Nichols faces Vehrs for Woodway mayor

Published 6:50 am Monday, March 3, 2008

Beside being the Town of Woodway’s motto, “The Quiet Place” sums up the election season there, too.

Never a hotbed of political rivalry, Woodway had nary a race on the September primary ballot. For the general election Nov. 8 the only contested race is that between incumbent Mayor Carla Nichols and Windermere real-estate agent Terry Vehrs.

Three of the five council seats are up for election this fall. Running for four-year terms are incumbents Robert Schillberg, position 1; Kent Saltonstall, position 2; and William W. Anderson, position 3. Anderson was appointed last June to fill a council vacancy.

The mayor and council positions are unpaid.

Nichols, 58, has served as mayor of the bucolic, higher-end community of 430 households for five years. Prior to that, she was on the town council. She and her husband have resided there for 16 years. They have three sons.

Woodway is 100 percent residential, with licensed, in-home businesses in only about 25 households, Nichols said. That, she continued, brings challenges because property taxes are just about the only way Woodway has to pay for essential services.

She promises continuation of financial forecast models that give town leaders good information on the budget and financial resources.

Nichols names developing Woodway Reserve into a park for recreational and educational purposes as high on her priority list. Land acquisition, she noted, recently was completed, thanks in part to a $1.7 million grant she was instrumental in landing.

Heavily wooded Woodway currently does not have a developed park.

She said she also wants to continue laying the groundwork for Woodway’s involvement in the future residential development of the nearby Point Wells property.

“We would like to annex it … we would look right into it and the lights at night so it affects us,” Nichols said of the 90 upland and waterfront acres currently in unincorporated Snohomish County.

Nichols figures she puts an average of 15-20 hours per week into her volunteer mayoral job. She and her husband, both of whom are retired, take two extended sailing vacations of four-to-six weeks a year. The mayor said she schedules major town business for the times she is home and relies on her council mayor pro tempore to fill in while she is away.

Hoping for a change in occupancy in Woodway’s town hall is Vehrs, 44. He is running on the intention of restoring the “small-town, customer-service atmosphere where government is here to serve the citizens of Woodway.”

Vehrs, who chairs the Edmonds Public Facilities District and its Edmonds Center for the Arts project, has lived in Woodway 11 years. He and wife Lara have three children.

Among his immediate concerns is that Woodway should pay for full-time, around-the-clock police protection. “Having no police protection during the night makes no sense,” observed Vehrs, who pointed to nighttime car prowls and burglaries as evidence of the need.

Woodway, he said, currently has a 20-hour-per-month police chief and several part-time officers, but that’s not enough coverage.

On the subject of differences between the candidates, Vehrs responded, “I do not feel the need to micro manage the citizens’ lives on their land. I trust our citizens’ ability to make wise choices when it comes to the land they own and to their community.”

Hoping to return to the Woodway Town Council is Schillberg, a former Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney and South District Court Judge. Now retired, he has lived in Woodway since 1982.

He favors “preserving the character of the town…keeping the taxes down … while building a surplus reserve for anticipated expenses and emergencies.”

Also running for re-election is Saltonstall, a retired orthopedic surgeon who has lived in Woodway since 1976.

A member of the town council since 1988, he shared that he considers preserving the “forested and private character of the town” and financial discipline his priorities.

Anderson, who moved from Edmonds to Woodway 16 years ago, retired from Morgan Stanley after 34 years in the investment field.

Among his community service is involvement on the Washington State University Foundation Board of Trustees, for which he chaired the investment committee and oversaw WSU’s endowment.

Maintaining the character and natural beauty of Woodway as well as its long-term fiscal health are what Anderson named as his priorities.