Deer Park Mayoral Candidates Share Common Goal

Deer Park’s three mayoral candidates want to bring the city into the 21st century.

Doug Box, Kathleen Nuffer and Michael Wolfe say the town can no longer afford to be provincial.

The election primary is Sept. 16. The top two vote-getters advance to the November election.

“We need forward movement, progress and growth,” Box said.

Said Nuffer: “It’s time for the mayor to help Deer Park become mature, and I don’t mean old. We need an established presence at the county and state level.”

And Wolfe: “We need more low profile industries. There’s a lack of entertainment and recreation here, and we haven’t added much to give them (businesses seeking to relocate) something to turn their heads.”

Deer Park is going to change regardless of whether its citizens want it to or not. However, residents and merchants have the ability to dictate the kinds of changes that take place, the candidates said.

“I don’t want us to just be a suburb of Spokane in 20 years,” said Box, who currently sits on the city council. “Deer Park needs to have its own identity.

“Change is going to happen. We need to make sure the change is going to benefit the community.”

Nuffer, who was on the Deer Park Planning Commission for six years, wants to see that office and the mayor work more closely on growth issues.

“I would like to see us implement long-range goals and establish specific standards for the city by way of town hall meetings,” she said.

Nuffer said she wants to see Deer Park begin to actively recruit “light-industrial businesses” to establish a larger tax base.

“I think businesses here want to see that, but there’s another group here who wants us to remain a small agricultural community,” Nuffer said. “We need to be somewhere in the middle.”

Wolfe said Deer Park needs a better image to help facilitate growth.

“We’ve got to be pleasing to the eye,” he said. “That starts by keeping City Hall out of the news. Those things keep people away as much as a lack of services.

“We have an airport, a new and improved water and sewer system, railroad, an improving highway system and relatively cheap power. We have a lot of things to offer a commercial entity that can’t be offered anywhere else,” Wolfe said.

Box said the mayor’s post can’t be a cure-all position for all Deer Park’s problems.

“It’s about putting people back in touch with the things that are important to them. The mayor has to play a role in that.”

Box believes Deer Park has gone backward in the past four years at a time when it should have been moving ahead.

“I’m going to try to get done in four years what would probably take eight years to do,” he said. “But that can be done because there is a solid, hard-working staff in City Hall that can do it.”

Nuffer said if elected, she will make sure city ordinances will be administered equally.

For example, Washington Water Power asks that residents refrain from posting notices on power poles. Posting such notices is also a violation of a city ordinance.

Nuffer said it is one that is repeatedly violated and seldom enforced.

“It’s a small example, but the point is, citizens need to know what the rules are. I think the mayor should be a leader in communication.”

Wolfe, who served on the council throughout the ‘80s, said running for mayor is something he has always been interested in doing. He said the time is right for him.

“I take a large interest in Deer Park,” he said. “This is one more way for me to be involved.”

In other city elections, Box’s term on the city council expires. Helen Cragun is running unopposed for that position. And councilwoman Patricia Barden’s term expires. She is running unopposed.

, DataTimes