Talbott Says He Has Vision For Columbia County

DAYTON -- Mike Talbott said if he is elected as Columbia County Commissioner, he intends to bring his experience running a small farm and his love for the city of Dayton to work with him every day.

Talbott was born and raised in Dayton. He and his wife have three grown children, the youngest of which recently graduated from Washington State University.

After attending Dayton High School and Walla Walla Community College, Talbott intended to continue on to Eastern Washington University, but at the time his father was ready to relinquish control of the fam- ily farm. So Talbott stepped up to run the business and has since been farming for 42 years.

He first decided to run for the position of county commissioner when current Commissioner Dick Jones decided not to run for another term. Jones called Talbott and suggested he would be a good candidate for the position, which got Talbott thinking, he said.

Retiring Commissioner Dick Jones said when he was first appointed; Talbott had also showed desire to hold the position.

"He expressed an interest in the position," Jones said. "And even when he didn't get it, he talked to me a few times saying he was interested. I told him when I decided not to run I would let him know."

Jones said Talbott has put immersed himself in the com- munity to help and that was why Jones contacted him about the upcoming opening.

"I worked for my father for 10 or 12 years until he passed away," Talbott said.

Talbott has been running the family farm essentially alone, he said, until the last three or four years when he was able to hire on some help. This experience has made him inti- mately familiar with running a business. He said he learned bookkeeping and programs like QuickBooks to manage the business and the experience has helped him realize that it takes more than just a few years of high wheat prices to make a business successful.

"It takes good management to make that happen," Talbott said.

Talbott is no stranger to step- ping out from the business to get acquainted with the town he lives in. When his oldest daugh- ter was in second grade, he was elected to the Dayton School Board where he served 17 years for the Dayton School District.

Talbott said there were some parallels between the school district budget the board works with and the county budget he would be working with if he is elected as the Columbia County commissioner.

"It was a good learning ex- perience," he said. "But when my youngest daughter was ready to graduate, I decided it was time to let someone else take over."

Since then, Talbott will admit he has been very busy. He spent time on the county planning commission, the Columbia County Grain Board and small committees like the Dayton Columbia County fund. He said these groups and his time in and out of Dayton have helped him see the problems the city faces

"I have a good feel for what the community needs and the experience to help," Talbott said. "There are a lot of aspects to being the county commissioner.

You have to know the area and the community and if you haven't lived here, it takes a while to get used to it."

Talbott said he thinks he is trustworthy and reliable, which he considers two of the most important aspects of the commissioner position. He said people in the Dayton community know him because he has been around for his whole life and that makes him a consistent figure people can look to.

"I've got a good vision of the county," Talbott said. "With a few changes I think we can improve the county and make it a really good thing with the right leadership."