Public Service Recognition Week - Get to Know City Staff

May 2 through May 8 is Public Service Recognition Week. Across the country, people are taking time to thank and celebrate federal, state, county, and local government employees.

We thought a fun way to recognize City employees would be to help you get to know some of us a little better. Throughout the week we'd like to introduce you to just a few of the amazing people who help keep the City of St. Helens going every day.

Let's meet some of our city staff! To see photos submitted by staff members, visit our Facebook page.

Heidi Davis is the City's Building & Administration Secretary. We're grateful to say that Heidi is coming up on her 15th year working with the City.

This past year has been a busy one for Heidi. St. Helens received a record number of permit requests for new single-family houses. Heidi was one of the people involved in routing those permits, organizing documents and files, calculating fees, and making sure everything was issued properly. And that's only one of many types of permits the Building department handles. Heidi also helped launch new online permitting software earlier this year: https://aca-oregon.accela.com/oregon/.

Outside of the office, Heidi likes to do volunteer work, spend time with her daughter, see family & friends, kayak, fish, paint, and craft.
 

Officer Boswell is a patrol officer with the St. Helens Police Department. He has served the St. Helens community for four years.

Officer Boswell is a six-year veteran of the United States Army. During his time of service, he received the Army Service Medal, four Army commendation medals, three Army achievement medals, and two overseas ribbons. He was deployed twice: once to Iraq and once to Afghanistan. He still serves as an active National Guard member and recently returned from a deployment to Africa.

His supervisors describe him as someone who is always dependable, arriving to work early and ready to go as soon as his shift starts.

Nicole Woodruff is the St. Helens Public Library’s Library Technician. Nicole has worked for the St. Helens Public Library full-time since 2016 and has been with the City since 2008.

As Library Technician, Nicole is responsible for maintaining the information associated with every item in the Library's collection. In fact, just in the past year Nicole has added 2,894 items to the Library’s collection, removed 3,029 items, and edited or updated records for 14,976 items. That includes things like books, movies, board games, 3D pens, cultural passes, and more.

When not keeping track of every single item you can check out (and some you can't), Nicole is an avid kayaker. This summer you may find Nicole out on the water, taking advantage of all the great kayaking spots Columbia County has to offer. Be sure to say “Hi!”

Pati Ruiz is our Police Support Specialist at the St. Helens Police Department.

Pati has worked for St. Helens for almost six months and we're excited to have her as one of the City’s newest employees. Pati says she has enjoyed her time at St. Helens so far, while she's working to help organize and catch things up at the front office.

Pati recently became a first-time grandma and says she is loving every moment of her new role. When she isn’t working or hanging out with her new grandbaby, she also enjoys hiking and is an avid beachcomber.

In addition to Public Service Recognition Week, it's also Municipal Clerks Week! In Oregon we have City Recorders rather than Municipal Clerks. Meet Lisa Scholl, our Deputy City Recorder!

Lisa Scholl has been with the City for almost 18 years. In the past year alone, Lisa transcribed 64 sets of City Council meeting minutes, which totaled approximately 6,108 minutes - over 100 hours - of meeting time.

When Lisa is ready to take a break from taking meticulous minutes, she enjoys spending time with family. She volunteers with her girls' schools and activities, including serving on the Board of Columbia County Christian School, volunteering with the St. Helens Band Program, and serving as a unit leader for American Heritage Girls. You can also find her and her family cruising in their classic Checker Cab, camping, and traveling as well.

Rachael Barry has been the City's Government Affairs & Project Support Specialist since September 2019. Rachael acts as a representative in quite a few groups, including the Governors’ Regional Equity in Recovery Council, North Coast Regional Economic Recovery Team, is the South County Chamber of Commerce Ambassador, and she coordinates the South County Collaborative. She also serves on the SHSD Budget Committee and Columbia County 4-H Association Board of Directors "just for fun." And, of course, she volunteers elsewhere when the opportunities arise!

Public service may be both work and fun for Rachael, but she also finds time for visiting and sampling all of Oregon's agricultural bounty (A.K.A. wine tasting), studying up on local natural history, cooking, gardening, reading, hiking, kayaking, and generally taking full advantage of all the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

Jenny Dimsho is part of the Planning Department and serves as our Associate Planner. Jenny has been with the City for over seven years (over eight if you include the 11 months she spent working with the City as a Rural Assistance to Rural Environments (RARE) AmeriCorps member).

When Jenny's not working in City Hall, she enjoys doing just about anything in the sunshine: gardening, camping, hiking, and biking. Her latest obsession is her new hybrid bicycle.

Did you know that during Jenny's time in the City's Planning department, she's had a hand in writing over $20 million in grant funding requests? She's had success with bringing over $4.5 million in funds from federal, state, and private foundations to the City. And that's in addition to everyday planning duties!