The Oregon Association of Municipal Recorders honored longtime Philomath City Recorder Ruth Post with its City Recorder of the Year award at its annual banquet Sept. 22 at Spirit Mountain Lodge in Grand Ronde.
Post, who has worked for the city of Philomath since 1999, was called “one of the shining rubies of OAMR” during an award presentation by the organization’s president, Karin Johnson.
Mayor Chas Jones, City Manager Chris Workman, husband Henry Post, daughters Kathy Stedman and Samantha Maslanik, and longtime friends, Dan and Sandy Gellatly, were on hand to celebrate the occasion.
The OAMR, a professional organization dedicated to promoting governmental relationships and providing educational and training opportunities for the state’s city recorders, said the award “recognizes outstanding service and performance over and above the person’s job description.”
Post has been an active member of the organization since 2002 and served on several committees and in various officer positions, including president in 2009-10. She is currently serving a three-year term as the International Institute of Municipal Clerks Region IX director.
City officials pointed to several examples of Post’s excellence on the job in a nomination letter.
“In March 2020, when the COVID-19 outbreak hit, she did not miss a beat,” Johnson said at the presentation while reading comments from the nomination letter. “She helped the council formulate an emergency resolution and facilitated council meetings virtually online.”
That same year, Post stepped into a leadership role to help the community organize a farmers’ market.
“Given that our city has no grocery store, she recognized people’s interest in creating alternative grocery options to purchase fresh produce,” the nomination letter reads, which follows with details on how she helped establish the market. “The participating vendor count has grown substantially and the market is now in its fourth year of operation. It has proven so popular that the market team has opted to extend the farmers’ market to occur from May through October every year.”
The nomination also included mention of efforts such as helping launch a new city website in December 2020 that improved accessibility to city documents and addition of an inclusivity section that highlights community efforts to embrace diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“I humbly nominate Ms. Post for recognition as the 2023 OAMR Recorder of the Year,” Jones wrote. “If possible, I’d prefer to be able to nominate her as the Recorder of the Century, or decade, but if my only option is the Recorder of 2023, I will settle for such.”
2. PHS student recognition
Philomath High School senior Bailey Bell was recently recognized as a “Commended Scholar” through the National Merit Scholarship Program, Principal Mark Henderson announced.
“Those being named Commended Students have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success,” NMSC said through a release. “These students represent a valuable national resource. Recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role their schools play in their academic development, is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation.”
According to a release from the nationwide organization, based in Evanston, Illinois, Bell is among 34,000 students to receive the recognition “for their exceptional academic promise.”
“Although they will not continue in the 2024 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards, Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 students who entered the 2024 competition by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.”
3. Lincoln City beach access
Finally, in some news that might interest those who like to access the beach with their vehicles, the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Commission voted to allow beach driving to continue in fall, winter and spring at one access point in Lincoln City but will prohibit it year-round at the other starting Oct. 1 due to ongoing safety issues.
Motor vehicles will be allowed to access the ocean shore in Lincoln City at Northwest 15th Street and drive 150 feet in either direction from Oct. 1 to April 30.
Motor vehicles will be prohibited year-round from driving on the ocean shore at Northwest 34th Street. Safety concerns included crowding, a lack of separation of pedestrians and vehicles, and the risk of injury to visitors playing in the stream directly below the access point.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).