 My name is Loree Linder. I started with, I was born in Eagle Point. My husband was born in Eagle Point also. And I ran for council first in 1984. And I was always interested and I went to council meetings and stuff. I had a pretty good idea of what was going on for a while. And I became kind of disgruntled with a couple of things. So I decided to run for the council first. This town was just important. I mean, I had a lot of friends. I lived out of town. I was born here but I lived out on Agart Road still in Eagle Point address for a long time before George and I were married in 1971. And we bought this house in 1973. But my mom and dad lived across the street. George's brother lived across the street from my mom and dad. And it wasn't a very big town. You couldn't go out to eat without seeing. I miss that. Everybody was your friend. Everybody knew if you were in trouble or had a problem and it wasn't through Facebook or the computer. It was people knowing people. The fact that my brother and his family were killed and they weren't found for six months. That was a really difficult time and the people stood behind us so much. So I ran for council and I tied. And the charter at that time said that a tie was broke by a drawing of lots. And so we had a former mayor who always came to the council meetings. And he always handed out dumb-dumb suckers to the council when he came in. And I wasn't on the council yet but I was at the meetings and so when it came up that we had tied and how were they going to break the tie. Somebody suggested we put two dumb-dums in a box and hold the box up and whoever, we put a red one and a green one and whoever gets the green one breaks the tie. So it was a big joke that I was the dumb-dumb that got the dumb-dumb. And that's how I originally got on the council. And I served two years on the council before I ran for mayor in 1986. And it was in 1986 that we passed the tax base, 86 or 87. I think it was 86 because my grandson was born in Eureka and I was down there calling up here on election to see if we had passed it. So those were a couple of interesting things that were... So Stephanie was elected mayor? Stephanie had been elected mayor and I got newspaper clippings that would tell me that I'm old. I can't remember exactly when she resigned as mayor and it was kind of a hassle too. And so we appointed Rose Graper as she wasn't on the council or anything. She was just a citizen and she had been on the council before to serve as mayor till the end of Stephanie's term. And then I ran for mayor at the end of Stephanie's term. Was it a close election? No, not really at all. I'm trying to think who I ran against, good lord. Because you were the third woman in a row. Right, but actually the fourth with Rose being appointed. So anyway that's when I started as mayor with a lot of big ideas. I got the Christmas decorations done which doesn't mean anything now but it was all done with no taxpayer dollars. And it brought a lot of pride to a lot of people that helped put them up every year. Now the city has a bucket truck and puts them up. And I think that the main street and what they've done with the lights and I just think that's incredible. I give them so much credit for the vision to do it when they had the money to do it. Well I felt like we needed a tax base that the city would live within because every year they had to go to the voters for the budget to pass the budget. And I felt that the reason that it hadn't been done is because people felt like there was waste, whether there was or not. They felt like there was waste and these were people that had lived here a long time. And a lot of them were upset when they removed the tax base. And it was really hard for the people, the police department, everybody to plan when they didn't know whether it was going to, didn't know if it was going to do life first. Whether you were even going to have a police department or anything. So that was one of my goals, was to pass a tax base that was reasonable and have enough, I guess, integrity to say, I think we can live within this and it shouldn't be raised and it has never been raised since. The evaluation and the growth has supported the tax base and so I walked, well we split it up with a council and myself visiting every house, explaining what we were working for and why. I have to say it was mostly me at the time because it was hard for other people to get out and Bill Kurtz visited a lot of people. Anyway, in 1986 we passed a new tax base and that was something that was important to me and I think the way, I think we did it about right because the growth has supported it. Right now the fire district costs more per thousand than it was costing for the city with their own fire department. I mean I realize times have changed and all that but I think the city has kind of kept pace with the growth and been able to live within that tax base. And they've taken, there's a percentage that they can take every year but they haven't had to pass another one. Let's put it that way and I think that's a good thing. And I can't remember exactly, they assessed every house integral point. I can't remember how much money to hook into this regional sewer but they never did hook into the regional sewer. As a matter of fact, later, yeah we won't talk about that but anyway I felt that