Recupero brings tools to new post on City Council
Published 8:00 am Wednesday, March 6, 2002
Late last month, the Langley City Council appointed a new council member with the perfect qualification: He’s got access to tools.
Jim Recupero, a nine-year Langley resident who is best known by most South Whidbey home improvement buffs as one of the hardware guys at Sebo’s Do-It Center, took over on Feb. 20 a council spot left vacant by Bill Hawkins in January. A retired manager from California’s Lucky Food Stores, the 72-year-old Recupero has served on the city’s Planning Advisory Board for the past six months.
In that short time, he said, municipal planning and the work it takes to run a city got him hooked into council politics. He decided to apply for the open council slot when Hawkins resigned prior to moving away from Langley.
“That’s what interested me,” he said. “I’m fascinated with what’s happening in the city.”
Recupero and his wife, Amy, moved to Langley’s Cedar Circle neighborhood in 1993 after “falling in love” with Whidbey Island’s trees and clean air. He said they found Langley particularly attractive for its old-time, small-town atmosphere. Though he’s been here almost a decade, Recupero said he still can’t get over the fact that everybody knows everybody else in town and will stop on the street for a conversation.
“People will talk to you,” he said.
As a council member, Recupero plans to help keep Langley as it is, at least insofar as the city’s creeping population growth allows. But first, he said, he will learn how to do that by learning from his fellow councilmembers.
That does not mean he will not stand up for his views.
“That’s the challenge,” he said.
Recupero joins somewhat unusual company on the council, at least in electoral terms. Four members of the council — Bettina Fisher, Doug Allderdice, Ray Honerlah and Recupero — have made it onto the body through appointments or by winning an uncontested election. The council’s fifth member, Neil Colburn, is the only council member to be elected in a contested election.
