The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON-On his second morning managing the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, Justin Nix was busy posting information about Azure Mountain Botanicals and a Mother's Day event at The Blue Mountain Station to Facebook, and hosing down the sidewalk in front of the chamber office.

Nix, who is has replaced Andrew Holt at the Chamber, said he was hired by the Chamber board because of his skills in social media marketing.

"I will be working to bridge the gap between the Baby Boomers and the Millennials, while promoting regional tourism and economic growth," Nix said. "I want to get the word out about how great Dayton is."

"I was really inspired to come here and show off Dayton," said Nix, who has visited Dayton off and on for the past 10 years.

"The people in Dayton are so friendly. It's like being in the south again," he said.

Nix said he was born in Mountain Home, Ida., grew up in Walla Walla, and graduated from high school in Biloxi, Mississippi.

He said he was working on a baseball scholarship in Biloxi when a car accident injured him so badly he had to give up baseball. "I decided to move back to Washington," he said.

His first job in Washington was in the Tri-Cities, at retail store called Buckle. That job took him back to Biloxi to work as part of the management team at Buckle. He said he stayed a few years, but came back to the Tri-Cities in 2003.

Then, he said he moved to Walla Walla to work as an assistant marketing manager for Sherwin Williams, and he also opened a personal training business, In Sync Gym, in Walla Walla.

After that, he worked for Verizon Wireless in College Place, which led to a promotion at two corporate Verizon Wireless company locations in Spokane.

"I took time off after I left there, and traveled around the United States for a year," Nix said.

Nix said he then did a stint at Pitney-Bowes, before moving to Puerto Rico, where he worked on a privately owned organic farm.

Since coming to Dayton, Nix has joined a pool league at Woody's Bar & Grill, gotten to know the folks at the Eagles, and has joined the men's golf league, he said.

At the chamber office, Nix said he has been"going over the books and he plans to start walking around town, reaching out to chamber members. He also plans to take a tour of the Port of Columbia facilities, with the Port's Economic Development Coordinator, Brad McMasters.

"We're going to get the word out that we're here to help," he said.

Nix said he is grateful to the chamber board for the job opportunity, and to Tracy Clark, the interim Chamber Director, for helping bridge the gap between the time Andrew Holt left to take a job in Yakima, and his first day of employment at the chamber, on May 8.