Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
New Sweet Home Planning Commissioner Kim Lawrence says she wants to keep that small-town atmosphere while the city grows and attracts jobs.
The City Council appointed Lawrence to the Planning Commission last week.
Lawrence recently applied to fill a vacancy on the City Council and wants to serve on the City Council in the future. In the meantime, she is getting as involved as she can and now sits on the Parks Board, Traffic Safety Committee, Budget Committee and Planning Commission. She has regularly attended City Council meetings for the past two years.
“What first started me coming in (to council meetings) is water issues,” she said. Water service in Sweet Home costs more than it does in Fresno, Calif.; and water is plentiful here while California is dry.
“Then I started getting a little more interested in things that will help this town kind of stay small but grow, if that makes any sense.” Lawrence has joined every committee with an opening. “Basically, I want to see if Sweet Home can go in the same direction as Leavenworth, Wash.”
Lawrence has purchased a book about the small town, with its Bavarian theme, she said. She wants to see Sweet Home do something like it. Right now “it just looks like a run-down town.”
Businesses come in, and they go out, she said. “Why are they going out of business? That’s one of the things I’d like to find out.”
Lawrence said she doesn’t want to use heavy-handed government to accomplish her goals, to deal with appearance issues, such as a city theme or a purple house her husband, Ron, brought to the council’s attention some time ago. She does not favor design standards.
“I don’t like government getting involved in people’s lives, but on the other hand, people are coming into our town; and that’s what they’re seeing coming into town,” she said. She favors encouragement from the community to improve appearances.
“I’d like to see more housing developments stay intact where they’re not moving in these mobile homes,” Lawrence said. “Appearance is very important to me.”
She does favor code enforcement against garbage and other problems, she said. “As far as I’m concerned, there should be laws that say clean this up or you get fined.”
Lawrence sees increasing the number of local jobs as one of the major challenges facing Sweet Home, she said. Sweet Home has many developments coming in “but no jobs here. We’ve got to get out and get businesses here. I don’t like all the development going on when you have no jobs here.”
One of her goals in her involvement with the city is to find ways to bring in more businesses.
“We can’t stop growth,” she said. “It’s inevitable,” but she would like Sweet Home to retain its small-town character. That’s part of the reason she has settled here.
Lawrence, 45, moved to Sweet Home three years ago from Visalia, where she had lived for five years. She was born and raised in Fresno, Calif.
She retired after being injured on the job. She worked for Volvo Trucking in warranty processing.
She is married to Ron Lawrence, and she has two sons. Ron Lawrence is semi-retired. He drives a milk truck right now.
They moved to Sweet Home after visiting with her sister in Newport. They decided to move to Oregon. They found a house in Sweet Home and moved.
“We loved it,” Lawrence said. “It’s just a whole different area, in Oregon period. The people are so polite here. The kids are so polite, so friendly. We were not used to that at all.”