that money should go back to the people that paid in until they did have something to hook up. And I was probably really ignorant and naive but it just didn't seem right to me that they took, and there were a lot of people that felt that they put it, I think they put it on our water bill. That they put, took the money but they never hooked up and I want them to refund the money and they did eventually. That was probably one of the biggest things that I was disgruntled about. The rest I really felt like, you know, if people pitched in and did things themselves, the tax rate wouldn't have to go up. That we'd never had, we'd have one Christmas decoration over the top of the, right in front of the Old City Hall. And I wanted to see this decorate for Christmas and Shirley Oswald, I went to the Community Association then and asked for support. And Shirley Oswald at the flower shop started making swags to hang on the, on the pose. And I made stockings, big stockings, I mean they were pretty chancy but we were decorating anyway and there was a lot of community involvement. And I had worked for Bennett Dispatcher for United Telephone before that and had a pretty good rapport with the repairmen and stuff. And I talked them into hanging them with their ladder truck and stuff. And Jackson Electric, Sally Jackson was my very best friend. And they were willing to help and put their ladders up and hang things and stuff. And somebody contacted me from the Bear Creek Shopping Center that they knew that I was involved or whatever. Anyway, they contacted me and they were going to change their decorations and put up different decorations. And wanted to know if we wanted them. And I went down there and hauled every one of them home and they were, the big plastic bells they still use down around in Bobmore Park. There was about 5,000 feet of garland, plastic garland that was dirty and old and neat and all the bells needed. And I washed the garland in my bathtub and drug it through the house and they used to hang it on the front of the stores down in Great Ways Shopping Center. Moving the bridge had been brought to the council. My dates are going to be pretty shady because it had been brought to the council before I even ran for council. There was a group that wanted to move the bridge because at that time the bus barn was on this side of the creek. There was only one bridge across the creek. The school buses had to cross that bridge at the same time kids walking to school were crossing that bridge. It wasn't safe. And somebody, not me, had the idea that there was an opportunity to move that bridge and make it a pedestrian bridge and still save it and that maybe we could get enough grants and raise enough money to do the job. See, I lost it. It had been brought up and the council turned it down and said, No, the city didn't want to be involved in it or anything. So after I was mayor it was brought up again. I was on the bridge committee. We formed a bridge committee and Bud Bowling was on it and Sue Capellus was on it. Ralph Weinerger was on it. I was on it and it was brought before the council. And I'm a little bit shady on that because the city really at that point didn't have any money involved in it or anything. And like 4th of July celebration, everything there was. I was down in the street with a coffee can collecting donations or whatever. We did hit Harry and David, First Interstate, all of us kind of hit. Bud Bowling I knew no hit a machinery company out on the highway and they donated big. But we didn't really have enough money to do all of it. Ralph Weinerger ended up taking out a loan to finance to start. And it's hard for me to remember all the details of that. But it was pretty much done and then they were out of money. And Richard Vox, because they were having Richard Vox, there was something at the time that the city could act as its own contractor and not have to pay prevailing wage to and Bud Bowling agreed to it. And I think Reed Murphy pretty much donated everything that he did. And that's how we stretched the money to go further. And so the city at that point was involved. And some of the things I did as mayor, I wrote a thank you note to every donation that came in from on my own money. Every donation, if we had an address and it was a check, I wrote them a thank you. And I kept City Hall hours on Tuesdays. And that was a really neat thing because I got to really know the employees. We got to be really good friends, you know, because I was down there. I painted the city. She wasn't three-quarter then. Carmen Bernhardt's daughter was a pretty good artist. And we went down there one night and painted a Christmas scene on the front window of the old City Hall. And I had to stand on the desks and wash it off when it was Christmas was over. There was always a birthday I baked a cake for every city employee's birthday. Or if it was a council, I baked cookies. I mean, things were just different then. It was special. The friendships that I made, it was special. You also talked about the golf course. It was just in the planning stage, which basically, I think George was on the council when he filled in for, I think it was Ralph Barker. More when that was going on because any decision the city made was a quasi-judicial decision. And we couldn't be involved in the planning commission process or