Washougal mayor ready to work

In 2006, Rochelle Ramos packed up her two young children and all of her belongings that she could fit into her Volkswagen Jetta and drove more than 600 miles north to an unfamiliar small town in the Pacific Northwest to start a new life. She didn't have a lot of money. She didn't have a job. All she had was an agreement to rent a house that she found on Craigslist and a dream. "I didn't ever want to struggle. I knew what it was like to not be able to pay my heating bill. I knew what it was like to not afford diapers and (have) to borrow from the next paycheck to do so. Something clicked in my mind -- I just said, 'I'm never going to go through that again. It's just not going to happen.'" Ramos has indeed made a name for herself since arriving in Washougal in December of 2006, not only with her professional accomplishments but also her extensive volunteer experience, which includes board positions with the Camas-Washougal Community Chest and West Columbia Gorge Humane Society. And now she's the mayor of Washougal. Ramos took her oath of office on Nov. 23, during a ceremony at Washougal City Hall that was livestreamed to the public on the city's website. "I'm not political in any way, which you can view as a good thing or bad thing," she said. "I'm all about the community. I have no personal agenda. I don't have any goals of going on past this. I'm really just about Washougal and (figuring out) how we can get on track to clean things up a little bit and have pride in our community and have more resources for people." Ramos was sworn into her new role by former Mayor Molly Coston, who was immediately sworn in to her role as the city's No. 5 council member by the new mayor. “It has been my great honor to serve as Washougal’s mayor for the last four years,” Coston said. “It was my pleasure to administer the oath to Rochelle as my last official act as mayor. I am excited for our future and look forward to working with Mayor Ramos and the rest of the council in my new role as a member of council in Position 5.” During her campaign, local residents asked Ramos about how she planned to fit the mayor role into her already-busy schedule. She usually responded with something to the effect of, "I make time for the things that are important to me." At first she used volunteering as a way to engage with her new community. Now she holds it up as an example for other people to emulate. "I don't sleep (much)," she said with a laugh. "I have a family that's supportive. It's a balance, but it works. People asked me, 'How are you going to do this role? You have a full-time job. You own a business. You have children.' (I say), 'You have to step up. You just have to find a way.' That's what I'm going to ask of people, too. 'You have to step up. You have to contribute to make the community what you want it to be.'" Ramos has certainly stepped up in a lot of areas. She works as a human resources director for PLEXSYS Interface Products, a Camas-based software company, and is a member of the Washougal Parks Board of Commissioners, although she'll step down from that role after assuming the mayor position. She also owns and operates the Washougal-based Lunchmoney Indoor Skatepark with her partner, John Henriksen. And if all of that weren't enough, she's currently taking online courses to attain a graduate certificate in aerospace and defense from the University of Oklahoma. "(Personal improvement) is kind of bred in me," said Ramos, who has a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration from Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, Oregon, and a graduate degree in human resource management from Golden Gate University in San Francisco and. "That's just how I am. I'm always looking to educate myself about something -- that's why I'm going back to school. I look for opportunities (to improve areas that are not) strengths and look for opportunities to learn. It's just about personal motivation. I want to look back on my life and know that I made a difference, as cliche as that sounds, and that I did something. "I've worked since I was 14 years old, and I've always worked hard for everything I have," she continued. "I've never asked for handouts. There were plenty of opportunities where I probably could have. But I've always been personally motivated to have a life of my own. I always found a way. That's just how I am." Ramos "sees a community need and finds the time and resources to solve it," according to Washougal resident Dave Pinkernell, who has known her for nearly a decade through their work with the Camas-Washougal Community Chest, which annually grants tens of thousands of dollars to local Camas-Washougal nonprofits and educational groups that assist lower-income families. "I am constantly amazed at all the volunteer work Rochelle does on top of her very busy professional life and personal life," Pinkernell told the Post-Record earlier this year. "I believe Rochelle's initiative to see community needs, plus her energy and creativity to solve them, will make her a good mayor for Washougal." Ramos grew up in San Leandro, California, a mid-sized city in Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay area. She gave birth to her oldest son, Jared, when she was 19, and