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 Member
Profile:
Sam Goesch
Life
is uncertain. That's why people buy insurance. In life, more good things happen
than bad. That's why insurance companies thrive. They calculate the odds of
success and failure on those things insurable, then price their policies to
have a profit after paying off losses.
There's insurance for most
everything, it seems. Maybe there's even an insurance company that insures
cities against failure. And maybe there's a city rich enough to buy such a
policy. Keizer isn't one of them. Keizer does things the old fashioned way.
They try to stay out of harms way by attracting leaders who have intelligence,
experience and heart.
Sam Goesch began putting down
family roots in Keizer in the fall of 1962, just after the Columbus Day storm
blew through town. His father moved here with State Farm Insurance and opened
up his own agency. Today, father and son have competitor agencies, both working
for State Farm.
After two years in the
insurance business, working with others, Sam was given the green light for his
own agency, in 1981. He moved the office to Keizer on River Road in 1990. That
marked the beginning of Sam's public career. He had to jump through some
regulatory hoops in order to get permission for his special business sign.
That's how he got involved in the Keizer Chamber of Commerce.
Now the OSU graduate in
business finance is president-elect of the Chamber. He's also on the River Road
Redevelopment Board and served on Keizer's Planning Commission, elected as its
chairman for a year and a half. It has been a time of tumultuous growth, of
competing commercial development interests, and of tough planning decisions.
With the improvement of 1-5
through Salem, the Chemawa interchange has been the focus of intense business
interest. Some business people wanted to develop 37 acres of land around the
intersection. The Chamber led an effort to limit the size and type of retail
development. "There aren't enough people in the area to support two retail
centers in Keizer," Sam said. And if there's to be only one, he'd like it to be
along River Road. Apparently, a majority of people agree. A survey done for the
Chamber last year indicates that 58 percent of respondents said they'd like
"the downtown" to remain along River Road.
With the Keizer Volcanoes
baseball arena locating along I-5, that development is certain to bring new
pressures for restaurants, hotels and other retail shopping. In the meantime,
the River Road Redevelopment Board has ambitious plans for Keizer's major
commercial thoroughfare. They want to see several "mixed use zones" mingle
between the intersections of River Road and Chemawa, Manbrin and Iris Streets.
"We'd like to see River Road become a more attractive environment for
business," Sam said.
Asked how he finds time for
his wife, Victoria, and four sons, ages two to twelve, Sam quickly responded:
"The time I spend on community things competes with my business time, not my
family time." He lets people know right off the bat: "I can only devote these
certain hours." That leaves time to coach his sons' teams, be a cub scout
leader and an active church member with his family.
It also leaves time for
vacations. The Goesch family drives each year to visit another National Park.
"Our goal is to visit all of them west of the Mississippi," Sam said. "Victoria
(with an English degree from Brigham Young University) researches the trips and
we take turns reading from books about the parks we're visiting," he added.
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