Rec Sports
Outgoing Othello mayor says time in office taught some lessons
OTHELLO — Outgoing Othello Mayor Shawn Logan said his time in office has reinforced some things he already knew and taught him some new lessons, too.
“Othello has nice people in it. Really good people. And we really are a family-friendly, youth sports, agriculture, largely Hispanic community,” he said. “I got to know my community better. And the other thing that I was learning is that this town has a lot of kids in it.”
Logan was defeated earlier this year in a bid for his fourth term as mayor. He was first elected to the mayor’s job in 2014. Logan said his motivation was to help Othello grow and improve, and that continued to be his focus. The question, he said, was how to do it.
“People want to make an investment in Othello, build homes, make improvements (including) infrastructure improvements. But the thing that we found out was, our water supply was a major obstacle,” Logan said. “This was about 11 years ago. Currently, we rely 100% on water from the Wanapum aquifer, and our static water levels in all our city wells are dropping just like they are in many places in eastern Washington. But what we did is, we developed a long-term strategy to secure Othello’s future.”
The strategy involved finding an alternative source of water that was easy to access.
“We wanted to bring in surface water from the El 68 (irrigation) canal, treat it to Class A drinking water standards and create an aquifer storage and recovery system,” Logan said. “And this put us at the forefront of modern water supply innovation. And so, you know, so we did lots of studies. We took local money from our budget. We received a lot of state and federal investments in it.”
It’s been a long process – Othello is still working on getting the money to design the facility and will need to find money to build it. Logan said there were some lessons in that process.
“That’s (another) thing I learned, it is difficult to finish a project. A lot of people start projects but finishing them is really difficult because it takes a lot of effort. And a lot of people don’t want to put in that kind of effort,” he said.
He cited the project to build the Iron Horse Playground in Lions Park as an example.
“The reality is, is that there are a lot of details. This is a public project. This takes a lot of time, a lot of effort,” Logan said. “You have architects, you have playground experts, you have different contractors, and then you have (the Recreation Conservation Office). They are monitoring your project, and you have to build it according to the grant specifications that you applied for.”
Recreation for children and teens is important to the community, he said, something he heard frequently from Othello residents.
“There were some attempts to do things, but there just never seemed to be anything of substance that was done,” he said.
With some effort, things started to happen, he said. City officials found some opportunities and were able to access them, he said.
“What came together is that we could make improvements. We received money. We fell into certain categories when we applied for state money because of our demographic, and we were able to do some tremendous projects over the last number of years,” Logan said. “The playground and the four court outdoor basketball courts, futsal court, the new baseball playfield and concession stand and announcer stand, the splash park that’s going to be built by this summer. There’s still hope that we might even get the money we had applied for (to build) a playground at Kiwanis Park, and we’re putting basketball courts up there for others to play basketball. And youth soccer. Soccer has overtaken (other sports) as the biggest sports in Othello, both youth and adult.”
Logan said the improvements wouldn’t have been possible without the support of city employees and Othello City Council members.
“I am proud of what we’ve done. I couldn’t have done all this without the people that work with me. And the city council that I’ve had – they are excellent. My department heads are excellent people. They understand government, they understand their role, and it has just been a pleasure to work with people like that,” Logan said.
City employees are willing to ask questions, he said, brainstorm with him when it comes to solving problems – and were willing to work with him when he came up with new projects.
“Really, it’s been a lot of fun to work here. It was fun to come to work every day,” he said. “We had a lot of fun, and we got a lot of work done, because people came here and they wanted to work.”
