Longtime Castle Rock Public Works Director Dave Vorse retired at the end of 2025 after 44 years with the city.
He joined not long after Mount St. Helens’ 1980 eruption that sent about 1 million Olympic swimming pools worth of debris around the North Fork Toutle River.
The volcanic debris eroded into the Toutle and Cowlitz rivers, worsening flooding and creating challenges to this day for the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
“When the mountain blew, the log debris that came down the river literally wiped out the intake structure to the water treatment plant,” Vorse recalled.
While dealing with the lasting impacts of the eruption shaped the job, it didn't define Vorse's duties, which went beyond his title and centered around supporting residents' ideas to shape the city.
“We've always had people that step up and make it happen and make it a better community,” he said. “And really that's what we have focused on: making a quality place where people want to live, where they want to set up their business, where they want to work, where they want to raise their families and be a part of their community.”
Mayor Paul Helenberg first met Vorse in high school, and worked with him for decades.
“Before becoming mayor, we worked a lot together on some trail projects he had and north county recreation through grants that the city and the school district and the soccer club got,” Helenberg said.
Helenberg said Vorse’s skill at wrangling together grant funding was particularly impressive, enabling the city to finish projects that otherwise might have been out of reach.
Helenberg said Vorse oversaw replacing almost all the city’s old waterlines about a decade after the city took over the water system from a company.
“Real instrumental in that, I mean, instrumental in everything,” he said, adding, “Cowlitz Street, when we redid that 15 years ago, that (project) had 13 funding sources, different grants to do that project.”
In a December conversation about his then-pending retirement, Vorse said the key to so much of the work his team accomplished was supporting residents’ own visions for the community.
“It's not any one person, it takes a team,” he said. “It takes the vision of many that collaborate together and find unity — instead of finding ways to disagree, we find a way to work together.”
One example of that was the city’s Bike Skills Park, which started with someone born and raised in town.
“He came to us and said ‘You have this little dirt BMX park — we'd like to really make something more of that,’” Vorse recalled. “We found a way to say ‘Yes,’ and then we got out of their way, and then we just followed up with supporting them, helping them where we could.”
“That's really how many things have happened,” he added. “We, instead of saying 'no,' we've tried to find a way to say 'yes,' and that's led to many of the improvements, and that's usually led by good volunteer groups.”
In retirement, Vorse said he also plans to volunteer, including for the local incident command team.
He's also considered learning to fly fish, if his health and patience allow.
“I'm not much to plunk and watch a bobber or listen for a bell,” he said. “I find myself — it's hard for me to sit still.”
First up, is time with grandchildren and regional trips with his wife, including touring historical round barns throughout the state, with the oldest located in Castle Rock itself.
“We actually have some of the oldest round barns not too far from us,” he said.
Maybe Vorse’s most important legacy is only just starting.
“It's time for fresh vision, time for fresh blood,” he said in December, just before passing the reins to Tyler Stone.
Stone has been with the city for 11 years. The last three of those have been shadowing Vorse.
Stone, 37, said his mentor’s retirement was bittersweet.
“I have some big shoes to fill,” Stone said. “He's done a lot for the community, and hopefully I can keep the vision going — we have a lot of good community members — and I want to hopefully take it even further.”
He agrees with Vorse's vision to let the community drive.
“We have kind of smaller revenue sources, so we rely a lot on community members and volunteers, and you just have to let them do work,” he said. “You could do really amazing things by letting people be a part of it and just stepping back and seeing other people's vision — and not taking it for granted.”
Stone said he's also admired Vorse's ability to weigh the tough calls.
“He cares about people, and not just the crew, but the community. And sometimes that means he has to make the hard decisions,” he said, adding that at times “there's no right decision, but he has to do what he thinks is best, and he does that; 44 years of doing what he thinks is best for his town.”
