Last night Steve and Denise Rogers joined our group of irregular Friday nighters – a first, though we’ve been urging them to ‘come on over’ for several years. We concede that it’s a bit of a trek from South Bend but we knew our friends would enjoy them and vice versa. And that proved to be true.
Our mutual interest and the reason we know one another concerns Pacific County history. Steve has been president of the Pacific County Historical Society for five years or so and he and I have collaborated on at least three Sou’wester magazines. Though Nyel and I haven’t had as much contact with Denise, we are aware that she’s the one behind the scenes – working on museum displays and information kiosks and County Fair presentations and carefully reading every word of those Sou’westers before they go to print. Steve and Denise are a great team.
Just recently Steve has declared his candidacy of the position that Pacific County Commissioner Jon Kaino is vacating at the end of May. The election won’t be until November so there will be an interim commissioner appointed in the meantime. Plus there are several other candidates for that position so there will be a primary election in August. The months ahead promise to be busy ones for Steve and Denise, so we were pleased to see them take time for Oysterville last night.
We didn’t talk platforms or politics specifically. It was more a get acquainted sort of evening and there were plenty of other interesting subjects. Steve was a teacher and then principal at South Bend High School. He’s a kayaker. His County roots go back a ways. Plus he owns Baby Island. I think it’s actually a co-ownership with his brother… but, even so! That puts him right up there with Johnny Depp and Julia Roberts and Nicholas Cage and a whole lot of other island-owning- celebrities.
Of greatest interest to me, though, is his passion for history and, in particular, for Pacific County History. I have seen his dedication to documenting and perpetuating the stories of our past, When he gets his campaign under way, I want to ask him where he stands of the matter of historic preservation. Other counties seem to be way ahead of us in that arena. To those of us who live in the National Historic District of Oysterville, the County Commissioners’ support and encouragement regarding preservation is of utmost importance.
Even though it’s early days yet, I can’t think of anyone with better qualifications for the job. It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.
Good to know, Sydney. Having someone whose roots go deep is important as long as they aren’t totally against progress. I remember reading the article about him and his brother and Baby Island.