Grays Harbor mayors provide updates, discuss goals

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Greater Grays Harbor, Inc. (GGHI) hosted the 2026 Lunch with the Mayors event at the Rotary Log Pavilion in Aberdeen on Tuesday.

Mayors from seven of the nine Grays Harbor County cities participated in the “roundtable” discussion — Ed Welter of Westport, Tyler Trimble of Montesano, Frank Elduen of Ocean Shores, Ben Winkelman of Hoquiam, Bill Breedlove of Oakville, Linda Springer of Cosmopolis and Douglas Orr of Aberdeen. Mayors Josh Collette of Elma and Brycen Huff of McCleary were unable to attend.

After a welcome message from GGHI CEO Darrin Raines, master of ceremonies Kyle Pauley got things underway by asking the mayors to introduce themselves and talk a little bit about what’s happening in their respective cities.

Aberdeen

Orr spoke about economic investment in Aberdeen, the recent BRIC grant news regarding the levee projects, and revamping holiday decorating efforts.

“This is an exciting year coming up for Aberdeen. We have a lot of money coming into our city for projects. We have our levee project, for which we just found out recently that our BRIC funding has been released. We’re really happy about that, and we’ve already started work on that project. I’m really glad that we actually are getting the funding,” Orr said. “We have our rail separation project coming up. We’ll be starting that in 2027. Later this year, we’ll roll out a new holiday program for our city decorations-wise. We realize that nobody’s going to be able to compete with Montesano, but we’re going to try. We have some sidewalk improvements going on this year. Last year, we put together an economic development advisory committee, and we’re looking into ways that we can better invest in our city for tomorrow as opposed to just keeping that money and slowly whittling it away without having any good investment.”

Cosmopolis

Springer talked about infrastructure, the partnership with Aberdeen for police services, the growing Cosmopolis fire department, and upcoming housing projects.

“I feel like there’s a lot happening in Cosmopolis. We are very fortunate to have great partners. Aberdeen is one of our partners, a sister city that has been there from day one working with us. One of the things that I’d like to say about Cosmopolis is that we are strong and we are resilient and we are going to continue to move forward,” Springer said. “As far as our infrastructure and planning, we just completed the comprehensive stormwater plan. We are working on completing our comprehensive plan. We were very fortunate to bring on a new clerk/treasurer, and very pleased to have her. What we’re looking at is financial processes, increased efficiency, and cost savings. With cost savings, I do have to say, Cosmopolis hasn’t had any reserves. We are finally building reserves.”

Oakville

Breedlove extolled the virtues of small-town living and talked about the school district renovations in Oakville.

“Oakville is a real place. We are in East County, snuggled up against our friends in Thurston County and Lewis County. We are obviously the smallest of the nine category cities, but we’re a thriving city. We have 720 residents now, which is actually the most we’ve ever had. We’re actually growing, which is really nice,” Breedlove said. “We’re in a really interesting position because we actually have that balance that I think a lot of Hallmark movies would want people to envision of the small town charm with actually having infrastructure and things in place. We’re the place where, most of our independent businesses, the proprietors know their customers, the neighbors know their neighbors. So it’s a really neat place and I encourage anyone who hasn’t visited us in a while to come on out.”

Hoquiam

Winkelman said that Hoquiam has numerous projects that are about to come to fruition, including the levees and the pellet mill, and that his administration is trying to invite and entice young people to participate in government.

“We’ve got so many projects that I think we’re starting to see some of them come to fruition, some of them we’ve been working on for 15 to 20 years, and to see them now coming together, I’m feeling kind of spoiled to be the mayor at this time,” Winkelman said. “Obviously, the levee project is huge for us in Hoquiam. Thankfully, we’re getting ready to put that out to bid. That’s going to be really exciting for everyone because it’s the beginning of the end of a really huge project that’s not just for Hoquiam, but for the county. So, I’m excited about that. All of this is coming together at the same time that we’re looking at our comprehensive zoning plan and our comprehensive park plan. It’s a real exciting opportunity to help govern what the city of Hopeland looks like years down the road. … I think it’s really important that we reach out to those late teens and early 20s people that are in our community and let them know that they can have an impact.”

