Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Kim Lawrence would like to see Sweet Home adopt a unified theme that would drive growth in the tourism industry.
Lawrence is one of seven candidates vying for four seats on the City Council in the Nov. 7 election.
“Your publisher hit it right on the nose,” Lawrence said of a column published two weeks ago. She said she likes the idea of building a theme, such as that of Sisters, in the downtown area – whether it be a 1950s theme or something else.
“After being on all these committees, I’ve really come to appreciate this town,” said Lawrence, who serves on the Planning Commission, Budget Committee, Parks Board and Safety Committee. “There are some things I’d like to change here.
“I personally feel (with) a theme, be it ’50s retro or anything, basically we can become a tourist town like Sisters.”
Sweet Home doesn’t have many factory or manufacturing jobs, she said, but it has potential in tourism.
“I like the idea of the ’50s,” she said. “The ’50s remind me of when families were closer together. One of the ideas I have to go along with that: I’d like to see a soapbox derby.”
That’s something that brought families together as they built their racers.
Lawrence does not think the city itself should make these changes. Rather, she thinks the council can take a leadership role, encouraging voluntary efforts in the community and among businesses to make these changes.
To achieve it, she suggests city officials “basically getting with business owners, getting with the community, getting everybody together and getting ideas on what they would like to see. My role would be to bring the community together.”
Such a change will need to be made through volunteers, she said. “Our city workers have proven they’re very busy, overworked. I think it’s going to be a volunteer effort.”
Lawrence does not support passing ordinances to achieve downtown design standards, she said. “I don’t think it ever should be law. This is a business. I wouldn’t ever want government coming in and telling (people) to change all this. I would hope the businesses would want to do this.”
It would be costly, but she hopes community efforts can make it work, she said. Sweet Home Economic Development Group would be one of the avenues to do it, she suggested. She also recognizes it won’t happen all at once, but she’d like to get the ball rolling.
Lawrence points to Leavenworth, Wash., where she believes the community succeeded without resorting to regulation and created a Bavarian theme.
“I’m just kind of copying how they went … to something so grand,” she said. The difference is that community has 1,500 people, and Sweet Home has 8,000. It’ll probably take longer.
“I can just visualize (a ’50s theme),” she said. “Look at A&W, the carhops, Mollies’ remodeling.”
While this is more a leadership role as opposed to one of the city government, she also has ideas in other areas.
She would like to see better interaction between the city and the people, she said. “I see many people come. I see many people complain, but I don’t see any results.”
As a councilor, she said, she would talk one-on-one with residents, who may or may not be complaining, she said. She would listen. Being on the council, she would be able to make changes.
As one of the 14-member Budget Committee and as one who speaks against different things, “people frown on me about it,” she said. “I would like to see money go toward different things. The amount of money I see going toward parks, I don’t see anyone doing anything with it.”
A few council meetings back, she said, residents of Second Avenue complained about the poor condition of their street.
“I really didn’t feel like the answer was clear enough,” she said. The council told them it would look at bids to repair the road but remained uncommitted.
“You can’t make promises and not follow through,” she said. This has been an issue for those residents since 1991, and they keep hearing someone will look at it next year.
She said she realizes the city may have issues with sewer lines in the road, but it can’t keep putting things like this off. The city receives gas tax funds, and it needs to spend them on roads.
“As a council member, I will follow through to the end,” she said.
She said she also is concerned about increasing sewer and water rates.
“Our rates are too high,” she said. “It took me a while to understand why.”
The systems need work, she said, and the city needs to try to keep rates down.
“How can we work around that?” she asked. “No idea yet. What else can we do? We need the water plant.”
She applauded the council’s decision to contract with a private company to operate the wastewater and water treatment plants a step toward slowing the growth of rates.
Parks are another issue, Lawrence said. She complained last week at the regular council meeting about dandelion seeds blowing out of the pocket park on her street into her yard.
She is fully aware that the city has one employee working in parks, and he is busy, she said, but she thinks the issue is one of quantity over quality.
“I think we have an overabundance of parks myself,” she said. “Sankey Park I agree with. Lots of people use it,” but she questions whether the city really needs Clover Memorial Park, for example.
That’s why she thinks a lot of money is “kind of wasted,” she said.
Lawrence’s relationship to city government often has been adversarial, ranging from complaints to letters to the editor about the city.
“I’ve been known to speak out of turn,” she said. “I’m learning.”
Referring to a letter critical of the city that drew many opposition letters, she explained it was written out of anger. An activist against illegal immigration, she was angry over developments on the issue and wrote a letter that she later followed up with an apology.
She doesn’t want an adversarial relationship with the city, she said. “I want to be able to work with everybody, but I hope that everybody’s able to say their opinion…. I do not want to be a bulldog, but if I feel very strongly about it, I would hope they would value my opinion.”
She saw that recently in the council, when it was deciding whether to turn to a private contractor to operate the sewer and water plants. She saw a difference of opinion, a 4-3 vote, a decision that wasn’t unanimous and something she hadn’t seen before.
Lawrence said her philosophy is that “if you have feelings about it, speak up.
“I’ve been really trying hard to work with Craig (Martin, city manager),” she said. “I can see his frustration, and I can understand it.”
And with the history between the city and her, “I can see why he (doesn’t) shake my hand, because ‘I don’t trust you yet,'” she said. But “he’s always been very helpful.”
With that, Lawrence sees potential in Sweet Home, she said. “It would be a wonderful opportunity and a pleasure to serve this community because it has so much potential. Being on council and listening to people, if that’s what it takes, I’m going to be there.”
She is retired with a disability, although she said she would like to work. In California, she worked for Quality Paint and Body as an office manager and estimator. She worked for Central Valley Trucking Center in warranty administration. She was shipping secretary and warranty manager for Peterbilt.
She is married to Ron Lawrence, and they have two grown children, including one son on his third tour serving in the Marines in Iraq. She has lived in Sweet Home for nearly four years.