Candidates Enter Race

WAITSBURG -- Waitsburg voters, who elect their mayor and council members every year under the town's territorial charter, are expected to have some options on and off the ballot this April.

Mayor Walt Gobel and four of the current five council members are running again after a caucus meeting at Larry and Deanne Johnson's house last week for the Truth & Trust slate that was first elected to office two years ago.

Ballots for the election will go our Friday or Monday for the April 2 election. As of Tuesday morning, no there had not yet been any formal declarations of candidacy to the city. The last day to declare is Thursday.

Two-term Council Member Orville Branson has decided to retire from the council, but Marty Dunn, Kevin House, Karl Newell and Scott Nettles are running again. A fifth candidate, K.C. Kuykendall, has also decided to throw his hat in the ring with the Truth & Trust slate.

"They (other candidates) felt I could add value to the process," Kuykendall said.

Former mayor Markeeta Little Wolf said in an interview last week that she will not put her name on the ballot, but "if a majority of Waitsburg voters" write her name in she will serve.

Two other Waitsburg residents, former council member and mayoral candidate Bart Baxter and Betty's Diner owner Tifanny Laposi, said they will run for city council this spring.

"It's time for a change," Baxter said. "I'm tired of our (utility) rates going up and pool hours being cut. I'm tired of nothing happening (to promote growth). We have an awesome town and fairgrounds and we do nothing to promote it."

Gobel and those who support him and the council incumbents, said the mayor and council have done what they can with a limited budget in touch economic times, though they agree more can be done to bring more business to town.

"It's been a tough year for us budget wise," Gobel said. "New projects are always a good idea, but we need funding first. It (2012) will be a tough year for us. I hope we can 'maintain' (services) without raising taxes."

Despite financial restraints, the city has been able to check off a number of project boxes on an ongoing list of improvements, most of which were initiated by previous councils or proposed by City Manager Randy Hinchliffe, Gobel said.

These include 7th Street repairs and clean up of the Touchet levees required by the U.S. Corps of Engineers. Under the new administration, the streetscape that was improved under Little Wolf's time as mayor was brightened up even more with welcoming banners, a business sign on the corner of Preston and Coppei and flower baskets.

"A lot of people appreciate what Walt and the other council members have done," said Johnson, a former council member who co-hosted last week's caucus.

Former council member Leroy Cunningham, however, said the current mayor and council don't do enough to help stimulate economic growth and development.

"We need new leadership," he said.

Cunningham said he welcomes the possible addition and abilities Kuykendall might bring to the council. He also appreciates the energy Baxter and Laposi would contribute, as well as supports the return of Little Wolf as mayor.

Cunningham and Johnson both said the addition of a female council member would be good for the city's government, bringing more diversity.

Johnson and Gobel said Kuykendall impressed them and the other Truth & Trust members who spoke to him before the caucus.

Kuykendall, 45, is a professional mechanical engineer who works as director of energy sustainability for VISTA Engineering in the Tri Cities. He and his family moved to Waitsburg almost two years ago because of family ties to northeast Oregon, and because they were drawn to the town's school system and other community amenities for their six children.

" When we first drove through Waitsburg, we felt this was a community we'd like to settle down in," said Kuykendall, whose wife Kris has family in Athena, Ore. "I have always been involved in local politics in one capacity or another."

Kuykendall was born in Reno, but moved to Oregon's Willamette Valley in grade school. He graduated from Canby High School in 1984 and attended Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore., from which he received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering .

After graduation, he worked for a decade in the Vancouver, Wash.,-area semi conductor industry before moving to Colorado Springs to help start new wafer fabrication facilities.

He switched to consulting in energy and sustainability after he and his wife started a family.

Although Kuykendall describes himself as a proponent of "small government," he sees opportunity for city leaders to articulate and implement a long-range economic development game plan.

"It's crucial to define a vision and pursue it through a process the community as a whole can get behind," he said.

Kuykendall was involved for two decades in Colorado Springs' economic development, government effectiveness and watershed management efforts as a volunteer member of various committees.

In Waitsburg, he serves on the county and city planning committees. He is a member of the administrative board of the First Christian Church and is the treasurer of the Alliance For A Livable Sustainable Community in the Tri Cities.

The challenge he sees for Waitsburg is to maintain a healthy economic development engine to offset the burden placed on residents through property taxes, which are among highest in Eastern Washington.

The answer, in Kuykendall's view, is a business-friendly environment that encourages commerce on Main Street that generates more sales tax revenue to help cover city programs and initiatives.

That in turn should be complemented by an effective search for state and federal funding supporting improvements to roads, power and communications. Already, Waitsburg's commerce downtown has picked up with new businesses and city government should continue to support its development.

Like Baxter, Kuykendall sees a role for the council to take a more active role in promoting municipal assets like the fairgrounds through outreach to potential users throughout the region. But he sees the day-to-day advocacy more as a chamber of commerce type function.

By contrast, Baxter believes the council needs to step in and either commit itself or city resources to promoting the use of the race track, fairgrounds and other city assets that can help generate traffic and business sales.

Baxter, a former contractor who hails from La Conner, operates Betty's Diner, the 1950s-style restaurant on Preston Avenue.

The restaurant is owned by Laposi, his partner and a real estate appraiser for Walla Walla County.

"As a new business owner, I want to have a voice on the council," Laposi said, supporting Baxter's notion that the entire community benefits from more business traffic generated by events whose creation, implementation and promotion can be initiated by the council and/or the city.

The Times hopes to feature more details about the background and candidacy of Baxter and Laposi in next week's edition.