Published in the West Linn Tidings on June 4, 2015:

I want to thank everyone who took the time to speak with me at their doorstep, living room or kitchen table over the last three months of my campaign for mayor.  Although the election didn’t go my way, I will continue to put families first in West Linn as a council member.

We live in a special town. That’s the reason that more than 11 years ago my wife and I chose West Linn to raise our family. I value our distinct characteristics.  I’ll continue to move the Arch Bridge concept plan forward, address sidewalk and pathway connections and plan on replacing aging infrastructure. I am pleased that we will continue to live here for years to come.

Last week we were reminded how important a safe and secure infrastructure really is. On May 26, an outage at one of our water pump stations caused a drop in water pressure in the Rosemont pressure zone, which triggered the need to test the water and a boil water notice for 2,346 residents in that area.

I would like to thank the city’s Public Works Department for their fast action fixing the issue at the pump station, flushing the air out of the water lines and getting water samples to the lab quickly. And I would like to commend the staff at City Hall, Public Works and Police Department who handled the deluge of calls and inquiries from the public.

The prompt actions of the Public Works Department led to clean water results from the lab just 24 hours later. I’ve seen time and time again, that city staff works to operate and manage the city’s water system with safety as a top priority. As we enter into a new chapter of city government leadership, I’d like to reiterate how thankful I am for our hard-working staff who dropped thousands of boil notices on doorsteps by hand, and answered phone calls and emails promptly despite the enormous volume. We are blessed to have a city that works so well, and I hope that moving forward we can continue to provide the sort of teamwork we saw last week.

Examples like this also teach us that without continued investment in our infrastructure, public health and safety are at risk. We must continue dedicating funding to update our systems, address aging pipes and replace the century-old Bolton Water Reservoir.

Everyone deserves access to clean water, safe streets and a city government that works for them. Here in West Linn we may take that for granted now and then, because we have dozens of dedicated men and women working tireless to provide consistent livability for all of us.

Please let last week’s boil notice be a reminder that we need to support our city staff with the tools they need to provide clean drinking water to our neighborhoods.

Thank you for your patience during last week’s challenges. I look forward to addressing the issue of aging infrastructure, and thank you for the opportunity to serve.