Decades of consistency

EPHRATA — On a cold winter morning, the executive team gathers as they always do, Tuesday at City Hall. And as they always did, Mayor Bruce Reim listened first — head tilted, eyes narrowed, taking in the latest on crews, contracts, permitting and plans. Only this time, there’s a coda.  

“He gave an official sign-off today,” City Clerk Katie Kapalo said. “It was kind of sad.” 

After 22 years of public service — 12 on the city council and 10 as Ephrata’s mayor — Reim is stepping away. He said he is leaving behind a city that is steady, quietly ambitious, and by most measures, stronger than when he found it. 

“Life is full of value systems,” Reim said. “We create our own from the way we’re raised … When we find people that equalize, then you have a positive relationship. And the people of Ephrata have always been pretty much givers. They’re social people. They like to interact with each other. It’s like one big happy family.” 

Reim moved to Ephrata in 1957 and never really left. He worked “about four blocks from where I grew up,” he said, and his ethos — service over spotlight, substance over slogans.  

Process, not power

Reim’s path to the mayor's office was unexpected.  

“I did not see myself becoming a public official,” he said. “I saw myself more involved with the recreational side.”  

But in the early 2000s — amid budget strain and a reset of city governance — former Mayor Chris Jacobson urged him forward. Jacobson stepped down from his role and encouraged Reim to fill it.  

He was appointed mayor by a 4-3 council vote.  

“The foundation part,” Reim said, was learning “the inner workings of the politics of that — not the power of the politics, but the understanding of process and procedure, and how to get things done.” 

He found the machinery of municipal order “intriguing,” even when it was “kind of boring at times.” Revised Codes of Washington, Washington Administrative Code, policies, procedures — the wonkiness mattered because it served the basics, he said. 

“My representation … was very simple,” Reim said. “Water, sewer, garbage, safety.” Everything else, he added, “we can deal with.” 

Scarcity was a driver during his tenure. 

“Up until about five years ago, there was just no money in our town,” he said.  

The shift to point-of-delivery sales tax — where local purchases from online retailers send tax revenue back to the city — was a “paradigm shift” that gave options, he said. It also gave a chance to finish long-running projects, like the town’s new water tower.  

The tower that ripples 

“The biggest vote we had,” Reim said, “was the actual OK and the kick in the motion to put the water tower in.”  

For residents, the tower is a landmark. For Reim, it’s a hinge.  

“People don’t understand how far-reaching that event was,” he said. “The ripple affects so many other things.” 

Water rights, which are very expensive, were acquired over the years of work, he said.  

“We have been able to get enough water rights to keep our town fairly well supplied for the next 20 or 30 years,” he said.  

The project, a decade in the making, was the product of persistence, coalitions and sticking to planned goals. 

“Goals and completed projects sometimes can be kind of anticlimactic, because it’s the journey, not necessarily the destination,” he said.  

But when the journey ends, he allows himself to look back.  

He points to Grandview Heights and the roundabout by Walmart – and associated work – as additional achievements during his time as mayor. A lot of steady work was required to get those projects in place. 

Grant County Administrator Tom Gaines saw the same pattern and what it took.  

“Your leadership has helped shape a collaborative spirit that has truly benefited our shared community,” Gaines wrote in a statement. “You have listened carefully, debated candidly … and consistently demonstrated a commitment to working together.” 

Culture not credit 

Inside City Hall, Reim’s influence is most apparent in the way people talk about each other.  

Kapalo said Reim leads with humility and without taking credit, preferring to point accolades toward the staff who got the work done. That humility helped morale at City Hall. 

Reim said credit where it’s due is appropriate.  

“I never turned a shovel,” the outgoing mayor said. “I never drove a backhoe. All I did was set margins and point and hopefully hired competent people to take care of it. I am not going to … take credit for something somebody else did.” 

City Engineer Shawn O’Brien credits Reim for backing Ephrata’s decision to bring engineering in-house, rather than relying on outside consultants.  

“His vision … has benefited the city,” O’Brien said. “We’re not relying on consultants … That’s something that will benefit the community for quite a while.” 

Former council member Steve Lovitt described Reim’s signature trait simply: honesty.  

“He was not afraid to say what he thought,” Lovitt said. “I would rather get that than have to guess.” 

Pandemic & transitions 

One of the hardest chapters for Reim was the two-plus years of COVID-19. The decisions were personal for Reim, who bristled at “mandated morality.” He wrestled with masks and closures.  

“My libertarianism is great,” he said. “People are responsible enough to do that on their own level.” 

And yet, inside the organization, the result was notable.  

“We got through COVID and we didn’t lose anybody. Nobody quit; nobody got sick,” Reim said. “We didn’t lose any hours’ work. We didn’t lose a project.”  

He credited the staff and the administrators for keeping things running during that time. 

“Finding out what your community or your constituents want, doing the most good for the most people in the most financially prudent way possible,” Former Police Chief Kurt Atkinson said. “That’s what I saw this man do.” 

The police department’s arc echoed the same trajectory — persistent effort, steady gains.  

“It’s hell out there to find an officer,” Reim said. “Even harder to find a good officer.”  

But the department kept recruiting and graduating classes.  

“For the first time in years, the police department will be fully set,” Jacobson said.  

The Ephrata Police Department shared its own thanks.  

“The growth and progress our police department has experienced would not have been possible without him,” Captain Troy Froewiss wrote. 

The people 

If there’s a single thread that held his years together, Reim’s wife, Bev Reim, knows it.  

“He’s going to miss his staff,” she said. “He really enjoys his staff … But the people — he’ll miss the most.” 

Bev said she knows her husband loves Ephrata, explaining how he would come home with stories nightly, sharing with her what he did each day. She said she was an ear for him, listening to the challenges, providing solutions. 

“He’s always been very passionate about it. Everything that he has done, every decision that he’s made has been with the thought of, ‘How will this affect Ephrata?’” Bev said. “He always has the citizens in mind, even if he didn’t agree with the actions needed.”  

Council member Phil Borck called Reim “selfless” and “without agenda.”  

Legacy vs. continuity 

Reim said he prefers to talk about continuity more than legacy.  

He sees “whippersnappers” in the office — “holy smokes, do you know what they’re doing?” — and a city culture which rewards curiosity and collaboration.  

As for what comes next, Reim is both vague and hopeful. 

“I’m not sure what retiring is,” he said.  

He’s considering more service “in different areas,” and some history trips — Bunker Hill, maybe the Ronald Reagan ranch. 

He said he and Bev don’t feel a loss.  

“We kind of like it here,” he said. “That’s part of the deal.” 

When pressed to sum up, Reim stays true to form. He deflects, he thanks, he points to others.  

“Thank you,” he said to the residents. “And the support, and the patience … watching what we do, knowing that it’s not an easy council-mayor-administrative pickup position. We’re always under the spotlight.”  

Then, a final nod to the city as a whole.  

“I’m pretty happy with the way things are going,” he said. “It’s good for them. They’ll be OK.” 

    During former Mayor Bruce Reim’s last council meeting on Dec. 17 Summer Rocheleau gives Reim a gift. Rocheleau has been leading the Pledge of Allegiance for Ephrata City Council for over two years.
  

    Ephrata’s former Mayor Bruce Reim, left, swears in Ephrata Police Department Officer Rebecca Amos in August 2025. The Ephrata Police Department is fully staffed as of December with a couple of officers completing training.