Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Laure Fowler saw what she thought might be an opening on the City Council and decided to run for the seat. She also feels it is her duty to get involved in the community.
She regularly reads City Council meeting minutes on-line, she said, and she noticed that Jim Bean had stopped showing up for meetings in May. He recently has resumed regular attendance.
Bean, who also is running for council, said he stayed in contact over the summer while working for Weyerhaeuser in Coburg. In August he transferred to Santiam Lumber between Sweet Home and Lebanon and is on his normal schedule again and attending meetings.
He was available for teleconferencing while at work and read all of his council packet information, staying on top of the issues in front of the council, during his absence.
Fowler thought he had a conflict and might have been transitioning off the council, she said. Apparently, he isn’t.
“To serve your community is something more of us should do,” Fowler said. “I don’t just reside in Sweet Home. I live in Sweet Home.”
She frequents local stores as much as possible – doing about 90 percent of her shopping in town, she said. Her children attend Sweet Home schools, and her family attends a Sweet Home church.
“I believe in community,” Fowler said. “The only way to have true community is to work together, to help each other. I have a heart for service.”
She is concerned about one direction the city seems to be taking.
“Everybody is talking growth, growth, growth,” she said. Before talking about expansion, the city needs to take care of who is already here, local businesses.
“We need to help them out,” she said. “We need to support them any way we can. I’d really like to see the council focus on that rather than down the road. I would love to see Sweet Home grow but not at the expense of the locals. I think our existing businesses should come first.”
How to go about it isn’t something she knows yet, she said. She learns quickly, and she will learn about the tools available to city government. “There’s some pretty good teachers in there.”
She cannot say the city is doing something wrong specifically, and she doesn’t like pointing fingers, she said. “I just don’t think they’re doing enough. Again, that’s easy for me to say being on the outside.
“One thing I see that makes me proud is what the Beautification Committee does. That’s time well-spent. That’s money well-spent.”
As far as winning or losing the election, she said, “it’s not about that for me. If they’re (voters) satisfied with the way things have gone or are going, certainly stick with the status quo. If not, perhaps they should consider bringing in a fresh perspective.”
Probably the most controversial subject since the last election two years ago was the council’s decision to permit Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments in commercial establishments.
Fowler said she has no problem with the tournaments “unless they become a public nuisance. I think they should be given an opportunity just like any other business.”
Her top priority in budgeting is definitely public safety, police, fire and ambulance, she said.
The library also is important, encouraging more than 4,000 hours of reading among children during its summer programs, she said. “I’d love to see that grow. What they give our community is more than they get.”
Her third budget priority is helping local businesses, making them all they can be, she said. She would like to see expenditures aimed at helping local businesses.
Fowler, 42, moved to Sweet Home in 1996, she said. “I wouldn’t live anywhere else. They’re going to have to bury me here.”
She grew up in Arkansas and graduated from Searcy High School. She attended nursing school at Searcy Foothills Vo-Tech, which is now a part of Arkansas State University.
She was unable to finish and spent several years as a working musician. She moved to Portland in 1990 and worked there for several years.
“I’m a big fan of ’60s rock,” she said. “It had something to say.”
Jackson Browne is her all time favorite.
She played gigs all over Portland, including the Ancient Forest Rally and Celebration in front of 75,000, with Kenny Loggins, Carole King and Neil Young.
She met her husband in 1994 and quit the music scene. She went to work as a gardener, secretary and then a caregiver. She has been a homemaker in recent years. She is married to Bud. Between them, they have seven children, including Melissa, 11; Ben, 9; Maddy Hall, 17; Jade Webster, 22; John Sexton, 20, of Lebanon; Jesse Fowler, 32, of Albany; and Jenny Bicking, 34, of New York. They are expecting their sixth grandchild.