I was born in Whitefish in 1955. My family and I lived in the Flathead Valley until I moved to St. Regis in 1972.

My wife and I both graduated from St. Regis High in1974 -- Go Tigers. We have two children, Cori and Travis, who both graduated from St Regis. I am a third-generation logger and I worked in the woods until 2006 when I was injured, after two surgeries I was employed at the local sawmill Tricon for 10 years as night shift equipment operator.

I have served on the St. Regis School Board for nine years, St. Regis Community Council, St. Regis Sewer District, and many years as St. Regis baseball coach. I was elected Mineral County Commissioner in 2008 and i still serve Mineral County today. It has been a great honor to serve Mineral County for the last 18 years and i would be honored to continue serving you into the future. Thank you.

If you had to choose between prioritizing tourism or rebuilding a working-resource economy like timber or milling, which would you emphasize and why?

Let me first say that I am a third-generation logger. I would choose the timber and milling industry. I know from experience that industry jobs are higher paying jobs. This country was built around natural resource industries that provide year-round sustainable jobs; these jobs create skilled workers that support our local businesses. Economic studies show that a timber dollar turns over six times within the local economy. There is an opportunity with new technology in the industry to bring in a smaller modular sawmill that would employ skilled local workers, helping to reduce wildfire risk while harvesting our timber and making our forests healthy again.

Tourism can still play an important role in the local economy, especially because the area has beautiful mountains, rivers and outdoor recreation opportunities. However, tourism jobs are often seasonal and paying lower. A balanced approach could include sustainable forestry in wood manufacturing as the economic foundation while still promoting tourism as a secondary industry that supports local restaurants lodging and recreational services.

Do you support expanding timber harvest to reduce wildfire risk and create jobs? If so, how would you push for it?

We have been supporting the expansion of timber harvest to reduce wildfire risk. All forests in the northwest are unhealthy and at risk of wildfire because of reduced timber harvest over the past years. We need to increase the cut and make our forests healthy once again; more logging equals more jobs and that's a fact. We have pushed for increased harvest first at our local Ranger district which by the way has done a great job for mineral county, and we will do even more by increasing the cut. We have been going to our state legislature and conveying our thoughts. Our congressional delegation in Washington DC knows each Mineral County Commissioner by their first name. The other thing that I would like to convey to D.C. is to get rid of the equal access to justice law which allows law firms to get paid for their legal services if they win a case against Forest Service in court. My thought is they're tying up our forests in court and that does no good, all that happens is another half million acres burns.

How do we make sure recreation dollars actually stay in the local community instead of just passing through?

To ensure tourism revenue benefits our community, we should urge the Forest Service to increase and maintain four-wheeler, side-by-side, snow cat, biking and hiking trails. Signage would also be nice so that tourists could find these trails. As community members we need to support our local parks, community gardens, community gathering places and make them tourist friendly. A splendid example of this is what is going on in Saint Regis with our resort board leading the way to highlight new businesses and fix up our decaying infrastructure; a stronger presence of our Chamber of Commerce would help.

Would you support workforce training partnerships with community colleges or trade programs? What should those focus on?

Yes. If am a great supporter of work force training. In the past we have had school to work programs where we train our upcoming adults in the fields of nursing, chefs for restaurants, carpenters, bankers’ etcetera. I would like to see this expanded to law enforcement, detention officers, and dispatchers, EMT, heavy equipment operators, and firefighters. This may only be possible through trade schools such as Pablo and Missoula. Our youth of today are the future of tomorrow.

If the county faced a major budget shortfall, what would be your priorities to cut — or protect?

If our county were to have a major budget shortfall the Commission would follow these steps. We would have to look at each department and see if we could do more with less staffing. We would reduce our or eliminate overtime. We would implement a hiring freeze, and we would reduce spending on travel and supplies. We would look at cutting special contracts for consultants. We would have to look at delaying improvements or reducing funding for non-mandatory county programs. We are mandated by law to have law enforcement to what level would depend on how big a shortfall we have. Maintaining county roads and bridges is crucial to avoid costly repairs or failures, even if it means postponing new projects or equipment.

What is something the current county commission is doing wrong?

As a sitting third-term commissioner I would like to say this; we are doing the best we can to take care of our employees and our constituents given the limited resources we have to work with. Having spent 18 years in this role, I can confidently say that the job is neither enjoyable nor as simple as it might appear to some people. Because there is a substantial amount of federal and state land, our tax base remains quite limited, and this situation will stay the same regardless of who holds the commissioner chair. If we have a fault, it would be that we care too much.