Dayton Chronicle - Your Hometown News Source

I am seeking another term on the Columbia County Board of Commissioners to be able to further contribute my fiscally conservative approach to budgeting and eight years of experience on the Columbia County Board of Commissioners.

I first ran in 2012, when Dick Jones retired, and I was re-elected in 2016.

I have been asked by quite a few people to run for another term. This is a challenging time for Columbia County. We were hit by a flood in February, and now the coronavirus is adding to the pressure on the county budget.

I think my past experience and the fact that I enjoy working with the people of the county, and the other elected officials and employees of Columbia County will be an asset now.

When I was first elected in 2012, the County's rainy-day fund was around $300,000. County reserves in the most recent budget were about $1.7 million.

That financial knowledge and understanding of the county's funds is going to be invaluable the next couple of years.

Over the years I have served as board chairman, plus I serve on a number of boards and commissions in the county and region, including Public Health, Public Works, the Snake River Salmon Recovery Board, the Walla Walla Watershed Partnership and the Columbia County Transportation System board.

Dealing with flooding that damaged county roads, and the loss of revenue due to the coronavirus outbreak has taken a lot of our attention, and I think we've responded to the issues of repairing the roads and, when coronavirus shut things down, we didn't waste any time cutting back spending as the economy went downhill and gas taxes and sales taxes dried up.

At my urging, we took action because we knew our nice reserve wouldn't be enough.

Prior to being elected commissioner in 2012, I served on the Dayton School Board for 17 years. In the past eight years, I've worked with our neighbors in Walla Walla and Garfield counties, and with state and federal elected officials, like Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

I am a life-long resident of Dayton. I graduated from Dayton High School in 1969 and went to Walla Walla Community College for two years. I've successfully operated the family farm for about 40 years. My wife Chrissy and I have two daughters and a son, Tarah, Stacia and Jeron