Sunday, March 23, 2025
Crawford began her tenure as East Wenatchee mayor in 2020 and is currently serving her second term. Before becoming mayor, she served on the city council for three years.
Crawford’s 20-year experience in community leadership has enabled her to focus on collaboration and finding practical solutions. She believes the city can further diversify its economic landscape by providing more services locally, including healthcare, retail, and recreation.
She has a passion for the Wenatchee Valley and plans to put her connections, experience, and knowledge to work for her community.
Recently, we caught up with Crawford to learn more about her insights on East Wenatchee’s future, its challenges and opportunities, and her commitment to making positive changes in the community.
What makes East Wenatchee unique, and how do you plan to leverage these qualities for the city's growth?
What makes East Wenatchee unique is the endless opportunities available for businesses and individuals. It is no surprise that the Wenatchee Valley is growing and East Wenatchee and Douglas County have a lot of options to diversify and harness that growth. Our affordable utilities, available land, and access to services make us a desirable location for business and personal relocation.
What specific sectors or industries do you believe hold the most promise for East Wenatchee's economic future, and how do you plan to support their growth?
Right now, many of the services that make a community complete are offered on the Wenatchee side of the river; healthcare, retail, recreation, and manufacturing. While I am grateful to our neighbor, I see opportunities to provide more services in East Wenatchee to enhance quality of life and bring additional economic benefits. It is exciting to have a healthcare facility choose to build in East Wenatchee (Columbia Valley Community Health). It is valuable for residents to have this service in the city to meet their needs. Recently, Cascade Veterinary Clinic built a beautiful new facility just outside of the city limits. This will greatly help our furry friends have quality care near where they live.
It is important to balance our economic opportunities in East Wenatchee too by providing retail, tourism, manufacturing, and professional service options and I hope we are able to continually attract a variety of those businesses to East Wenatchee. City staff is committed to helping businesses navigate the zoning and permitting processes so that businesses can find the best place to locate their business.
What motivated you to pursue a career in public service?
Before serving in an elected office, I designed and facilitated a community leadership program to enhance participants' community awareness. Facilitating that program for almost 20 years really gave me a deep understanding of many opportunities and challenges facing our community. I have a passion for the Wenatchee Valley, and I want to give back to my community, so it just made sense that I put those connections, experience, ideas, and knowledge from the leadership program to work in a new way.
What's the most important lesson you've learned so far in your role as mayor?
I have found that most people want the same things from their community – we may just differ on the best way to achieve it. I’ve learned that compromise is worthwhile so that everyone benefits. But most importantly I’ve learned that none of us can achieve great things alone. We must partner together and celebrate unity more often than focusing on our differences.
What does a normal day look like as mayor?
Oh, so many meetings! I serve as a full-time mayor and we don’t have a city administrator. So, every day, I am in the office at some point, working directly with staff, answering emails, and meeting with the public. As mayor, I also serve on several boards, such as the Chelan Douglas Transportation Council, RiverCom, Public Facilities District, Chelan Douglas Health District, and Chelan Douglas Homeless Housing Task Force. As a mayor, I’m never off the clock, so if I’m asked about city business in line at the grocery store, I’m happy to help and consider it a 24 hours a day responsibility.
What is your favorite part of your job and why?
I love being able to help people and make positive changes to the community. I also like being able to help people navigate the sometimes complex processes of government and get people involved. When people are active in their community, they tend to take care of it better and take pride in their town. I also enjoy attending community events and celebrating with our local non-profit agencies that do so much for our citizens.
What are the biggest challenges facing East Wenatchee currently, and how do you plan to address them?
The cost of city services is steadily increasing, and revenues can’t keep up. We run a tight budget and have no fat to trim, so we must be creative in finding ways to accomplish our goals. Partnerships are essential to our success. For example, we partner with the City of Wenatchee to provide services to reduce homelessness in our region. East Wenatchee would not be able to fund such programs on our own. We also partner with the Eastmont Metropolitan Parks Department to take care of our trails, the Douglas County PUD for a pilot program for an EV police vehicle, the Regional Port Authority to provide events and economic development, and many more partnerships in our region.
What are the key goals you hope to achieve for East Wenatchee in the near future?
Our community is concerned about the lack of affordable housing. Again, we need to think creatively and work with our area partners to find solutions. Recently, East Wenatchee rolled out pre-approved building plans for accessory dwelling units. This is just one housing option, and we hope to provide other opportunities to bring affordable housing to our community. We are building our 20 year comprehensive plan now and looking into the future for this topic as well as other needs our city will face.
Who or what inspires you?
I’m inspired by people who take action to help others and don’t expect credit for it. It can be as simple as secretly paying for someone’s groceries or picking up someone else’s trash as they walk downtown.
What do you like to do with your free time?
I don’t have a lot of free time, but I enjoy camping, doing crafts, and, most of all, spending time with my family.
Is there anything else you want our readers to know?
I’m grateful to the community for having faith in me to serve as mayor of East Wenatchee. I invite anyone who has a comment or concern to feel free to reach out to me.
Quinn Propst: 509-731-3590 or quinn@ward.media
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