About four years ago, Keith Olson hung up his dress shirts and slacks and put on his flannels and jeans again.
Olson had been a teacher and coach at Lake Quinault for nine years. The Marine Corps veteran had worked out in the woods off and on his whole life and said he was just missing it — the feel of the forest beneath his feet, even the smell. Despite being 64 years old, when most might consider just retiring, he still feels the call of being a tree faller.
Now, Olson, running as a Republican, has his eye on a whole new job and is hoping to be the next county commissioner.
He remembers going to his dad John and just putting it all on the line: “I remember telling him, ‘Dad, you’ve been fighting this and complaining for 60 years and I’ve been complaining for 40. It’s time to put up or shut up. Maybe from a county seat, we can have a louder voice on issues at the state and federal level.’ And here we are today.”
Olson managed to hold on, just barely, in the primary election, securing a position on the General Election Ballot by just 10 votes over Democrat Al Smith. Olson managed to get 26.12 percent of the vote. Now, Smith says he has endorsed Olson and is trying to get his friends to vote for him.
Cosmopolis Mayor Vickie Raines placed first in the primary with 33 percent of the vote. The primary election was just for voters in District 3, which includes Hoquiam and the North Beach and the Quinault area. Now, the election goes countywide with voters in East County and the Aberdeen area getting to chime in for the first time.
Olson has spent most of his life in the Lake Quinault area and is the fourth generation to call it home. He’s also seen a lot of change over the years and says the population has shrunk from hundreds, if not thousands, to about 150 people today. He’s seen new regulations from logging come in and take away the shake mills that used to dot Highway 101 between Hoquiam and Amanda Park. He’s also seen the Park Service and Forest Service purchase up much of the property on the north shore of the lake.
Granted, most of what he’s seen is direct consequences of federal policies, but he thinks a position on the county commission will give him a vocal presence to fight for the people.
“I don’t think we’re on an island here,” Olson said. “I think we have issues here that are issues all over the county. There are shoreline issues. The Forest Service is eliminating roads, plus Wild Olympics, which, granted, doesn’t affect Aberdeen and Hoquiam directly, but it’s going to affect our tourism industry.”
In 1968, he was drafted into the Marine Corps.
“They don’t usually draft into the Marines, but I still remember sitting in this gym with 500 to 600 other guys and this guy says they needed seven volunteers for the Marine Corps. Nobody stood up and he just pointed out to the crowd. As it happened I was laughing a little bit and he said, ‘Don’t laugh, blondie, I mean, you.’”
He was deployed to Vietnam soon after.
By odd coincidence, he says he still remembers the name of the lady who sent him his draft notice — and he came upon her house in Hoquiam as he was doorbelling. “So, I got to meet her,” Olson said. “I told her everything worked out fine, I just never forgot her name.”
He’s been a timber faller, off and on, for three decades. He taught at Lake Quinault High School for nine years. He’s also coached basketball, football and track at Lake Quinault, Hoquiam, Aberdeen and Grays Harbor College for about 25 years.
“The best part of being a coach was the relationship with the kids,” Olson said. “I remember playing football for Grays Harbor College and then I got to be a coach with my old coach later in life.”
As a county commissioner, Olson says he would follow the example Republican County Commissioner Wes Cormier has set for the commissioners.
He says there are some decisions he would likely have sided with Cormier on this past year.
When the commissioners debated to approve a 20-year garbage contract with LeMay’s, Cormier argued the terms were too long and the process should have gone out for a bid. Olson says that logic makes sense and he likely would have supported him. Cormier was outvoted 2-1.
When the hospital officials at Summit Pacific Medical Center asked to reduce the boundaries to the hospital district to benefit Grays Harbor Community Hospital, Cormier agreed with the Summit Pacific officials and asked for the hospital boundaries to shrink. His fellow commissioners approved the boundaries as-is on a 2-1 vote. “As I saw it, the residents of the area did want the boundaries changed,” Olson said.
Olson said he would also side with Cormier on making changes to ensure that all job positions, including internships, are posted for everybody — and said he was encouraged when Cormier led the county commissioners to approve changes in the permit requirements for the construction of out buildings so long as it doesn’t exceed an 800-square foot size.
