Ephrata council offers appreciation for Adkinson

EPHRATA — The Ephrata City Council awarded former Interim City Administrator Kurt Adkinson with a trophy honoring his service to the community during its July 19 meeting now that new City Administrator Ray Towry is fully engaged in the city’s top administrative position.

“We want to make sure that Kurt understands just how much his involvement with us (meant to Ephrata) and how important that was, and what a necessary step that needed to be done in the transition,” Mayor Bruce Reim said prior to awarding the crystalline trophy to Adkinson.

Adkinson served the city in the interim role after former City Administrator Mike Warren retired. Both Adkinson and Warren had also previously served as chief of the Ephrata Police Department. Reim said the council had gone through an exhaustive process to find a full-time staff member, eventually selecting Towry, but the process had taken quite a while to get to the right candidate.

“Kurt stepped up and said that he would be willing to help out with that transition until we got a new administrator,” Reim said. “And for us, it was a blessing.” Reim thanked Adkinson for his leadership during his time with the city, both as police chief and interim city administrator.

“We have gone through quite a bit of transition in the last few years, with everything from COVID, to employees, to all sorts of things, and a big part of it has been the need for leadership and the need for an interim – or a position of consistency. … We had the pleasure of dealing with Kurt here as police chief and as interim city administrator,” Reim said.

For his part, Adkinson said he had enjoyed his time with the city and praised staff and council for their dedication to the community.

“If the community only knew – and I know some of the community does, but a lot of the community does not – the twenty-four-seven commitment to keeping this place up and running and providing the quality of life (Ephrata offers),” Adkinson said.

R. Hans “Rob” Miller may be reached at editor@columbiabasinherald.com. He lives in Ephrata with his wife Brandee and their three dogs, Cinnamon, Pepper and Draco.

Staff appreciation

During the July 19 city council meeting, Mayor Bruce Reim gave a shout out to staff who have been with the city for a significant number of years.

40 YEARS

Rolo Garcia

30 YEARS

Christian Roeder

Joe Downey

Troy Zerb

20 YEARS

Rod Virden

15 YEARS

Ryan Harvey

Billy Roberts

Stephen Grout

Ron Sell