Gibson, Aker depart city council

Thirty-six years.

That’s the amount of experience that is departing Portland City Council in the form of just two of its members.

When council convenes its next meeting Jan. 6, it will be the first time since 2000 that Bill Gibson won’t be there. It will be the first time since 2004 that Judy Aker won’t be sitting next to him.

Gibson and Aker both walk away not having lost their seats to election opponents, but instead having decided it was time to let someone else take the reins.

“I’m 83 years old. I figured it was about time,” said Gibson. “I would have been 87 by the time I got out after one more term.”

Aker is younger now than Gibson was when he started his two-decade run on council. But her reason for walking away was similar.

“I just thought it was time for somebody else to take over,” said Aker. “I’m 61 years old. And it’s almost time for me to retire.”

Gibson got into the local political arena following his retirement from Fisher Body, now General Motors, in Marion after 31 years. He said he was encouraged by Bob McCreery and Donald Gillespie to run for office.

“It took them about three months to talk me into it,” said Gibson, who was unopposed in each of his first two elections and then defeated challengers Teresa Watters in 2007, Herman Ingram in 2011 and Dave Cramer in 2015. “I finally agreed to it.”

Aker also got some encouragement from her father-in-law, Dick Aker, and her husband Mark’s aunt, Barbara Blackford, both of whom were involved in local politics. She earned her first term by unseating incumbent Republican Stephanie May in 2003, was unopposed in 2007 and earned enough votes to win one of the two at-large seats in three-way races in 2011 and 2015.

Looking back at his time on council, Gibson said one of his proudest accomplishments was getting the fire station moved from downtown to its current site on Franklin Street. He noted that the old facility across Commerce Street from Jay County Courthouse was simply too small for new, larger equipment.

For Aker, it was the decisions council made to allow for the construction of the ethanol plant on the southwest side of the city. She said she was in favor of the project because of the jobs that would be created, tax income it would bring to the city and increased opportunity for farmers to sell their corn.

“We had some packed houses on that one, for it and against it,” she said.

Looking back, both council members said flooding in the downtown area is a problem they wish the city could have gotten a better handle on. Aker also said she wished a new home for the city’s street department could have been constructed, preferably at the former book bindery site on Wayne Street near Hudson Family Park.

Those issues will now turn over to two new council members. Republican Matt Goldsworthy will take over Gibson’s seat in 2020 after defeating Cramer in November. Dave Golden will step in for Aker as he and incumbent Janet Powers topped Tyler Newell in a three-way race for two seats.

In terms of goals for the future, both Gibson and Aker focused on flood mitigation and downtown revitalization, which they said go hand-in-hand.

“I hope we just keep this city a-rollin’,” said Gibson. “I hope we can get it going a little bit faster than we have in the past.”