Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Josh Victor, 23, wants to see improvements in Sweet Home’s streets as well as promote growth in the community while maintaining its small-town character.
He is one of seven candidates seeking four City Council seats in the Nov. 7 election.
Victor is a real estate agent with Coldwell-Banker Branson and Associates. He also is office manager with Northern Investments.
A Sweet Home High School graduate, he graduated from Norm Webb Real Estate School and attended LBCC.
“The most important thing I’d have to say is growth, our local economy,” he said. “I think we need to grow a little bit more.”
He would like to see 24-hour gas stations and restaurants in Sweet Home as well.
“For the growth part of it, I want to not discourage businesses,” he said. He would like the city to help get them started by “not overwhelming them with restrictions and limitations, making it easier.”
Currently, he said, it’s hard to start a business in Sweet Home, adding that the restrictions are difficult even when remodeling.
“(The city should) work with them instead of ‘you’ve got to take this out and have this engineered,'” he said, and the process needs to be affordable.
Victor said the city’s planning is pretty good, and the city has gotten a lot better within the last six months, “but I’ve talked to a lot of businesses that just got run through the wringer.”
He also believes the city has improved in making suggestions so developers know what they might be able to do, he said, noting that city officials will suggest various options to builders trying to solve a problem.
Victor thinks the city should make more effort to recruit businesses to locate to Sweet Home, both commercial and industrial.
He doesn’t want to see the city developing the wrong sorts of businesses though, for example, “all of the sudden developing all around the lake.” Victor believes development should be limited to what’s already around Foster Lake.
Local roads need work too, such as North River Road, which is in the county, on the north side of Foster Lake.
“I’m really big on the road systems,” Victor said.
“We need to figure out which roads are the most problematic,” he said. With that in hand, the city should prioritize road projects.
On rising utility costs, “I think we should put a cap on our water and sewer rates if at all possible,” Victor said. To that end, he thinks the city should lower the depreciation rate on its plants and infrastructure. Instead of depreciating capital over 10 years, it would depreciate over 30 years, getting more life out of it.
Victor believes his business training would be an asset on the council.
“I think everything in Sweet Home is depreciated way too fast,” he said. “If the city depreciates one car over a three-year period, then they say that car is obsolete and have to buy a new one.”
If a car can depreciate over five years, it can still be useful and moved around to other parts of the city, he said.
“I’m going to bring a whole different perspective to the City Council,” Victor said – a business background.
“I’m used to doing it for businesses all the time,” Victor said. “In our business, if you don’t save money, you’re going under.”