North Bend building official retires

Published 3:00 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

Building Official Bob Rohrbach retired from the employ of the city

of North Bend on Friday, Jan. 28, following several years with the

community. His co-workers marked his departure with a small farewell party.

Rohrbach worked a total of 25 years in the civic inspection and

regulatory field. According to Larry Stockton, the city’s community services

director, Rohrbach joined the city staff of North Bend on a full-time basis

in 1996 following a period of temporary service as an inspector and

consulting inspector.

“He was fantastic,” Stockton said. “The guy was very effective at

cutting through conflicting directives, policies and codes, working with the

customer and coming to conclusions on issues that had heretofore been unresolved.

“Bob’s hallmark was working with the public. He may have had his

share who didn’t agree with him, but that’s part of the job. On the whole, he

made a significant contribution to the city and we hope we’ll be as

fortunate when we hire his replacement.”

Both Stockton and City Administrator Phil Messina said

Rohrbach chose to retire in large part due to North Bend’s building and

development moratorium.

“He retired to work in the private sector,” Messina said. “He will

be missed. He had a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge and it’ll be hard

to replace him, but I understand part of his concern was the slowdown. He

will be taking a lot of knowledge with him.

“I told him, `Bob, I’d like to tell you you’re the best building

official I’ve ever worked with, but that would be faint and damning praise as

the other two were no good,'” Messina added with a laugh.

Stockton said the city is advertising for Rohrbach’s replacement. In

the interim, Robert Kirby of Waldron Resources will serve as acting

building official.