Wasco County Commission Position 1: Roy Justesen

He built his campaign around issues he found with Wasco County’s 2040 Comprehensive plan, primarily the plan’s failure to address agricultural needs and the needs of the working rural class. He hopes to make significant changes concerning land use regulation in the county.

“I’m sick of no one paying attention to the voices that have been here for generations while the county leadership spends its time and resources courting corporate giants and entertaining foolish notions of agricultural utopia,” he said.

A newcomer to politics, Justesen is a part of a family of fifth-generation landowners in Tygh Valley. “My family has been here for generations; my children will have an interest here and I want to make sure Wasco County is a better place in the meantime,” he said.

He was on track to graduate with an engineering degree from Oregon State University “when I was overcome by wanderlust,” he said, leaving Oregon to work construction jobs around the nation.

He says this experience left him fascinated by the diversity of America and gave him insight into the strengths of his own community: Namely, a generational flow that fosters long-term posterity and gives residents a sense of belonging. He worries that Wasco County is losing this sense of belonging due to a failure of industry that’s sending the younger generation packing for opportunities elsewhere.

South Wasco County in particular, he says, suffers from the county’s lack of effort in engaging rural communities and resistance to different approaches in strengthening recreational and tourist activities in the area.

“South Wasco County sits in limbo…this is not a simple problem to address,” he said, “what I do know is that there is a need for better quality rental opportunities. There is a need for steady jobs and there is stifled land use potential. These are the issues that present themselves, and since there is no definitive solution to any of them, a thoughtful, diverse and locally informed approach is needed to accomplish anything of significance.”

For these and other issues brought before the commission, he said he would need to do research and collect information from all areas of the community before taking a stance.

He hopes to establish distinct commissioner districts, which he says will express the diverse needs of different geographic and economic districts of Wasco County. “Each commissioner would be directly responsible to respect constituents for input and accountability,” he said. Ideally, he would also like to add two more commissioner positions.

“I feel like we could use a little more diversity and accountability in our leadership in this county,” he said.

Justesen and his wife Sarah own a general contractor agency. Together they have a daughter, Josephine, and are expecting a son. He attributes his relative political inexperience to the demanding ranching industry and his family-oriented personality.

“I’ve been very family-focused and given the nature of the jobs I’ve specifically done for the last 10 or 12 years, I haven’t had the ability to free myself up for public experience, but that has now changed.”

He operated the cattle end of the family operation for some time before choosing to reenter the construction field “I left the ranch in a much better place than I found it and for me, that’s enough.”

Justesen can be reached at 541-980-2073.