After starting his timber farm near Onalaska decades ago, Harry Bhagwandin’s hope for the promise of his community is as bright as ever, neatly summarized on his cap that reads, “I love Lewis County.”
In that time, his mission has been turning good idea-makers into action-takers, and he has plenty to show for it, including the Onalaska Alliance and Onalaska’s salmon rearing program.
Now, he’s setting hopeful eyes on a new role: Lewis County District 3 Commissioner.
After the death of Commissioner Gary Stamper last September, the county Republican Precinct Committee Officers sent three nominees for the remaining commissioners to choose from.
Of those, Lee Grose — a Packwood resident who previously held the seat — was chosen to serve the final year of Stamper’s term.
In the November general election, voters across Lewis County will choose between Bhagwandin and Scott Brummer. Both candidates are filed as Republicans and neither has held public office before. The top vote-getter will take over for Grose immediately, rather than waiting to be sworn in the following January with most elected officials.
The district largely encompasses South and East Lewis County. Winlock proper is in Commission District 2 while south of state Route 505 mostly falls in district 3. In acreage, the district makes up well over half of the county.
Bhagwandin, 63, ran against Stamper in the primary election of 2014 and has previously said the two had a “pact” promising to support whichever candidate made the general.
“Fortunately it worked out good because we got Gary Stamper, which, I thought (he) was a great guy because of his ability to be with people and listen,” Bhagwandin said. “That’s the spirit we need in our electeds.”
After growing up in Indiana, Bhagwandin and his wife, Annie, came to the area in 1985 for an apprenticeship program with Burnt Ridge Nursery. In 1991, the duo purchased their 65-acre farm, where they raised four children. They now have one granddaughter.
“I wanted to do commercial orcharding organically, and I wanted to grow timber, fruit trees and garden,” he said. “I started with nurseries and I went to Corvallis thinking I was going to go to grad school, but they just laughed at me, like ‘Organic? Are you crazy? That’s so hippy.’ That was in ‘85. And funny that in 1990, Washington state became the first state with an organic certification program and guess who they called to be their first field inspector?”
Bhagwandin spent the next portion of his career with the state Department of Agriculture, traveling to farms across the state to dole out certifications.
While growing chestnuts, black walnuts, butternuts and more on his own property, he spent the rest of his career jumping between various jobs related to sustainable forestry, including teaching programs at Centralia College, working for the Department of Natural Resources and teaching in the Onalaska School District.
With the FFA teacher at the time, Bhagwandin helped establish the district’s award-winning salmon project raising 100,000 coho to be released as smolts.
“Two years later, they came back and they were huge,” he said. “It was amazing. I brought old loggers, good old boys that were gruff woodsmen in their 70s and 80s, they were in tears because they had not seen that kind of salmon here. It was just a cool community project that is still run today.”
In 2009, he helped establish a community service nonprofit, the Onalaska Alliance, host of the Apple Harvest Festival that can be accredited for various improvement projects in the area, including those at Carlisle Lake.
Bhagwandin said he also had a hand in creating Discover Lewis County, the county’s promotional tourism website.
With his sights set on commissioner, Bhagwandin says his campaign trail alongside Brummer has been mostly positive.
“We are friends. I knew Scott briefly with that Onalaska fish project. I’m pretty sure he supported me, he wasn’t someone I had to butt heads against,” he said, adding later, “He’s a good guy to work with.”
One major difference between them, he said, is Brummer has a more “antagonistic” approach to how he has said he wants to work with the state Legislature in a way Bhagwandin thinks might discourage important allyship. The other major difference, he said, is experience.
“It would take us too long to talk about all the stuff I’ve done in so many areas,” he said. “I don’t know all the answers, I at least have some ideas that start a conversation that we can keep going. The skill I have is in bringing people together.”
Bhagwandin’s priority issue in public office would be growth. He said the topic has various prongs affecting all parts of the county — such as keeping the county’s rural feel, creating more living wage jobs and helping the problem of homelessness — but especially in East Lewis County communities such as Packwood where growth and tourism need the support of infrastructure and affordable housing.
“We need more Mindys,” he said, referring to Lewis County’s Senior Long-Range Planner Mindy Brooks, who has spent the last year working with dozens of Packwood residents to create a Packwood subarea plan to guide growth over the next two decades.
“Those are some of the things the county can do, is have the vision, find the people and go after the resources,” he said, adding that housing is a “big and deep and complicated problem that is not black and white.”
Brummer came out on top during the five-candidate Aug. 2 primary election, with Bhagwandin coming in just over Toledo-area candidate Jodery (Jody) Goble. Since, all the runners besides Goble have endorsed Bhagwandin, which gives him hope of picking up the votes to come out on top in November.
Though Brummer seems to have the edge, Bhagwandin said he knows no matter the result of the election, he will continue working for positive change in his community, saying “I’m gonna work on Onalaska’s long-range planning and then keep growing trees, that’s my five-year plan.”
Lewis County commissioners make $90,886 per year, plus benefits.
For more on the candidates, visit the online voters’ guide at https://elections.lewiscountywa.gov/current-election/. To register to vote, head to https://elections.lewiscountywa.gov/voter-registration/ or call 360-740-1164 to find registration nearest you. The general election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 8.
See more coverage on this race after a candidate forum planned for 5 p.m. at the Packwood Community Hall on Sept. 29 that is open to the public.