Ocean Shores

Elduen discussed the walk-in clinic that’s due to open in April, the new south fire station, erosion and fire break issues, the soon-to-be-new chief of police, new internet service providers in town, issues with hotels, loss of BRIC grant funding for proposed tsunami towers, a new city hall and police station, and Ocean Shores’ community engagement committee.

“We’ve been growing quite a bit here recently, up to just a few people shy of 8,000 residents now. Two years ago, we had a town hall, and I asked the public what did they want to see the city get done? So we made a list of that and have been working off of that. The number one thing was a walk-in clinic. Through the partnership with [Harbor Regional Health], which I’m very grateful for, looks like we’re probably going to open that sometime in April,” Elduen said. “We’re trying to get a fire break put in. We’ve got quite a situation with a plant called wax myrtle and that thing burns like diesel practically when it gets going. And we’ve got a lot of that for miles along, right behind the homes and stuff there on the ocean side of our city. Ripple Fiber, we have them come into town too, and they’re supposed to bring fiber to every residence in Ocean Shores. That’s going to be a big plus for a lot of people who work from home there in Ocean Shores. Now we have Comcast interested. So we’re going to bring Comcast into the city also. … One of the issues we’ve had is keeping our hotels, some of the hotels up to snuff.”

Montesano

Trimble talked about the recently opened childcare facility in Montesano, sidewalks and streets projects, the wastewater treatment plant, the city forest, and issues with the recent riparian buffer decision, trying to keep people, especially in public safety, living and working in Montesano, and the grant money the city has been able to secure over the past 10 years.

“The daycare facility did open, which is fantastic. So that provides 228 slots within Grays Harbor County, with their Elma location as well, a pretty significant number for a thing that is needed in the county. We continue in Montesano to look at infrastructure as the number one key. Our long-term goal is that we want to replace over 100,000 feet of asbestos concrete water lines. That’s a large goal,” Trimble said. “We have just under 6,000 acres of community forest land not only for natural habitat, but for recreation. As most of you in this room probably know, with some of the restrictions that forest landowners now have on us as owners, and expanding the buffers has created some problems, but we’re going to work through them.”

Westport

Welter mentioned progress on Westport’s tsunami tower, the skate park, the Westport Golf Links project, the SeaLink fiber-optic cable landing station, and upgrades to the city’s water mains.

“Something’s going on in Westport. We hired a new police chief and have two new officers on the road now. We are also working on getting them into a new police station that will combine in our city hall. Our tsunami tower, which is also funded by BRIC funding. … We’re going to be going out to RFP in June, and hopefully by mid-July, we’ll have the contract signed, and we will be able to do a groundbreaking. We’re on a very tight timeline for getting that project completed. Next thing we have is a skate park. There’s been a lot of community support behind that. We should be out for the RFP in mid-April, contract by May, and it’s going to be done by the end of this summer,” Welter said. “Everybody’s favorite topic is the golf course. So it appears that the Friends of Grays Harbor lawsuit against Westport Golf Links and city of Westport is closing, and the draft EIS should be completed and out in about six weeks. Westport Golf Links has indicated that they’d like to start down the permitting path. … SeaLink has completed all of its permits and lease agreements to bring an offshore fiber-optic cable to the city of Westport. The ship is quite literally underway, laying fiber now from Alaska. This is a really exciting project. It’s going to bring a couple of dozen high-tech permanent jobs to the city of Westport. It also comes along with a $1.4 million land lease for the city, which nobody is upset about. After we completed all permitting and all contracting, the city was able to work with SeaLink to receive a $35,000 donation for upgrades to the girls’ softball field, which they desperately need. So we’re very grateful for that.”

Pauley then navigated the mayors through a Q&A session that involved a few general and a couple of city-specific questions. He then asked the mayors to describe what the future of each city looks like and what they’d like their legacy to be.

The next GGHI Business Forum Lunch, Leading Together: 2026 Leadership Graduation and Community Safety Forum, is set for Tuesday, April 21, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Rotary Log Pavilion in Aberdeen.