When the Aberdeen City Council meets Wednesday night for the first time in 2020, there will be five new faces on the council, nearly half of the body’s 12 seats, along with a new mayor, Pete Schave.

The five new members spoke with The Daily World recently about their expectations and how they see their roles when they take office next month.

Ward 1, Position 1

Shaney Crosby is a “semi-retired” former beauty salon owner, millwright, carpenter and welder, who regularly attended City Council meetings before deciding to run against Robert J. Rodgers for the seat currently held by James Cook.

“I know what I have is a pretty strong vision for the future of our community,” she said. “I’ve been volunteering for the last six or seven years in all kinds of areas, whether it’s supporting a charitable event or cleaning up the shorelines on the weekends.”

She said her visibility in the community may have had an impact on the election results, in which she received nearly 60 percent of the vote.

“I think over the last several years I’ve made myself pretty visible and people understand I have a passion for this community,” said Crosby.

Improving downtown is among her priorities once she gets into office.

“I’m really looking forward to cleaning up our downtown core and making it more presentable to travelers and much more hospitable to locals,” said Crosby. “I really want to be able to see some new businesses come in.”

She’s talking about businesses that need laborers and pay livable wages, and she plans on “working hard on how to make that happen,” she said.

Ward 2, Position 3

Nathan Kennedy is a small business owner who specializes in computer and network technology. He’s lived in Aberdeen and, up until this year, had tried to stay out of local politics, he said. He changed that by running this year against David Gakin for the seat previously held by Kathi Prieto.

“For one thing, the council was going through a huge change, a lot of seats were just going to get completely rolled over,” he said. “After seeing the city grow and take some really good steps forward I figured I’d throw my hat into the ring and put some of my knowledge and experience to the city’s use.”

When he takes office, Kennedy figures it will be like “starting any new job, or starting with a new customer. You have to go in and feel things out, see how things are currently being done and decide if something needs to be changed.”

Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to determine if the “but that’s the way we’ve always done it” argument is valid, case by case, he said.

He hopes to get into committees that have some impact, and those that use his talents as a “numbers guy.” He said a lot of the progress he’s seen in the city recently has come out of the Public Works and Finance departments and he’d like to serve on those committees.

During his first year in office he’d like to help move along some current projects, “see what I can do to feed the momentum. Like the North Shore Levee project, make sure that doesn’t stall out,” and the ongoing improvements to the city’s water, sewer and stormwater system.

As for the homeless situation, he said, “We need to find a balance there, a humanitarian solution to getting people off the streets and getting the services they need” while addressing the concerns of local businesses and citizens, and “doing it in a way we don’t get taken to court every single time we pass an ordinance.”

Ward 3, Position 6

Kati Kachman is a vendor risk manager in the banking industry and is a board member of the Aberdeen Rotary. She took more than 60 percent of the vote over her opponent Dave Deakin for the seat that has been held by Jeff Cook, who did not run for another term, and thinks her boots-on-the-ground campaigning helped put her over the top.

“I think it was definitely because I had a feet-on-the-street kind of campaign, a lot of door knocking, an old school approach,’ she said.

Kachman said she wants to build solid relationships with department heads and city staff.

“One thing that is really a priority for me is to start building relationships with department heads and do a ride-along with the police department,” she said. “Those are kind of on the short list.”

She supports the hiring of a city administrator and wants to be a part of improving and enhancing the city’s infrastructure, as well as continue pursuing major ongoing projects like the North Shore Levee and the efforts to ease the train versus vehicle traffic issues in east Aberdeen.

Kachman hopes the new look City Council will share her enthusiasm for making the city a better place.

“Having a big City Council comes with a lot of responsibility,” she said. “I want to make sure everyone on the council is pulling their weight.”

Ward 4, Position 8

Debbi Ross is a fulltime bookkeeper involved with Habitat for Humanity and worked on the Aberdeen School Budget Advisory Committee. She defeated Tara Mareth for the seat previously held by Margo Shortt.

“I consider myself a reasonable person and I hope that people realize I will listen to all the issues and talk to people so we can work together to come up with the best solutions for the city we really can,” she said. “I’m hoping we can move forward in making our community more appealing for people to visit and come live.”

She also hopes that the work toward those goals can be done in a positive way, and by working with other organizations and partners to provide relief for the “tough issues” facing the city.

When she takes office, she wants to dive into finding solutions to the city’s ongoing homeless issues.

“That shouldn’t fall squarely on the shoulders of the City of Aberdeen,” she said. “I’m not sure where all the partners will come from, but we all need to sit down and talk,” including community members, and county and state officials.

Ross’ husband Randy is a county commissioner.

During her campaign, Ross said she was in favor of hiring a city administrator, someone she said would “take charge of the day to day operations, allowing the mayor and council members to create policy, manage the budget and work to make improvements to infrastructure, jobs and affordable housing.”

While the city faces issues overall, Ross said there are some within the boundaries of her ward she will work toward resolving.

“Like figuring out a way to slow traffic down,” she said. Speeding vehicles through the city’s neighborhoods are a common safety issue through her ward, and in most others, and it’s among the issues she intends to address.

Ward 5, Position 9

Joshua Francey ran unopposed for the seat currently held by Mayor-elect Pete Schave. He said he’s lived in the city for about three decades and “I want to help clean up our town.” While he doesn’t have any direct political experience, he said he has “studied various political theories.”

Francey said he’ll provide a viewpoint that is environmentally-based when it comes to cleaning up the city.

“My number one priority is to make a clean Aberdeen,” he said. “I want to help improve citizen involvement in keeping our town clean, remove some single use litter from our waste stream, and require signage be placed where pesticides are sprayed.”

For the past six years, Francey has been working with the community to remove garbage from the county’s waterways, holding weekly cleanups Saturdays at noon. The crew’s Facebook page, Clean Streams and Memes, documents its cleanup efforts. A recent example: On Nov. 4, the group filled eight trash bags with garbage from the northeast end of the Chehalis River Trail and Alder Creek.

Francey said he’d also like to expand the Tesla charging station at 416 W. Wishkah to include charging stations for other types of electric cars.