“I don’t think there should be a permit for something like that, if it’s even bigger,” Olson said.
Olson cites an 84-year-old friend who was building an unattached carport — with no walls and just a roof.
“For county permits and fees, it cost her $5,000 in fees,” Olson said. “There was an earthquake test, a flood plain check and they checked her septic tank. It was functioning perfectly but they made her pump it and it cost her $230 for that. She was putting in a car port, not an expanded roof. Why did it need to cost $5,000 in permits and fees? That’s’ unnecessary.”
Olson says he would disagree with Cormier on the issue of needle exchanges, which Cormier opposes.
“If some inconsiderate drug user doesn’t have the needle exchange, they throw their needles around where kids will have contact with them — and that’s not right,” Olson said.
Olson says he is vehemently opposed to eminent domain, coming out against a plan to rebuild the SouthShore Road at Lake Quinault further away from the lake — which would likely mean buying private property.
“But what if people don’t want to sell? They’d have to because the road would be halfway in their yard. And, on that particular project, when you read the documents, they talk about stakeholders, citizens and residents. They mention it over 100 times and not a soul was informed of it until I made copies and distributed the papers.”
Looking to next year, Olson and Raines both say they would vote against any talk of a road levy shift — which takes money from the road fund and props up the county’s general fund, causing residents in the cities to pay a little more in property taxes.
“It’s also frightening to realize the county doesn’t have a balanced budget and needs to use reserves to keep going,” Olson said. “There may be a revenue shortfall next year — and even more coming down the line.”
Olson criticizes all three of the county commissioners for recently approving raises for the administrators of the Sheriff’s Office, saying it sets a precedent where the other workers will now want the same raises. “And, if it doesn’t play out, there will be a major morale problem there,” Olson said. “I can understand being a member of the road crew and looking at someone getting a 10 percent pay increase and then they’ll wonder, ‘Why don’t we get that?’ That’s the real troubling issue for me. I wouldn’t say I won’t give anybody a raise, there’s just going to have to be a lot of discussion.”
Olson says he would have voted for Republican County Commissioner Herb Welch if he would have run for re-election, but Welch bowed out, citing health issues.
At one point, Olson was considering supporting Raines, he acknowledges, when both he and his wife went out to dinner with Raines at the Lake Quinault Lodge. She had already declared herself as a candidate. “Not really understanding what you should or shouldn’t do, I just went and filed,” he said.
The issue of party politics has been in the spotlight in this particular county commissioner race, in part, because Raines has chosen not to run with a party affiliation. And, this is the first time there hasn’t been a Democrat running in the General Election in, perhaps, decades.
For two out of the past three elections, the county Republicans have won seats on the county commission — and it’s the first time in more than 50 years the Republicans hold the majority on the commission, although Welch has taken some heat for voting with Democrat Frank Gordon more regularly in the past two years.
Olson says he had never been a partisan person, choosing to vote for the person, not the party affiliation. He lauds the work made by former state Rep. Lynn Kessler and current state Rep. Brian Blake. Both are Democrats. But, he said, he also appreciates the work done by former state Rep. Jim Buck, as well as Cormier and Welch. The three are Republicans.
“When we started talking about making a run, I started talking to several people,” Olson said. “I don’t know how to run a campaign. I talked to people at the Evergreen Freedom Foundation and got information on how to run a campaign. Well, I learned I needed help. I wanted party support. And the Republicans asked me to be their candidate and I said I’d do it.”
Last month, Olson attended and spoke to members of the Grays Harbor Democrats. Jim Eddy, who supports Raines, asked Olson point blank: “What if the Democrats would have asked you first?”
Olson says now, “There was a long silence there because in this campaign I’ve misspoken. I just thought about it. And, I told, them ‘Yes, I probably would have.’ And I still stand by that if the Democrats would have asked me first. I was just honored that the Republicans did ask me when they did. I would have been honored if the Democrats would have.”
Does that really make Olson a Republican then?
“I’m not a party person and besides, the Republicans asked me first,” Olson said. “I didn’t think the Republicans would be interested in some goofball from Quinault, but they asked me and I said, ‘Sure I will.’ ”
On the Web
http://www.keithforcommissioner.com
https://www.facebook.com/KeithOlson forcounty commissioner
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