Sean C. Morgan
As Sweet Home’s new mayor, Greg Mahler sees his role as a mentor to a young City Council, and he wants to increase Sweet Home’s economic development efforts and improve Sweet Home’s healthcare infrastructure.
The council elected him to the position during its regular meeting on Jan. 10.
He succeeds Jim Gourley whose term expired Dec. 31.
Mahler, who has served as president pro tem for the past two years, nominated himself for the position. Councilor Jeff Goodwin nominated Councilor Diane Gerson. The council voted 4-3 to appoint Mahler. Mahler received votes from Dave Trask, Lisa Gourley, Ryan Underwood and himself. Voting for Gerson were Goodwin, James Goble and Gerson.
Trask is president pro tem following a 4-3 vote, with Goodwin, Goble and Gerson voting for Goble and Mahler, Underwood, Trask and Gourley voting for Trask.
Following the vote, Goodwin announced his resignation because he is moving to Corvallis to be closer to the numerous medical appointments his family has had and will have to keep.
The City Council appointed Mahler in January 2008 after the late Bob McIntire resigned due to health issues. He was re-elected to his seat twice since then, 2010 and 2014.
Mahler, 53, is a 1981 graduate of Sweet Home High School. He has been a volunteer with the Sweet Home fire department for 30 years. He attended Linn-Benton Community College prior to taking a position as a manager with Sprouse Reitz. He later managed a Payless Drug and then owned and operated a merchandising company before taking over management of Hoy’s Hardware in 2006, which is owned by his father, John Mahler, also a former City Council member.
Mahler previously had served on the City Council when he filled a vacancy in the 1990s.
He said the city was going through some turmoil at the time, and a new fire station was a top priority. Mahler served just two years then.
He owned a merchandising service company and had to travel frequently, so he resigned, he said. When he began managing Hoy’s, he applied for the opening left by McIntire.
“At the time, I didn’t see any turmoil,” Mahler said. “Things seemed to be going pretty good for the most part.”
It’s the past few years the city hasn’t been going in the right direction, Mahler said, and that’s primarily about economic development.
“Economic development is one of the biggest goals of ours,” Mahler said. “I think we’ve got the right council, the right members to take a look at the economic development issue. Sweet Home has been stagnant with its economy up till now.”
Budgets are getting tighter, and economic development is one of the biggest keys to solving those problems.
After forcing the resignation of 19-year City Manager Craig Martin last year, the council has brought in a city manager, Ray Towry, who has a background in economic development, he said, and the council is putting incentives on the table to promote business growth.
“I’m looking for the McCools (McCool Millworks, 18th and Main),” Mahler said. “We don’t have to go out and get the several-thousand-jobs industry. That’d be nice, but I’ll take the 15s, 20s, 30s.”
Mahler sees a deficiency in Sweet Home’s healthcare facilities, and improving them is among his priorities, both for Sweet Home residents and the benefits it provides in terms of economic development.
“I think we need an urgent care facility,” Mahler said. “We have one of the largest fire districts in the state of Oregon.”
SHFAD encompasses some 1,100 square miles and serves around 16,000 individuals, Mahler said. The fire district puts more than 60,000 miles per year on its ambulances transporting patients.
“We constantly are calling REACH, especially with the trauma calls,” Mahler said. Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital is known as a transfer station, and Sweet Home medics frequently transport patients directly to trauma facilities in Albany, Corvallis and Springfield.
In addition to an urgent care, Sweet Home needs stroke rehabilitation and physical therapy facilities.
“You’re rolling the dice with your healthcare here in Sweet Home,” Mahler said. “Healthcare, in general, is really weak in this area. In order for us to attract businesses to our community, you have to have a good infrastructure in place.”
That includes healthcare facilities, he said, as well as police and fire services, a library, schools, parks and other facilities.
“We’ve got a lot of senior citizens in the community that have come without having the medical facilities to take care of them,” Mahler said.
“It really bothers me that we don’t have it,” Mahler said, especially looking north to a smaller community like Stayton, which has its own hospital.
Mahler also is looking at parks.
“We’re going to devote more resources to our parks than we have in the past and have a stronger focus on our parks,” he said. “In time, we will see the improvement.”
Parks – Sankey Park in particular – are among the first things people see when they come to Sweet Home, Mahler said, and they don’t look good.
They find needles, toilets torn up and people loitering, he said. The lighting is inadequate, and they don’t give people a comfortable feeling.
Like parks, the council is looking at rentals.
Mahler said the council also is looking at a livability code that will help improve rental properties in Sweet Home, many of which are in poor condition and dirty.
“We’ve just got to get some of these problems curbed, to improve the livability of people living in our community,” Mahler said. The code will “improve the look of our community,” although he notes there will be difficulty with enforcement.
Mahler said he nominated himself for the mayor position because he was the senior councilor, with the departure of Jim Gourley on Dec. 30. Trask has served since he was elected in 2012. Underwood has served since his election in 2014. Goble and Gerson were appointed last year, and Lisa Gourley won election in November and joined the council Jan. 1.
With his experience as a councilor and a president pro tem, essentially a vice chairman or vice mayor, Mahler felt he could take on a sort of mentor role with the newer councilors.
“I really like the mix of our council,” Mahler said. They don’t all agree about everything, and they have good debates. “I like the mindset of our council.
“It’s an honor to be selected. I hope I do a good job and make them proud I was their selection,” Mahler said, and he hopes he can be a help to the new councilors.