Love keeps the streets plowed in Wilson Creek

WILSON CREEK — It takes a lot of love and a lot of donated labor to make life in a small town like Wilson Creek work, according to the Clerk/Treasurer Kaci Anderson.

“We have a lot of people helping out with snow removal in the winter,” Anderson said. “Because we have one public works employee typically. Sometimes in the summer, we’ll hire on some extra help.”

Sometimes, current events and conditions change that though.

“But in the winter, we have one employee, typically. And it’s a lot of work for one person,” she added.

Mayor Rob Herron, a former wheat farmer and truck driver who now owns Harvest Moon, the town’s only bar and restaurant, said he has spent at least 16 hours this winter plowing snow. He also takes emergency calls during the night – everything from complaints from residents to requests for help during emergencies.

“Basically, there’s no one else to fix problems when things come up,” Herron said of a recent call from the Wilson Creek School District. “They had a major flood up there when they had their pipes break, and they couldn’t get their own valves off. So that means you’ve got to get out and go through and find which valve it is and shut it down.”

Herron said he was working on the issue for three or four hours that morning.

“It’s nothing glamorous. It’s just work,” he said.

Anderson said that’s just a part of how Herron’s role differs from the typical mayor’s position.

“Being mayor in Wilson Creek is different than being mayor most places,” Anderson added.

The volunteer work is necessary because this town of 204 people as counted in the 2020 U.S. census — almost half of the 405 people recorded living in Wilson Creek in 1910 — operates on a shoestring in comparison to many of the other towns of Grant County. In early November, the Wilson Creek Town Council approved a budget of $200,315 to run all of the town’s operations in 2023.

Anderson said she receives a lot of calls complaining about weeds, which the town tackles as it can. The largest item in the 2023 budget is $35,500 to maintain the town’s parks, followed by $30,650 to maintain and operate the water system and $23,500 for garbage collection.

“Park maintenance is a big deal,” Anderson said, noting the town’s children use the parks a lot. “We have a softball field that we maintain because there’s usually a city women’s league that plays and the school uses it for track practice. They don’t have any meets there or anything but the kids practice there.”

Law enforcement is handled by the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, and fire protection by Grant County Fire District 12, she said. In addition to the parks, the town also has a small airstrip used by Big Bend Community College flight students as part of their training program.

“In fact, they’ve been here already this morning,” Herron said of the BBCC pilots in training.

Herron, who has lived in Wilson Creek since 2008, said he likes living in a little place that sits on what he calls the edge of Grant County.

“When I first came to town, I just enjoyed the anonymity of it, you know, to be able to be out here and live in peace and not have to worry. I mean, the kids can ride up and down the streets on their mini-bikes if they want to,” he said.

“You don’t live here on accident. You live here on purpose,” Herron added. “We’re kind of a dying breed.”

However, the town’s smallness, and its place on the edge, means it can be difficult to find people willing and able to work here, Herron explained.

“You don’t have enough money in your budget to entice a higher wage earner. Somebody who’s got all the qualifications already has a good job, they’re already gone,” he said. “We can only afford maybe half that wage here, if not less. And so that’s a real struggle; you have to find somebody that loves the town.”

“They just love the town and want to be helpful,” he added.

In fact, Herron, who is just finishing the first year of his first term, said he had absolutely no desire to be mayor, and originally didn’t run for the office in 2021.

“I did not,” he said. “After you get asked about 10-15 times, you start to see a need there. Basically, I said, if no one’s going to step up, then I will. But I was fairly reluctant. … I got voted in on a write-in.”

“He did it because he cares,” Anderson added.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.