Tim Payne wants family-friendly community

Focus should be on downtown core, sewer infrastructure

Nate Hulings

of the Gateway

Tim Payne is seeking his second term on the Gig Harbor Council this fall.

Payne got involved with city affairs soon after he moved to the harbor earlier this decade. He began to attend council meetings after he heard about a rezone proposal near his home.

As a new resident, he also became interested in the debate of building size in the downtown core.

“Unlike many others, I wasn’t born here, so Gig Harbor wasn’t forced on me,” Payne said. “I made a choice to live here.”

Payne attended nearly every city council meeting for two years, and sometime in between, he decided to run for a council position.

Payne said one of his re-election goals centers on creating a more family-friendly Gig Harbor. As a father of two, he said he’d like to see Gig Harbor become more affordable in order to attract families.

“If we’re going to be a vibrant community, we need a vibrant mix,” he said.

Along those lines, Payne said he wants his children to be able to grow up in the same Gig Harbor that other council members remember from their childhoods.

He hopes his “children will one day share the same stories with the same affection and same charm” as those generations before.

Payne said one of the major accomplishments of his first term included trips to Washington, D.C., to meet with congressional teams to find projects and funding for the city.

Those trips resulted in securing funds for the renovation of Donkey Creek Park, the Harbor History Museum and trying to find alternative funding options for the Boys & Girls Club.

Payne also is a strong advocate for improving traffic and pedestrian safety. Once the city has necessary funding, he’d like to see an improvement in traffic and pedestrian corridors.

“Nothing builds community more than walking and having that interaction face to face,” he said.

Another issue the city must soon face is underground sewer and water infrastructure, Payne said.

“If there is something that is probably not really noted by the community at large, it’s water and wastewater,” Payne said. “You simply grow to expect it.”

Water delivery and wastewater collection improvements need to keep up with growth, he said.

At home, Payne enjoys gardening. He said the flower beds at his house will reveal that he’s a “goofball” in that regard.

“I enjoy just getting my hands in the dirt,” he said.

Payne also enjoys kayaking, but he admitted he doesn’t get out as often as he’d like.

Payne and his wife, Stephanie, will celebrate their 14th wedding anniversary later this year. They have two boys, Joey, 9, and Will, 5.

Payne considers himself Norwegian by marriage — his wife is full-blooded.

He’s also the executive vice president of EMA, Inc., a management and tech-consulting firm that works with municipal governments and water utilities.