CRESWELL – Creswell’s newest city manager shared insight into his role for 2025. Originally from Iowa, Vincent Martorello was appointed to Creswell’s position in May. He discussed some of his accomplishments during his short time as city manager and what he is looking forward to in 2026.
Martorello first talked about a recent $30,000 grant the city received for downtown businesses.
“It will allow us to work with business owners to start the process of looking at facades and beautification of some of the buildings. We are really excited about that,” he said. “The goal is to start addressing some long-range efforts to do some nice beautification and facade improvements.”
He mentioned that his leadership style brought different expectations for staff members and that he wants “to make sure we are professional, we are transparent, and we are communicating well.”
He said he is direct and transparent, believing that if a mistake is made, an apology is in order, or that he should be held accountable.
“Creswell is small, for me, it’s like we’re small, but we’re mighty. So when we’re at the table, we will have an equal of a voice with the county or with the state. I don’t want to be measured on, well, you only have 5,800 people. I want to be measured on what we’re doing and look at how we are providing for our community,” Martorello said.
In 2016, Martorello was the superintendent of Willamalane Park & Recreation District. When he switched to a city manager position, a big adjustment for him was taking on HR responsibilities for himself.
“I’ve been involved in HR in my previous employment. I’ve always had an HR director who was a peer or who reported to me. So having HR responsibilities for myself, I had to dust off some memory,” he said. “That’s been the biggest adjustment for me, embracing that role and really being comfortable with not being comfortable.”
Martorello said he is looking forward to next year’s community event calendar.
“We have a couple of staff here working on the details of what events they think we can support each year, and the ones that they think would bring the community together,” he said. The calendar would include events like the Creswell Chamber’s Fourth of July event, the Fall Festival at the airport, and the winter Christmas lights event.
“One idea is a Farm-to-Table event where we would close down a portion of the street outside of City Hall, bring in vendors as a way to kick off the Creswell Farmers Market, and have more exposure to the farmers market. Working with the farmers market, my hope is to bring them to a downtown location.”
The current farmers market takes place behind the library.
“I am working with the school. They have culinary students there, so bring them over and maybe have them chop fresh vegetables. I would love to have a cooking demonstration, because what I found out is that a lot of people, because of access to food, and especially fresh vegetables and fresh food, don’t know how to cook fresh vegetables or what to do with them,” Martorello said.