shouldn't have been. And shouldn't have been discussing anything other than what the developer was bringing before us. So I didn't have a lot of input or anything into that. I think after I was mayor is when most of that came before the council. I felt I supported it a hundred percent. Why did you support it? Because I could see growth happening that we weren't ready for as far as house building and the sewer system and the water system. And that we weren't ready for. And there's a beautiful orchard up there that if we're going to develop something that will feed the tax base and add value to the city, I'd rather see that property used for something that was going to bring people in that was going to do good for the city than put a bunch of houses up there that I didn't feel we were ready, that I didn't feel we had the infrastructure for and didn't feel. So I supported it basically philosophically very much. I didn't have a lot to do with any of the decision making about it. But I supported it then and I think it was a good choice. Was it generally the settlement in the town as well? At that time there wasn't a lot of sentiment brought up about it because it really wasn't coming before the council. A lot of the things that were coming before the planning commission were not all that well known at the time. So I can't imagine that most people didn't support it though because that was back in the day where we left the town the way it was. If you'd have told me that all the building that's gone on and going on now was going to happen, but it said no way. The infrastructure that's been added, the sewer lines and the water were now in the sewer district rather than having it go into a lagoon down and off the highway. We just weren't ready and I think that made the city ready to grow. Now that could be something that I'm not... No, I think it's grown pretty orderly. I think there's things that need attention. Basically, I'm kind of a... The impression we give people when they come in is really important. And we may come in by Ed Dayhacks and down there on that end of town where there's trailers and stuff set in there that are illegal and messes. And that's not in the city. And I really strongly think the counties should have taken a stand on that a long time ago. And I know Ed Dayhack. I've known him for years. And he's done a lot for the city. He did a lot for the bridge. But I hope he's 100 years old. I hope that the city will annex that in. I can understand why it's kind of an hard thing. He's 100 years old. He's a great supporter of the town. But it would have been easier if the county would have came in and settled that whole thing out there. But the county has not had the best record at a lot of that out on Biggin Brown Road and stuff that went on for a long time. I was in favor of White City being incorporated. And I still feel like rather than get the services the way they got them without the tax base and stuff, I still feel like it should be incorporated. But that's my personal opinion and has nothing to do with being mayor. It was awful. It was terrible. So many people from Eagle Point have been killed. My mom was killed on Highway 62. But that was after it was mostly completed. But you couldn't get them to do anything about it. And there was one developer in town that told me later that he got really upset with me. They were going to, if my memory serves me right, they were going to take money from the Highway Fund for something at Crater Lake. And I gave a speech before the Highway Commission that to make people drive through an obstacle course and put their lives in danger to get to Crater Lake, let's make it accessible and safe for people to go to Crater Lake. That was one of my arguments at the time. And a developer in town told me later, he said, I thought you were so wrong. I mean, we're talking a small time developer that nobody was going to want to move to Eagle Point with everything you were saying about the safety of the highway. And now I see you were right. That meant a lot to me. But it was blazing. A lot of things that just really hadn't been blazed. The mayor of Eagle Point, Donna Butchano was the first one, even though I totally didn't agree with her about biomass. But she was the first one that stepped outside of Eagle Point and started voicing her opinion about something. And she was passionate about it. And I respect her for... That probably set an example, even though I disagreed with the subject of, set an example for me that you couldn't be mayor and not be involved outside the city limits, whether it was at the state legislature or the transportation department or the Rogue Valley Council of Governments. And there wasn't a mayor's association at all at the time. I kind of put that together. And we all did it. I think we all did. I know I did. The mayor's hosted at a meeting. It might be a lunch or something. I'm pretty sure that some of them in their city paid for it. But I hosted it. I paid for it. I wrote up $4,000 one year, just in tax deductions for things that I had done. And there was no pay for the council. I think at that time the water bill was like about, basic bill was like about $15 a month. And you got your water bill paid. It was the only compensation that there was for being mayor or council. And I was good with that. I paid all my