The Astoria Downtown Historic District Association is thriving, thanks in large part to having had a full-time coordinator for the past year and a half.
Blaire Buergler is an AmeriCorps volunteer through the RARE (Resource Assistance for Rural Environments) program and has been the downtown association coordinator since August 2010. She organizes meetings, volunteers, outreach, public relations and events for ADHDA. In exchange for experience and a small stipend, volunteers like Buergler are helping to grow organizations even in these tight-budget times.
“We cannot survive without a Blaire,” said former ADHDA president Tiffany Estes.
Current president Dulcye Taylor shared that sentiment. “To continue at the level and to exceed the level we’ve been at, we need a Blaire,” she told ADHDA members at the January meeting.
AmeriCorps jobs typically last a few months to a year. Buergler is in her second year with ADHDA, which plans to apply for another volunteer this spring, and if accepted, interviews with potential volunteers will happen in July.
“I think the RARE program has had a good experience with Astoria,” which Buergler said has provided her “the professional development that the program is all about.”
RARE is an AmeriCorps program that matches community planners at the beginning of their career with rural Oregon communities. Each community pays $19,000 of the $32,000 necessary to place, train and to provide a $1,500 monthly stipend for their volunteer.
“The RARE program is very selective,” Buergler said. “You have to have a bachelor’s degree and they are looking for planners.”
When she first applied for the program in spring of 2010, Buergler thought she was a long shot so she was surprised to be asked to do a phone interview.
However, Buergler has a bachelor’s degree in public and urban affairs from Virginia Tech, where she was also a resident advisor in the dorms and a member of the dive team. At the time when she interviewed, she was working as a visitor services counselor for Arlington (Va.) Economic Development.
The program interviewed 50 people by phone for an hour each, when she was one of 25 people selected to fly out for interviews with the communities, Buergler hedged her bets and chose to interview with seven communities.
She took a week off from work and flew to Oregon. “I rented a car and drove around the state to do interviews,” she said. “It was like interview boot camp.”
The program administrators had wisely advised her to schedule her last interview with the community she was most interested in.
So, after interviewing with North Plains, Adair Village, Crestwell, Toledo, The Dalles and Cascade Locks, she rolled into Astoria—able to anticipate the questions her interviewers might ask.
After answering questions from a six-person panel, Buergler was taken on a walking tour, which she said was the real interview. Her interviewers were most interested in how Buergler interacted with shopkeepers.
“The technical stuff they can teach you, but the personable stuff,” that’s innate.
After the interviews are over, both the communities and the candidates rank their top choices (and their “no ways”). Ideally, volunteers and communities will choose each other and each get their top pick.
“Luckily, Astoria wanted me and I wanted them,” Buergler said.
Buergler later asked the volunteer who ended up at her “no way” community how he liked it, and he said he was very happy with his choice.
“Somehow, everyone ends up where they’re supposed to be,” she said. “We’re all at completely different stages in life … Everyone’s from different places, but we all have similar interests.
“And clearly, we’re all crazy because we’re willing to be plopped down in a random place and get paid nothing,” she said.
Although it’s unusual for volunteers to stay longer than one 11-month term, Buergler signed up for a second year in Astoria, hoping to see some of the projects she’d started come to fruition.
After two years, she is ready to move on. Although she’d briefly considered going back to graduate school right away, she decided to re-enter the workforce instead and will soon be looking for a job.
“I feel like I’ve been living like a poor broke college student,” she said. Her ideal job would be with a local municipality doing urban planning, community development, downtown revitalization or economic development, where she’d be able to learn from colleagues. “Hopefully now I’m more marketable.”
While Buergler’s two years in Astoria has allowed her to build new skills and improve her resume, the benefits to the downtown association have been bigger still.
Buergler has facilitated Astoria’s participation in the Main Street Program, which focuses on revitalizing downtown economies while remaining true to the city’s unique character and heritage. She has also worked with the city to improve storefront and street signage and to investigate ways to lessen commercial vacancies downtown.
But, Estes said, the most noticeable way Buergler has improved the ADHDA is in terms of communication. Buergler has been instrumental in starting and maintaining a facebook page, e-newsletter and website for ADHDA. “Now we can communicate with each other a whole lot better,” Estes said.
In addition to Buergler, there are three other AmeriCorps volunteers serving in Clatsop County, according to community relations coordinator Tom Bennett. Joe Otts, also with the RARE program, is working with the City of Seaside. Nina Palmarini and Meredith Payton are working with the Juvenile Department.
Originally Published in The Coast River Business Journal 42 7th Street, Suite 100Astoria, OR 97103
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