Days after being showered with accolades for his role as Solvang city manager, Brad Vidro was back on the job fielding a complaint about a healthy-sized pothole on Mission Drive.
But potholes soon won’t be his headache, since Friday will bring an end to Vidro’s chapter as city manager of Solvang. His farewell has included riding as Julefest Parade grand marshal and attending his final City Council meeting, after approximately 310.
“It was a great ride,” Vidro, 57, said during the Dec. 10 council meeting as he wrapped up his 35-year career. “I’ve enjoyed myself. I love working for the city.”
He later told Noozhawk he couldn’t single out just one accomplishment he was most proud of from his time working in Solvang.
“I think it’s the compilation of all the different things,” Vidro sad, citing street improvements in downtown Solvang, creation of Sunny Fields Park, “sorely needed” new public restrooms on Alisal Road, and the addition of new wells to stabilize the community’s water supply.
While tourism is key in Solvang, Vidro said, the city needs to keep a careful balance.
“Your goal is to bring more tourism, which means more people, more traffic,” he said. “So the residents feel that’s an inconvenience. But they need to realize that’s also the revenue that drives the city, keeps their property taxes down, because there’s revenue generated from the tourists.
Still, the city leaders need to ensure tourists pay their share, through transient-occupant taxes, or bed taxes, for those spending the night, he added
He said a big challenge awaiting his replacement centers around the need to modernize the community’s 25-year-old wastewater treatment plant — and how to fund its share of what’s expected to be a $9 million to $15 million project.
Vidro — it rhymes with hydro — landed in California because of a recession in Michigan at the time his graduated from Michigan State University. Educated as a civil engineer, Vidro secured a job with Caltrans in the San Francisco Bay Area.
That led to a stint as public works director for South Lake Tahoe.
He applied for a job with the city of San Luis Obispo, where the interview panel included then-Solvang City Manager Marlene Demery, who asked Vidro to apply for Solang’s vacant public works director slot.
He filled the job for a year before being named city manager after Demery departed.
For Vidro, retirement will bring travel — he and his wife, Debra, have a camping trip planned to four National Parks in 2019 — but they intend to still live in Los Alamos.
“This is a neat little town,” Vidro said of Solvang. “It’s been great for me. It’s been good.”
The search for his replacement will continue into the new year, and the Dec. 10 meeting brought praise for Vidro.
“A city manager like Brad is difficult to find and now to replace,” Councilwoman Joan Jamieson said before ending her stint on the panel. “He’s been diplomatic most of the time, knowledgable most of the time … patient and understanding, part of the time.
“All that being said, he has a great sense of humor,” she added.
Several others spoke out about Vidro, including Linda Johansen, who said she has worked with four city managers during her business and community involvement.
“You, by far, have been the best,” Johansen said, noting his expertise, knowledge, charisma and skill at calming the Danes.
“You helped us to make our city better. Again, our incoming city manager, whoever that might be, has huge, huge, huge shoes to fill, and I only hope they can do half the job that you’ve done,” she added.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.