expenses. When I went to Salem to anything or anything that I did, I paid my own expenses. It wasn't as expensive as it is now or I wouldn't be able to. But I felt like it's, you shouldn't be serving. The word is service. That if you're not willing to give and maybe sacrifice a little bit to serve, that's not really service to me. And I felt like that's the way it should be at the time. And I was doing a lot of things that nobody in the past had really done that I should be willing to. And I could eat at McDonald's and drive my car to Salem. And, you know, when I became involved with the Rogue Valley Council of Governments, I went to the League of Cities conference twice that Rogue Valley Council of Governments paid for. And that was in Washington, D.C., which was an incredible experience for me to get to do. And I was pretty active in it at the time. Were you the only woman? Were there many women in government? In the Rogue Valley Council of Governments. Any of it? State level? Oh, state level. Yeah, there were some. Rogue Valley Council of Governments, I'm trying to, I'm thinking I was kind of, because it was basically made up of the cities in the county that belonged to Rogue Valley Council of Governments. I was a really strong pusher and advocate for following public meeting law and for educating yourself about public meeting laws. And they're pretty simple and they're pretty straightforward. And the laws about executive sessions and what can be discussed in executive sessions and those kind of things are what makes integrity in the organization complete, completely. And I was a real sticker about it. And when I saw that public meeting law after I was mayor had been violated and I knew what I went before the council and in my words from back then, nailed them on it. And I'm proud of that. More than specific things that I did, I feel like I never sacrificed my integrity for anything. I was raised that way and that was something that was really important to me. And back in my time as mayor and I don't know because I've been to a council meeting, I don't even know the people on the council. I knew Bob Russell and Leon when they were mayor and I had good relationships with them and still do. I think that's the role of the leader to make everybody know that they're not going to sacrifice their integrity and most people will follow it and they'll respect you for it. But I just think it's a really important precedent to set as a leader. I don't care if it's the PTA or the Historic Society or what it is, any government thing is there's public meeting laws and I think a lot of people aren't educated about and then they get, let's say, an argument on philosophy or whatever. I think that's what tends to make people talk about things that needed to be discussed, that were discussed in an executive session outside of an executive session and those kinds. I think those are habits that are formed because emphasis isn't put on and education isn't put on knowing what they are and stopping before you've messed up. And I think this is kind of the subject that I did the Jackson County Administrator and I can't think of his name right now and he was administrator for a long time. I had a good rapport with him and when I was very first mayor I went in there to talk to him about something and he said, you know something that I've always done and people really liked him this was when he first came here that something that I've always done is I've always kept a journal during the week of what I did, who I saw, who I and turned it in to the well the county commissioners at the next meeting of what I had been doing in between and I thought that was the best idea ever and I did that from then on I used to have all the minutes of all the meetings and all of the, you know, my what I had done during that two weeks and sometimes it was just little funny things but sometimes it was things that never came up in the meeting that I had done or discussed with somebody or whatever that wasn't anything that I couldn't discuss but you wouldn't have discussed it because you were at the meeting doing business of the day right then and I don't know whether anybody has ever done it since but I think it built a rapport and I think it made them see that I thought it was a job and I was working at it you know, I haven't seen a lot that has bothered me since my time a little bit but I'd like to get positive to where we are now in comparison to where we were then and I don't think the answer is this was a hard lesson for me to learn that everything's important while you're there once you're no longer there it takes about twenty minutes for everybody to forget the things that were super important to you and that is not I think some of them stayed and well they have like the decorations and things have moved forward but it and it is time for new ideas but I really think you have to give credit that it's not about you it's about the ideas that move on and the traditions that you've started from your ideas other than that it's probably going to go in another direction and probably needs to it's not and those are things that I didn't really know what I was doing I just knew I cared a whole bunch that I loved this town that I loved what the people had done for me when I was in need and that I did the best I knew how to do at the time