Submitted By: proactivewheeler@gmail.com – Click to email about this post
Walt Porter is a retired dairy farmer from the Nehalem Valley, who moved to Wheeler seven years ago. He dived into community involvement on the Neahkahnie School District board, the Tillamook County Soil and Water Conservation District and Wheeler’s FY 2022-2023 budget committee.
Learning about Wheeler’s budget and financial challenges illustrated to Walt the work facing city council. He considers having been through the “school of hard knocks” as a farmer, running every aspect of the business, thorough preparation for being a councilor. But, ultimately, he points out, it’s relationships and collaboration that get any job done.
From working with the soil and water conservation district, he learned the basics of state and federal funding for water infrastructure. He emphasizes the efficiencies of maintaining systems versus the expense of rebuilding them. If elected to council, he would focus on optimizing funds, rather than postponing infrastructure investments.