The Waldport City Council voted during a special meeting Tuesday to name its new City Hall building after Mark C. Campbell, a longtime council member who was killed Dec. 6 while responding to a break-in at a neighbor’s apartment.
Waldport is moving its city offices across Oregon Highway 34 to the former Umpqua Bank building in early 2021. Umpqua gave the building to the city in 2019 when it closed its Waldport branch.
Campbell, co-owner of Crestview Golf Course, was in the middle of his fourth, four-year term on the City Council.
No one has been accused in Campbell’s death. Jack Sigler, 52, of Waldport, was arrested Dec. 9 and is now charged with burglary and theft for breaking into the apartment three times before Dec. 6.
Campbell’s killing has rocked the community and deeply shaken Waldport council members. In making the motion Tuesday to name the new city hall building after Campbell, Councilor Greg Holland said he couldn’t talk more about it without breaking down.
“This has been a hard thing for me,” Holland said.
The city plans a dedication ceremony sometime next year, once the hunt for Campbell’s killer might be over and when his family has had time to heal.
In other end-of-the year business Tuesday, the council accepted the donation of three parcels of land from the Alsea Chapter of the Izaak Walton League overlooking Lint Slough that the city hopes to use as natural areas and eventually expand its trail system.
One donation is a small lot is used as access from Crestline Drive for homes to the east and to an 8-acre parcel overlooking Lint Slough. The second donation is 10 acres farther north, which is steeply sloped and not very accessible.
City Manager Dann Cutter said the city is making plans and will apply for grants to help develop a trail system first through the 8-acre property to connect with the Lint Slough Trail, and then hopefully link it eventually to the 10-acre parcel to the north.
“The donations start long-term planning,” Cutter said. “These are the pieces that start building a full trail system that could take 20 years to finish.”