DAYTON - Columbia County Commissioner candidate

Tom Bensel can al- ready tout 18 years of ex- perience working with the county, making him a candi- date with special insight into the position.

Bensel, a Dayton resident, has had work experience in many fields, from nuclear energy to street maintenance that he can draw on to help the county in a variety of ways if the public chooses him.

If elected to the county post, Bensel said he has no major agenda of change. Although he does have an idea of what challenges he will face.

"It's prudent to be fiscally conservative," Bensel said. "One of the challenges we face is resources. We have to think about what our resources are going to be and what we want to preserve as a community."

Bensel, 61, has three daughters, twins Audrey and Daniela, and Cassandra, and he said he loved raising three girls even though things sometimes got challenging.

Bensel was born in Walla Walla and attended Dayton High School, Walla Walla Community College and went to Eastern Washington University where he gradu- ated with a degree in biol- ogy and anthropology before taking a job at Hanford in nuclear construction man- agement. Lorrie worked in planning and scheduling at Hanford. Together, Bensel and his wife worked on multi-million dollar projects until nuclear energy lost some of its public support. After his time working with nuclear energy, Bensel went to work for the Columbia County Road Department as a superintendant where he worked for 18 years.

His work with the county road department helped him learn how to work on a tight operating budget.

"County road departments are notoriously starved for resources," Bensel said.

Since Bensel started his own company in 2009, he now has seven years of wind energy experience, nine years of nuclear energy experience and 18 years working with the county under his belt.

"I got to work with some incredibly gifted people," Bensel said. "Now, I want to be on the other side of the table," Bensel said.

Bensel learned how to take things as they come and has dealt with career changes since his college years. When he started college he wanted to major in oceanography.

"I was going to be an oceanographer like Jacques Cousteau," Bensel said with a laugh.

The changes kept coming in his professional life and he never let the lure of a big- ger paycheck outweigh what he thought was best for his family.

Before he took the position as road superintendent he interviewed with Boeing and was hired after being told he was the second choice for the superintendent position. When he received a call of- fering him the superintendent position, which would allow him to move back to Dayton, he took the job, and a considerable pay cut, because he and Lorrie preferred living in Dayton. Lorrie said she was happy they were able to move away from Tacoma and back to Dayton.

"We never looked back," Lorrie said. "We learned how to live on a tighter budget and neither of us has ever missed it. You get a quality of life here that you don't get in the big city, at least for us."

This wasn't the first time Bensel and his wife had to adjust their lifestyle. After the film "The China Syndrome" debuted in 1979, nuclear en- ergy lost a lot of public sup- port, Bensel said. Because of this, he and Lorrie were laid off from Hanford.

"Lorrie and I were on the bubble for about two and a half years when were at Hanford," Bensel said. "We were making good money but they killed the project we were on. We had to stay to button up the project and I ended up staying for two and a half more years."

Despite the challenges they've seen as a couple, Bensel and his wife have grown strong together.

"He's my best friend," Lorrie said.

Through changes and difficult experiences, Bensel keeps a level head and a solid dose of humility when dis- cussing some of the groundbreaking projects he has been a part of.

"I learned you can get a lot more done by not taking credit for things," Bensel said.

He added that his strengths are his servant's heart, his background in construction, experience with the road department and background writing and staying within a budget.

Bensel said he also has experience working in disas- ters. When the area flooded in 1996, Bensel stepped up and worked around the clock to help his neighbors and the town.

"I was gone for 72 hours straight, running on two hours of sleep," Bensel said about working during the flood.

He said working during the flood he really appreciat- ed his neighbors who helped him at home and in town.