Lowell’s New City Administrator Trades Career of Sharps & Flats For a New One of Debits & Credits

Jeremy Caudle Once Thought He Would Become a Musician, But Life Took a Turn That Took Him All the Way to a Small Town on the Shores of Dexter Lake

By DEAN REA/Chief Correspondent/The Herald

Jeremy Caudle learned to play the guitar and figured he would pursue a musical career.

That career objective changed midway through his undergraduate collegiate study and eventually led him cross-country to become Lowell’s city administrator on Jan. 4.

Caudle, who recently turned 35, says he sought the job because it offered an opportunity to once again be “a jack of all trades and to build authentic relationships.”

He says he missed that sense of being involved in community while working as the business manager in a western Colorado county of 153,000 residents.

“And when I saw Lowell in this beautiful setting and the hospitality of everyone I met, I was convinced that this was the perfect community for my family and for me to put down roots.”

Caudle’s roots began in North Carolina where he learned to play the guitar and the piano and eventually enrolled in a music program at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, N.C.

“I was a bookworm,” he says. “I was always interested in the deeper things of life, political theory, how government works.”

Midway through community college he transferred to Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., and earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy and a graduate degree in public administration.

‘This Kind of Work Is Pretty Cool’

Two summer internships working with city and county governments led him to think that “this kind of work is pretty cool and might be something I want to do.”

“It sealed the deal for me,” he said later during an interview in his office located in Lowell’s City Hall on Third Street.

After completing college, he worked as the budget analyst for Gaston County, N.C., then managed the business operations for the Gaston County sheriff’s office before becoming the city administrator of Inman, S.C.

In 2018 he moved west to Mesa County, located in western Colorado. It was a great job, he says, but he missed working in a small-town environment.

So, when Jared Cobb traded working five years as Lowell’s city administrator for a similar job in Florida, Lowell city councilors launched a nationwide search that caught Caudle’s attention.

“They flew me to Oregon for an interview,” Caudle says. When he first viewed Lowell from Highway 58 looking across Dexter Lake nestled in the wooded area framed by a mountain, he says, “I thought this would be a nice community for my family.”

Interim City Administrator Marsha Miller, filling in after Cobb departed, helped in the recruiting. (Read a sidebar about her right here.)

 Two Young Adults, Two Cars, Two Cats and 1,000 Miles of Highway

When the deal was closed, Caudle and his finance Leslie arranged for their belongings to be shipped to their Eugene rental. Meanwhile, they headed west in their two cars along with their two cats, Calvin and Minx.

They made the thousand-mile trip in two days without incident, and Caudle reported for work on Jan. 4.

Caudle is at work on several projects, including those designed for attention in the “2021 Strategic Plan” adopted by the City Council on Jan. 19.

Topping the list is financing the renovation of a former church building at the corner of East First and North Pioneer streets to house the City Hall and the library.

A facilities study noted that the City Hall and library building on Third Street has a failing roof, which has caused significant structural and cosmetic damage.

No. 2 on the to-do list is renovating Rolling Rock Park in the downtown area which is the site of the popular Blackberry Jam Festival and through which many visitors travel en route to Fall Creek Reservoir.

Meanwhile, on Caudle’s arrival in Lowell, he wrote in the community’s monthly newsletter: “Leslie and I enjoy the outdoors, and we can’t wait to explore all the recreational opportunities that Oregon has to offer. My goal is to be an accessible, engaged and visible city administrator.”

Longtime Oregon journalist Dean Rea, widely known for his years as a University of Oregon journalism educator and editor at The Register-Guard in Eugene,  serves as a founding board member and senior writer for The Herald.