To David Dasher, being East Side Highway District commissioner is another opportunity to serve.

"It has nothing more to do with anything than community service," said Dasher, 62, running for the zone 1 commissioner seat in the May elections.

A past reserve firefighter in Kootenai County and a board member of Kootenai County Water District No. 1, Dasher said it seemed worthwhile to pursue another avenue of community involvement.

There are no specific transportation projects or operation changes he plans on proposing to the district, said Dasher, who lives in an unincorporated area of Kootenai County.

He recognizes the controversy over the local improvement districts the current commissioners have approved to fund overlays in Coeur d'Alene and Harrison.

As a taxpayer, Dasher said, he supports the LIDs.

"I want the roads to be safer for my family to drive to and from work, for the school bus to travel our streets to pick up our children and grandchildren," Dasher said.

But as a commissioner, he added, he would oppose it.

"The majority of my neighbors don't want it," he said. "I would listen to their wishes."

Dasher, who is originally from Springfield, Ill., and has lived in Kootenai County for 20 years, owns a janitorial service.

Before that he held a variety of jobs, he said, including working as a pari-mutuel teller at a dog track, delivering mail in the Post Falls area and selling software to insurance companies.

He acknowledged that he doesn't have highway related experience.

That doesn't mean he can't do a good job, he said.

"I don't know the first thing about building roads or maintaining them," Dasher said. "But I do know how to manage and make good decisions. And I think I'm logical and have common sense and some intelligence. Enough to manage to do a budget."

Dasher has been married to his wife Paula for 43 years. The couple has three grown children and three grandchildren.

He holds himself to a standard of pure honesty, he said.

"When I was growing up as a schoolboy in Illinois, a friend of my father's once told me that he considered me to be more honest than Abe," Dasher said. "I've spent my entire life trying to live up to that high praise. It's served me well so far."