'Iron woman' takes on interim planning position

Susanna Julber, a contract planner for the city, has taken over the position of interim planning and community development director for the City of Sisters. She will remain in the position until Eric Porter, the city's new senior planner, comes on board after his honeymoon on September 24.

Julber doesn't see her position as one that requires making any new inroads into the challenges that face the city. Rather, she sees her roll as custodial until the new person takes over.

"I will make sure that there are no major glitches and that the office is staffed so that things go smoothly in this interim period," she said.

Julber is familiar with the city and has been working here part time since she moved to Central Oregon.

"I have been working here for a year-and-a-half but just on a part-time, contract basis," said Julber, who prefers less than full-time employment due to family commitments.

"I prefer to work part-time as my husband is really busy with his job. He is the community development director for the City of Bend, and we have a four-year-old little girl. We agreed when we moved here that he would have a real job, and I would work part-time."

Although Julber has only worked with the city for a year-and-a-half, she has known the city manager for many years.

"I worked with Eileen (Stein) in Springfield when I was a planner there. When she (Stein) heard that Mel, my husband, was taking the Bend job, she wondered what I was going to be doing. So, she called me and offered me a job when we moved over here," said Julber.

Julber feels that the latest accomplishments in the planning department will be a big help to the city and that Brian Rankin did a great job on crafting the new city flood plain code.

"I think the new flood plain code does a lot to enhance the bank protection and protect people from flood damage. I think the risk is definitely out there, and our existing one (flood code) was not a real strong one," said Julber.

Julber believes that the city's new planning and community development director, when hired, will face some significant challenges in his or her position.

"I think the biggest challenge for the permanent replacement is balancing the phenomenal growth that we have going on with the community vision, to keep things moving for the developers but still maintaining details and making sure that we are still keeping goals of livability. There is a lot to keep in mind when reviewing applications, and I think that is going to be tough for whoever gets hired for the position," she said.

Although a planner by profession and education, Julber is an athlete at heart and competes in Iron Woman events. Her next big competition will be August 26.

"I am going to Penticton, Canada for the event. I have been in five of the Iron Woman events. I did my first one in 1999, but I took some time off when I had my baby. It takes a lot of training time to be ready for an event like this," said Julber, who now with her family commitments takes her sport much more lightly than she would normally.

However, when the events begin she throws everything she has into it.

"I will be swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles and then run a full marathon, which is 26.2 miles. The first goal is to finish. I am not expecting to win. One of the good things about this kind of a race is that there is a pro race and an age group race where they group the people by age. Each person will be in a five- or four-year age group," said Julber.

The competition is very strong, and, although she does not believe that she has a chance of winning outright, there is a chance to qualify for a slot at the famous, annual Iron Man-Iron Woman competition in Hawaii.

"There are Hawaii qualifying spots at this one. That is my goal actually, to get a qualifying spot for Hawaii. It will be hard though. It gets more and more competitive every year," said Julber.

Making it doubly hard is that the Julber will not be able to arrive early to do any training before the race.

"We are just going to go up the day before the race. It is about a nine- to 10-hour drive. Then, depending upon what happens, we will stick around on Monday or come home on Monday, if I have a bad race," said Julber.