Boone to seek third term on port board

Dan Boone of Pullman announced Monday he will seek a third term as the District 2 commissioner for the Port of Whitman County.

Boone, who farms his family’s ground south of Pullman, said he wants to continue ongoing efforts he has been a part of as a director of the county’s industrial development agency.

“I think we’ve got a lot of things going right now,” he said.

Many businesses are expanding from their locations at port sites on the river and in Pullman, he said, as local products join grain in outside markets.

In addition, he said, the port’s grant-funded project to bring high-speed fiber optic cable through Whitman County should continue to help businesses develop.

“That could really be something big for our little towns. I’m not sure I really understand it, to tell you the truth,” he said. “How can a little wire coming down from Spokane pick up all this and take it all the way around the world?”

While he pointed to some economic dark spots - vacancies in the multi-million ISR building in the Pullman Industrial Park, and the struggling economies of the county’s smaller towns - he said the county’s economic base in agriculture, education and technology helped it weather the Great Recession.

“I think we’ve been pretty fortunate to avoid the economic troubles here, in Whitman County, that struck a lot of other places around the country,” he said.

Boone was first elected to the port commission in 2000.