Roseburg Mayor Larry Rich announced Tuesday that he plans to retire after more than 27 years in office.
The 70-year-old said he won’t seek reelection once his term expires at the end of this year.
Rich said he believes this is an ideal time to step aside, since Roseburg’s previous City Manager, Nikki Messenger, retired in June.
Rich was mayor during the 2015 mass shooting at Umpqua Community College. He continued to serve in the role after a heart attack in 2023, and now says he’s okay following successful surgeries.
So far, two candidates have filed for the mayoral race this November: the current chair of the Umpqua Community College Board, Steve Loosley, and self-employed artist Maximilian Smoot.
Rich spoke to KLCC reporter Nathan Wilk about his career, the top issues facing Roseburg, and what he’d look for in the next mayor.
Nathan Wilk: You first ran for mayor in 1998. Is that correct?
Rich: Correct.
Wilk: Tell me why you ran.
Rich: Before I moved to Roseburg, I was in Junction City. I was a schoolteacher there, and if I stayed there, I was going to run for mayor.
I received a job offer here at Roseburg High School, so I came down here to work. And working at the high school, I had a chance to meet a lot of parents. So I thought, well, maybe I have a chance to get to know people here, and so I put my name on the ballot to run for mayor.
Wilk: What are some things that Roseburg, the city government, and you have accomplished during your time in office that you’re particularly proud of?
Rich: It's never a one-person accomplishment. It takes an entire council. It takes the entire staff. We set the policy. They do the actual hands-on-the-effort there to complete the task.
If you look back over the years, the things that have been done, to me it’s really amazing.
I remember when I first came here, having to go to Eugene to go shopping for Home Depot-type material, and so eventually we had Lowe’s and Home Depot, and we got Costco and a number of other facilities that have come in over the years.
We don't have to drive to Eugene like when I first came here. It's nice to be able to shop here in Roseburg.
Wilk: Beyond what you just mentioned, when you look around Roseburg, what changes do you see to the community?
Rich: Well, if you look at Diamond Lake Boulevard, that's the direction we're headed in terms of the next growth area. You'll probably see a lot of businesses.
When you go in that area, you see a lot of apartments. And it won't be long that I think you'll see that whole section of the highway fully developed.
We also go to the other end at Charter Oaks. We'll start seeing a lot of development occur now that it is in the urban growth boundary.
Wilk: How did the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in 2015 change your role as mayor and your relationship with the community?
Rich: When you go through a tragedy, you have a lot of emotions, and you want to try to bring people together and be able to overcome the issues that you have.
And so it's really neat to see so many citizens coming forward with different ideas, making art projects to remind people and to pull everybody together.
Wilk: Some industries in Roseburg have taken hits in recent years.
What can the mayor do, or the next mayor, to protect business communities that are operating in the city?
Rich: You always want to try to be a business-friendly community, so you want to do what you can to keep any roadblocks from happening that causes businesses to say, "hey, we don't want to move here.’”
Anything you do in terms of any permits, anything that will help them feel like they want to be here, and the communities behind them and appreciates them being here.
Wilk: What are some of the big challenges that Roseburg is still facing that the city government will have to tackle moving forward?
Rich: Homelessness is always number one. I wish we could solve it. I think that it's going to be a very difficult task to solve, and hopefully we can come up with solutions that are workable.
And the biggest issue to me is you got to get the homeless person to recognize they have a problem and that they want to change.
I call it ‘get your act together,’ and what can we do to help them?
Wilk: Why are you choosing to step away now from this position?
Rich: I'm the type that when I work with a new city manager, and if they were to ask, “Hey, will you stay on? then I will stay on.”
And so I knew when Nikki (Messenger) came on board that I would stay on as long as she was here, and then when she retired, then that was the perfect time for me to step aside. That way, I don't get connected to a new one.
And now that we have a new change, then it's the perfect time for me to step aside and let somebody else do the mayor job.
Wilk: What are the qualities that you would hope for in the person to succeed you in this role?
Rich: To do everything you can to stay focused on doing what's best for Roseburg. So you're going to get a lot of comments from people to go pull this way, pull that way. You just need to stay focused on what's the best thing for our community and try to not lose focus of that idea.
Note: this interview has been edited for length and clarity.
