Sweet 16: Ramon Hayes reflects on four terms as Town of La Conner's mayor

As a youth whose World War II veteran father was a booking agent in the entertainment industry, Ramon Hayes grew up familiar with the celebrities who gained fame amid the emerging new world of television.

"I was invited to Liberace's birthday party," Hayes, 54, recently recalled with a chuckle. "I didn't attend."

Hayes was perhaps reflecting on how later in life as a long-serving public official, he would be called upon to make decisions of far greater importance.

"I like to think of myself as being pretty thick-skinned," he told the Weekly News, while looking back upon 16 years at the Town's helm, the longest mayoral tenure in La Conner history.

The four-term La Conner mayor will vacate Town Hall in December. Yet while battle- tested in the realm of local politics, Hayes, a classically trained pianist, readily yields to the example set by his father, Raymond, who served in the legendary Devil's Brigade that sustained an 80 per cent casualty rate in the European theater of the Second World War.

An elite American-Canadian unit – formally named the First Special Service Force – its men trained for difficult cold-weather mountain-warfare missions.

Hayes' father, though wounded, survived combat in Italy and returned to launch a career in show biz. One of his clients was superstar Canadian singer Anne Murray, who has sold nearly 60 million album copies and regularly performed for more than four decades, starting in 1967.

Because of his dad's work, the son spent one summer living at the Aladdin Hotel on the Las Vegas strip.

In retrospect, it was something of a gamble for Hayes to file for office in 2007. True, he ran unopposed. But Hayes said he had to quickly solve the learning curve that goes with the job while juggling the stresses of running a business. On top of that, his and wife Heidi's daughter, Victoria, now a student at the University of Washington, was then just entering kindergarten.

Hayes said he quickly learned to compartmentalize, separating as much as possible his mayoral duties from other aspects of his life.

He also learned the value of seeking out the counsel of others.

"I got great advice from John Doyle, when he was our town administrator," said Hayes. "He said to focus on the projects."

Over time, those would be many.

Too many, in fact, for Hayes to cite in a single interview. Nor will he claim sole ownership of them, always careful to credit what he terms "the team" of staff, elected and appointed officials, community leaders and key partners engaged in stewarding those projects to completion.

That's been the case for:

Upgraded drainage, sidewalks and paving on the Washington Street loop.

Replacement of the Sherman Street boat launch.

Development of the Sixth Street skateboard park.

Construction of the new Caledonia Street pump station.

Installation of I-5 freeway signage highlighting the town's historic waterfront.

Creation of the waterfront park and reinforced shoreline below Rainbow Bridge.

Swinomish Channel dredging during a period of tight federal budgets.

Expansion of the wastewater treatment plant, including the innovative and award-winning composting feature that has proved an economically sustainable and soil replenishment resource universally looked upon as a model program.

Downtown placement of lectric vehicle charging stations.

Negotiation of sale of their one-half acre land with the Jenson family.

Designation of Maple Hall as a green energy building with solar panels.

Renewed nighttime lighting of Rainbow Bridge.

Then there is the crown jewel – the popular downtown boardwalk, which required much patience and the delicate forging of a coalition of stakeholders at various levels of government and in the private sector.

"There were so many things," Hayes said in retrospect, "that could have stopped the boardwalk. But we focused on the retail core area and that proved successful. Prior to its implementation, there was about 10 per cent public access to the waterfront. Now we have more than 80 per cent waterfront access."

Every time, said Hayes, it was "the team" that pushed the ball over the goal line.

The rest of the story next week.