Sean C. Morgan
Following approval of a contract last week by the City Council, Raymond Towry is planning to begin work as Sweet Home City Council’s new city manager on Nov. 14.
Under the contract, the city will pay Towry $8,212 per month to start. On July 1, his pay will rise to $8,417 and upon a satisfactory annual performance evaluation in November 2017, it will increase to $8,670. The contract includes three months severance pay.
The council approved the contract 7-0 during its regular meeting, held Oct. 25. Present were councilors James Goble, Ryan Underwood, Greg Mahler, Mayor Jim Gourley, Dave Trask, Jeff Goodwin and Diane Gerson.
Towry, 42, is the recreation, public relations and tourism director in Ephrata, Wash., where he has worked for 12 years.
“I grew up in Ephrata,” Towry told a reporter in a phone conversation. “My parents still live here in town.”
He graduated from Ephrata High School in 1992, where he enjoyed playing soccer. He attended Belleview College in an attempt to pursue a college soccer career, and transferred to Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. There he married his wife of 20 years, Shannon, and coached high school soccer and served as a volunteer youth coach.
Towry graduated in 1998 with a bachelor of arts degree in recreation, administration and leisure studies, with an emphasis in business. He finished one real estate class shy of a minor in business.
While in school, Towry planned to build and operate his own resort, but his internship, practicum and volunteer experience changed his course. During college, he worked in the Moses Lake Parks Department. He went to Moscow, Idaho, before returning to Moses Lake to run a three-acre aquatics center.
He returned to his hometown as director of the Parks and Recreation Department in 2004.
During the next 12 years, he took on more responsibilities, volunteering or being assigned to handle different situations as they arose.
“I was incredibly blessed to have a city administrator who, as he learns your strengths, he allows you to capitalize on it,” Towry said. “His management style allows everybody to be at the table.”
Ephrata is similar to Sweet Home, Towry said. It is nearly as large, and it is linearly arranged along a state highway.
Millions of vehicles travel through Ephrata annually to reach Grand Coulee Dam and the lakes and streams in the area, Towry said. “We have a lot of the same challenges Sweet Home has. Economically, we sit next to Moses Lake.”
Moses Lake has an incredible economy, Towry said.
It weathered the 2008 recession probably better than anywhere else in Washington, and Ephrata is kind of a bedroom community.
His experience in recreation is a foundation for his work as an administrator and city manager.
“In order to provide a great leisure experience for people, you have to have a service attitude,” Towry said. “I enjoy that.”
Serving as a city manager “is equally as fun,” he said.
“It’s a different kind of fun. I enjoy the challenge.”
With the new post-recession reality, small towns face challenges everywhere, he said, and it takes a lot of hard work to overcome them. The key is servant leadership, working with people to serve and lead them and working with and supporting department heads to make good decisions.
Outside of work, Towry is looking forward to getting involved in the Sweet Home community.
“I will be involved in soccer,” he said by phone Thursday while driving to Ellensburg, Wash., to watch his daughter’s soccer game, a second-round playoff game in high school varsity soccer. Her team finished the season in a three-way tie for first.
When he looked at Sweet Home, other than the weather patterns, it was the kind of place where he believed he and his wife could pursue new professional challenges.
His wife is a photographer, he said, and Sweet Home provides opportunities for her too.
They have four children, Makayla, a senior; Katelynn, a junior; Owen, eighth grade; and Evan, sixth grade.
When he moves to Sweet Home, Towry plans to coach and be involved in his children’s sports, and he and his family are anxious to check out the trails around Sweet Home. He’s looking forward to being involved in the Oregon Jamboree, which dwarfs a two-day music festival in Ephrata.
The family will attend St. Helen’s Catholic Church, where he attended while visiting Sweet Home for his second interview.
“We’re just excited to come in and be part of the community,” Towry said. “The big reason, quite honestly, it’s time for a change. I’ve been here 12 years.”