Napavine’s One-Term Mayor Looks Ahead

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    NAPAVINE — Lewis County’s youngest mayor is holding true to his campaign promise of leaving office after one term.

    Looking back on three and a half years that have sometimes been tumultuous, Nick Bozarth can joke about the initial hurdles, both hidden and obvious, that came with the job.

    His term was been wrought with challenges and controversy from the beginning, from public spats with the local fire district on the renewed use of the city’s long-dormant air raid siren to trying to clean up the city’s image by forbidding city employees from taking their lunch at establishments “recognized” as bars.

    Then there were the accusations from a police officer that the former chief slapped him.

    “I had two sworn officers sitting in my office with contradicting stories,” Bozarth said. An investigation by an outside agency wasn’t able to get to the bottom of it either. “Still, to this day I don’t know what happened. ... It was really weird.”

    Those were just some of the challenges during his term as mayor of Lewis County’s third-largest town.

    In the first year and a half on the job, someone went to his home and broke out his bedroom window. On another occasion, he came back to his house to find his garage door banged up.

    “When things got tough, it was a challenge to keep pressing on knowing my decisions were only going to fan the flames,” Bozarth said, as he reflected back on his tenure. He now can laugh at some of the infamous incidents that made him somewhat famous. “It certainly made me a stronger person.”

    But those hardships aren’t why the 25-year-old is looking to move beyond the title of mayor. Bozarth is currently getting his prerequisites to enter the medical field at Centralia College. He continues to work as an emergency room technician at Providence Centralia Hospital, while fulfilling the unpaid duty of being mayor.

    With his upcoming free time, Bozarth is looking to enter the University of Washington’s physician assistant program.

    He feels confident in the job he’s done in his single term as mayor.

    ‘The Kid,’ as he was sometimes called, overcame the initial stereotypes and jests that he was too young at 22 for the job to get Napavine back on track financially and make the city more professional.

    “He’s done outstanding. I’m glad he beat me in the election,” said Jim Haslett, former city council member and Bozarth’s opponent for the mayoral seat in 2007. “In the beginning, some people tried to run roughshod over him, but he handled it in a mature way. He’s done the hard things that needed to be done. He insisted the city work within the budget, and he had the demeanor to get people to do what he wanted without causing hard feelings.



    “He got things done without losing his temper or losing his cool. I wouldn’t have been able to handle all the frustrations or irritations without boiling over,” Haslett said.

    Bozarth’s patience and politeness are usually the first things people point to as reasons for his success in office.

    “If I had become mayor when he did, I would have gone nuts,” said Napavine City Councilor Bob Wheeler, who has already announced that he will be run in this year’s mayoral election to succeed Bozarth. “I think the mayor has done a marvelous job. I think the taxpayers of Napavine owe him a debt of gratitude.”

    Bozarth deflects a lot of the praise onto those surrounding him.

    “I’ve had a lot of good help from a lot of different people,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of great people in this city and I’ve enjoyed serving them.”

    He’s had a lot of on-the-job training, saying the best part of the job was learning everything from exactly how government works to how to put in sidewalks.

    Other than Wheeler, there hasn’t been much public talk about who is thinking about replacing Bozarth next year. The questions should be cleared up in a month during filing week in early June. The post will be on the November ballot.

    Bozarth’s advice for the new mayor, whoever that may be?

    “Make sure after the decisions you make, you can still look at yourself in the mirror at the end of your term and be proud of those decisions.”

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    Marqise Allen: (360) 807-8237, Twitter @marqiseallen