Ephrata names Towry new city administrator
Ray Towry, who worked for 13 years with the Ephrata Parks and Recreation Department — including as the city’s community services director — has been named as the new city administrator. Towry, who currently is the director of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Santiam in Sweet Home, Oregon, is slated to begin his new job on July 5.
COURTESY PHOTO/RAY TOWRY
EPHRATA — Ray Towry is looking forward to coming back to Ephrata, this time as the city’s new administrator.
“It’s home,” said Towry by phone from his current home in Sweet Home, Oregon. “It’s where I grew up, where my kids spent most of their time growing up.”
Towry, the finalist out of 18 applicants for the city administrator position, is set to start on July 5, and will replace Kurt Adkinson, the city’s acting administrator. He currently works as the director of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Santiam, which serves both Lebanon and Sweet Home, Oregon.
Before that, Towry was city manager for Sweet Home from 2016 to 2022 after working in what is now Moses Lake’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department for four years and then 13 years as community services director with the city of Ephrata.
“Ray’s experience with administrative duties was paramount during his interview,” wrote Ephrata Mayor Bruce Reim in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald. “He brings a strong commitment to the city. I am looking forward to working with Ray as Ephrata grows in the future.”
Towry said he’s excited at the prospect of coming back and working for a city that has contributed so much to his life and career.
“It’s humbling to be entrusted with something so important by people I respect so much,” Towry said. “I feel fortunate. I still have a lot of connections to people in the region and I’m excited to be coming back.”
Adkinson, a 25-year veteran of the Washington State Patrol, was named interim city administrator in November 2022 after a little more than two years as Ephrata’s police chief. Adkinson was appointed following the retirement of Mike Warren, who had himself been Ephrata’s police chief, as city administrator in June 2022.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.