worked several jobs while going to school for the next few years. "I was a teenage mom -- not planned that way. All of a sudden, I was a single mom -- not planned that way," she said. "I look back and think, 'My goodness.' I worked for the county during the day and Rite Aid at night and tried to fit in school here and there. Thankfully I had my mom, who helped watch my son, and daycare that I paid for. I didn't live in the best area of California, and I made the big decision- to move up here. I had a few thousand dollars to my name and that was it. I took a chance and didn't look back. Now I think that may (have been) a little crazy with two kids, but I did it." Jared, now 26, works at PLEXSYS as a software technician. He lives in Vancouver but is planning to move to Camas with his girlfriend early next year. Ramos' younger son, 19-year-old Tim, graduated from Washougal High School earlier this year and enlisted in the United States Army. He is in infantry training in Fort Benning, Georgia, and will move to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, for airborne assault training in 2022. Ramos' daughter, 13-year-old Emily, is a Jemtegaard Middle School student. The new mayor admits she is "a big car person," and said she is drawn to "classic cars, fast cars." "I am restoring a 1963 Chevrolet Nova Station Wagon, and hopefully I'll have it done by the summertime to cruise around Washougal and Camas," Ramos said. "John has a Model A and Bonneville, and I have my Mustang and the beer truck. .... My dad was always restoring cars. I grew up putting lugnuts on wheels and going to swap meets." Her "beer truck" resembles a traditional ice-cream truck, except with four beer taps on the side instead of a window. "I love driving it around," Ramos said. "It's got a big motor in it, a 383, and it's on air ride (suspension), so it draws attention. The goal was to do parties and events, and now I take it to car shows. It may turn into an ice cream truck one day, or maybe a margarita truck. Who knows? It's got the guts for anything (like that). I'd love to be the ice-cream truck mayor who drives around to different events." Ramos and Henriksen opened Lunchmoney at 421 "C" St., Ste. 5B, with a half-pipe, mini-bowl and retail area, in February 2020. The nonprofit organization provides scholarships to young skaters in need and offers a variety of lessons and after-school programs. "Given that we opened six weeks before COVID, I would say it's been surprisingly successful, Ramos said. "We have riders from everywhere -- Olympia, Saint Helens, Eugene, the coast, Coos Bay, Bend -- because we're one of the only indoor skate parks (in the Pacific Northwest)." Ramos and Henriksen are looking for more volunteers and would like to relocate the park to a bigger space, but remain adamant it should remain in the Camas-Washougal area. "And we want to keep it as much of a nonprofit as possible because then we can give away more scholarships and do other things in the community," Ramos said. Challenges ahead for Washougal's new mayor One of the first things that Ramos will deal with as mayor is the uncertain future of the Camas-Washougal Fire Department and the tenuous agreement between the two cities to provide fire and emergency medical services. Ramos is still learning about the situation and isn't quite ready to voice a detailed opinion on the matter, but does know that the cities will have to work together to come up with a solution to benefit everybody. "If we have to go away from that partnership and change course to something new, I think it will be a learning curve for all of us," she said. "But I'm open to new ideas. I'm not opposed to change. ... If it's right for the citizens, that's what we do." "I want to support (our police officers) any way I can," she said. "I want to make sure that they can attract and retain top talent to be successful. There are issues with vandalism in our parks; from my time on the park board, I know a lot about it. We can't send a maintenance crew out there every day to paint over graffiti; they have other things to do. We have to find a balance there." Ramos said she would love to see more businesses come into downtown Washougal. "I'm glad that Taberna NW is opening back up, and I hope someone goes into the OurBar space," she said. "I think the busiest business down there is the Eagles, to be honest. That's wonderful because that's a nonprofit that supports veterans ... but when you look down the street, everything else is vacant. I'd love to see people bring their dreams and ideas and mom-and-pop businesses to Washougal, but it's not something that I can just do on my own." Looking back on the journey she's had -- from a young mother taking a chance on a new town to the city's newly elected mayor -- Ramos said she loves living in Washougal and can't imagine living anywhere else. "I love the small-town," she said. "To me, that's about mom-and-pop businesses, not as much crime and traffic, knowing your neighbors, going to a restaurant and running into your friends. ... I'm not worried about my child walking to Safeway because I know she's going to be safe. That's what I view as 'small town' and why I stayed here for so long. I'm happy here."

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