Sean C. Morgan
Craig Fentiman completed 26 years on the City Council, 14 of them as mayor, on Dec. 9.
His term of office expires on Dec. 31.
“It’s time to take a break,” Fentiman said. “I might resurface in a couple years.”
Mayor Jim Gourley said his colleague has “served this community very well.”
“He has been well above and beyond. I think it shows our community exactly what people think of it when you have that longevity up here.”
It’s not always easy being a councilor, especially on issues like sewer and water rates, Gourley said, but Fentiman has always tried to take the high road.
“I had the privilege of serving with Craig from the start,” said former Mayor Dave Holley, noting that he had the privilege of swearing Fentiman in. They worked on many issues over the years, starting with serious budget problems that shrank the Police Department to just four officers.
“Thank you for what you have done for the community,” Holley said to Fentiman.
“It’s been a tremendous 26 years,” Fentiman said. It’s had its ups and downs, but through it all, Fentiman said, he has tried to put the community first, even when it was hard to do.
Sometimes what’s right isn’t always popular, he said, and sometimes what’s popular isn’t always right.
He quoted a candidate for an interim city manager position, whose name he couldn’t remember, but he did remember something the candidate said: “A unanimous decision is five years too late.”
That idea stuck with him through most of his tenure.
“It made it a lot easier not to go with the flow, and it made so much sense,” Fentiman said.
He also learned that no decision is the end of the world, because the council can always go back and change the decision if it isn’t working out, although decisions shouldn’t be changed lightly.
“This council has done that,” he said.
Fentiman has served the long-est of any current councilors.
“You do it because you have a love for the community and to do the best you can for the people here in town,” Fentiman said. Councilors want to see the town grow and prosper.
Sometimes people have axes to grind, but everyone serving on the council is really after that same goal, he said.
He has been driven to keep moving forward, he said, “to keep the community moving forward in a positive direction.
“It’s a great place to live, raise your children in,” Fentiman said. “It still is a reasonably safe community. It’s just been a wonderful place to be. I want to continue to see it do well, see it grow and thrive.”
The city has accomplished much while he served on the council, he said. It built the Fire Hall, the Police Service Building and a new Water Treatment Plant. It also played a role in the all-out community effort to construct the Jim Riggs Community Center, which houses the Senior Center and Boys and Girls Club.
The city also has substantially reduced inflow and infiltration, the cause of increasing sewer rates in recent years. Inflow and infiltration is water that leaks into the sewer system through deteriorating pipes and cross connections to sewer drainage during heavy rain.
Fentiman served on the original committee to create the Oregon Jamboree, he said, and the city was highly involved in the establishment of the annual event, which provides funding for economic development projects through the Sweet Home Economic Development Group.
The council still has much to do, he said. “They’re going to have their hands full.”
The challenge is to make the tough decisions, Fentiman said. That shows up nowhere more prominently than in the inflow and infiltration effort, which will require more work – and expenses – at the Wastewater Treatment Plant, which will impact water and sewer rates.
With that in mind, he advises the council to “always focus on the good of the community,” Fentiman said. “Keep that vision out in front of you. Always base your decisions on the good of the community as a whole, not individual groups.”
Fentiman is looking forward to reading something for fun now – something besides city hazard mitigation plans.
“I’m looking forward to actually sitting down and not reading a technical manual on sewers,” he said. Reading city documents has consumed his reading time for the past quarter century.
He doesn’t know what he’ll read first, he said.
“I’ll look on my Kindle and order it, but it’s not going to have anything to do with politics.”