helping move the community ahead.
“It had been a struggle, but people came together,” Cramblett said, referring to challenges in the past decade including the travails of the fire and EMS service, which all but disbanded in 2012.
“I’ve never served this long under one mayor, and it’s refreshing,” said city manager Gordon Zimmerman. “They know the problems, what needs to be done and they have a vision, Tom has grown tremendously in this position. I am grateful to have served with him,” Zimmerman said.
Cramblett gave specific credit to Zimmerman and Port Commission president Jess Groves and Port General Manager Olga Kaganova.
“Jess has been a great partner,” Cramblett said. “He stays connected, we’ve been best friends all our lives, both grew up here all our lives. We have a really strong port commission and good management with Olga, Gordon’s done a great job taking on all the things.
“Everyone is really working hard and there are new ideas and things coming along. We worked on infrastructure and we did a lot with water and power and the streets, and what’s going on with WaNaPa,” Cramblett said, referring to Oregon Department of Transportation’s nearly-completed upgrade of crosswalks, sidewalks and drainage on Cascade Locks’ one-and-only main street.
He is proud of the strides the city and port have made in upgrading infrastructure, referring to the recent replacement and addition of water lines and a well, and the upcoming expansion of the wastewater treatment plant, a $5.7 million project that is about to go to engineering and will be completed in about two years.
Cramblett also pointed to the expanded parking and restroom complex next to the Post Office building on WaNaPa and other examples.
“We have great relationships that helped us with the fire and all the issues we’ve had,” Cramblett said. “I was very lucky, very fortunate to have the staff and city and the commission at the port. I attribute it to a certain amount of luck but also to a lot of people who have decided to work together and put aside differences and work for the good of the community.”
Cramblett also noted the fire hall has been paid for and the WaNaPa plaza project completed, and “fire and EMS had gone down, and we brought it back.”
As a measure of how far the fire and EMS has come back from disaster, on Aug. 24 city council promoted John Logan to chief. Logan, hired as captain in 2018, had four volunteers in place when he was hired in 2018, and that cadre is up to 16, and the city has three paid paramedics.
“We also went down to nothing with our power company, but Gordon has done a great job with mutual aid, with the help of our groundsman (Derek Turkington) and the power company and water company are doing well,” he said, adding credit to Skamania Public Utility District and Hood River Electrical Coop.
Zimmerman said the city and partnerships got through a period when did not have two linesmen on staff, but is up to full staff and looking at adding a new linesman once the city acquires the BPA substation later this year, a move which will connect city power to its existing substation and expand its capacity from 14 to 20 megawatts, and with it the ability to sell more power and accrue the revenue.
“I think our community is set up to really move ahead in future years,” Cramblett said. “There are a lot of issues,” Cramblett said. “We know to be careful of your success, being a small town with one main street, and parking will become an issue for us, but were are addressing it. Tourism is a major thing and will only continue.
“We put in a larger subdivision (Shahala) and that allowed us to bring in more customers to the port, and we had great relationship with the Port and because of that we developed a really good relationship with the governor and the state legislature and with our national governance and that all helped us with all the programs.”
Zimmerman noted that with the build-out of Shahala and other housing, the city’s assessed valuation has risen in the past eight years from $62 million to $111 million.
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