Richard Vettervall – Mayoral Candidate
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My name is Richard Zettervall, and I want to be the Mayor of Creswell.
My wife and I decided to move to Creswell in 2012 and build our retirement home. We love Creswell, its people, the great small-town atmosphere and, of course, the best July 4th parade and celebration in all of Oregon!
I was born in Portland in 1952 to a military family, my father being a Marine Corp drill sergeant. I moved to Eugene in 2004. I worked 37 years in commercial printing in the Portland area. In my last position I supervised eight to 10 people in a department that produced in excess of $1.5 million in revenue.
Prior to being a city councilor, I volunteered on two city committees, the Budget and Public Safety Advisory committees. In November 2015, I applied for the vacancy on city council. I accepted the offer and was sworn into office on Jan. 12, 2015.
It has been my honor to have served as a city councilor and to be voted unanimously to be the city council president for two consecutive years. I have served as the Creswell representative on the Lane Council of Governments (LCOG) and Board of Directors for almost two years.
This month I accepted an invitation from the LCOG board chair and LCOG executive director to serve on the executive board. If elected to the Creswell mayor position, I will be able to continue to represent Creswell on the LCOG Board of Directors and Executive Board.
In my time on city council, I developed a productive working relationship with our entire city staff and management. I served on many city committees and am currently the Public Safety Committee (PSC) Chair. I developed working relationships with local business owners, elected officials at the local, county, state and federal levels. Creswell will benefit from my connections when I become Creswell’s mayor.
I have been involved and successful in many important issues in Creswell, which include:
Part of the successful effort to put a Public Safety Levy before the voters in 2015, giving voters the chance to decide the level of law enforcement they could afford;
Served as an integral part of the creation and recent adoption of the Creswell Emergency Operations Plan;
Served as citizen volunteer on the South Lane County Fire & Rescue and Creswell Fire Station Advisory Committee;
Worked alongside city staff with several potential property developers of the former Bald Knob Mill site. These challenges are going to be solved going forward;
Found success working with a multi-jurisdictional collaboration, private citizens and local businesses to install street lights along Niblock Lane to Creswell High School;
Brought forth a new council request to begin to have city staff work with the Neighborhood Economic Development Corporation (NEDCO) to explore land trust housing as a viable option to Creswell’s affordable housing issue;
And as PSC chair, I successfully brought forth the idea and organized Creswell’s first-ever Emergency Preparedness Fair – a huge success!
The future of Creswell holds several challenges that I have identified as priorities to address as the mayor, including:
Affordable housing
Creswell is facing the problem of affordable housing, like many other cities. I believe there are options to consider, like land trust housing, urban growth boundary expansion and the Missing Middle Housing concept.
Bald Knob development
An important component of economic development and job creation in Creswell is the development of the commercial and industrial lands, like the former Bald Knob Mill site. This site is one of the largest parcels of industrial land on the I-5 corridor. There are many challenges in this, and I will continue to explore all options to make this happen.
Public safety
Public Safety in Creswell is an extremely important issue. My priority as mayor is a strong law enforcement presence, improved streets and traffic flow from our Transportation System Plan, clean drinking water, improved and upgraded wastewater facilities and emergency preparedness.
Parks for Creswell
With the addition of the new park behind the Baptist Church, this makes the first new park in Creswell south of Oregon Avenue. I am committed to continuing this effort to bring more parks to Creswell. This includes a dog park.
Creswell Airport
It is very important to continue to find a way to bring water and wastewater to the airport. This would lead to further economic development and provide for services to an Emergency Operations Center to locate there.
I want to be your mayor. I feel that my proven leadership, my passion for Creswell and my vision for the future of Creswell will keep Creswell moving forward. I hope that I have earned your confidence as the future Mayor of Creswell and that you will vote for me, Richard Zettervall by Nov. 6. Let’s all work together to build Creswell for the future.
