Milton-Freewater City Councilor Brad Humbert at the council’s meeting March 11, 2024, lets residents know accepting state grant funding for a water system project would force the city to increase its water rates. Humbert represents the city’s Ward 2 and face a challenge in his reelection to the council from Emily Holden.

MILTON-FREEWATER — In Milton-Freewater’s only contested city council seat race here this year, incumbent Brad Humbert is facing challenger Emily Holden.

Humbert and Holden, both lifelong residents, want to represent the city’s Ward 2, which begins at Milton-Freewater’s newest neighborhood on Milton Hill and runs parallel to Highway 11 to Second Avenue. The ward is bordered by the Walla Walla River on the east side and farmland on the west.

Brad Humbert

Humbert, 54, has represented the area for most of the past 24 years. He lost in his first attempt to get elected in 2000 but was appointed to a vacated seat a few weeks later, Humbert said.

A 1988 McLoughlin High School graduate, Humbert serves on the flood board of the Milton-Freewater Water Control District. He owns a sales and marketing business but his primary work is with Eastern Oregon Contracting, registered to Heather Humbert.

He originally decided not to run this year, but changed his mind.

“Because of the new city manager, I want to stay and hopefully make that a smooth transition,” he said. “And this will be (my) last term.”

There are also things he said he wants to see to completion, including the city’s water system. Humbert said he’s especially qualified to review plans drawn up by engineers, who can sometimes miss things.

“I am very knowledgeable about the public work side of things … I understand it very well, our sewer system, our storm drain system,” he said.

Humbert said he finds Milton-Freewater’s residents to be “unique.” People here, unlike those in Walla Walla and College Place, “are individuals. They are independent,” he said.

“We are a ‘You leave me alone, I’ll leave you alone. You mess with me I’ll bust you in the chops,’” he said.

Like many places, the city is struggling to deal with unhoused people and resulting encampments along the Walla Walla River are overwhelming, Humbert said.

“It’s a huge issue,” he said. “There is trash in the river, the garbage, the shopping carts, the Narcan, the plastic … human feces, it’s a mess.”

There is no real help for those people or city officials, Humbert said, and cities such as Milton-Freewter will eventually have to stand up to the Oregon Legislature and say “no.”

For the last 40 years, lawmakers in Salem have not kept up with the need for mental health services, sending Oregon “to hell in a handbasket,” Humbert said.

The entire ZIP code of Milton-Freewater is blessed with beautiful spring seasons and nature, Humbert said in discussing community strengths. As well, thanks to the foresight of past city councils, the city owns its utility and landfill services.

“That’s pretty incredible for a town that’s 8,000 people,” he said.

Emily Holden

Holden, 35, is a 2006 McLoughlin High School graduate, business owner and community volunteer.

After earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Oregon State University, Holden returned home to teach as an FFA advisor. Under her watch, that program grew, she recalled.

“We had more Hispanic students and more first-generation students raising animals at the land lab,” she said.

Holden continues to volunteer as a judge for youth projects.

She launched a women’s clothing business and in 2021 Holden Hearts became a brick-and-mortar store.

She is a founding volunteer for “Friday Nights on Main,” a summer-long series of festivals that debuted in 2023.

That work has been revealing about her own strengths, Holden said.

“The ability to see a vision and help other people see it, too,” she said. “The willingness to work with anybody and to keep it going until it works.”

Holden said she’s been increasingly approached by people interested in how the city does business.

“I see the potential for things to happen at city council,” she said. “Take the small business owners doing so many things behind the scenes — I saw opportunity for that to amplify even more with some changes.”

Challenges here include increasing trust and transparency between city officials and the public, Holden said, and she can help with that.

“A lot of times there is nothing nefarious going on, there’s just no communication about the city council’s intent,” she said.

The city needs economic development to attract more industry, Holden said, and the city’s water, electrical and other systems demand attention.

“We’re not going to get bigger industry to invest in us if it doesn’t see us investing in infrastructure,” Holden said. “Our needs are going to change a lot over the next 10 years.”

Public safety is another concern, the business owner noted.

“People are frustrated with homelessness, the public drug use they see, the graffiti and the lack of communication from the police department,” she said. “And I think it is important to acknowledge that the city is making efforts to communicate but it’s not landing. It’s not reaching the citizens.”

Those residents are Milton-Freewater’s greatest strength, Holden said.

“They are gritty and generous,” she said. “There has never been a time I went out with a need that they haven’t responded.”

Lastly, she said she lives in one of the most beautiful places in the world. With other communities struggling with affordable housing shortages, Milton-Freewater is “perfectly poised” to capitalize on that, Holden said.

For more information

Two candidates also are running in uncontested races for the Milton-Freewater City Council. To read that article and more reporting on the May 21 primary, visit eastoregonian.com.