Heidi Eisenhour

Trees sway in a gentle wind as water laps the rocks at Irondale Beach, just a block from where Heidi Eisenhour grew up.

Sitting at a picnic table now, she remembers from her childhood when the beach was a log yard, where piles of timber were stored for the Port Townsend Paper Company.

“There used to be piles of logs right here where we’re sitting,” she said, recalling walking down to the beach from her house and climbing on the logs to look at the bay.

Eisenhour’s family moved to their home in Irondale in 1981. It was years later—after she had gone to college and come back to live in Port Hadlock—when, in 2001, a collaborative effort between Jefferson County and the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife restored and protected the land at Irondale Beach.

“It was a huge community collaborative effort that led to the protection of this area,” she said. “I’ve seen a lot of change right here on this little piece of ground.”

It is this kind of collaborative change that Eisenhour has in mind for the future of the Tri-Area.

Eisenhour, 49, who is the chief operations officer at the Northwest Maritime Center and a lifelong resident of Irondale and Port Hadlock, announced her bid for the District 2 seat on the Board of County Commissioners on May 3.

There are now three candidates for the District 2 seat, which represents communities south of Port Townsend such as Irondale, Port Hadlock and Chimacum. Eisenhour will run against Amanda Funaro, chief operations officer of Good Man Sanitation, and Lorna Smith, founder of Western Wildlife Outreach.

David Sullivan, who has represented District 2 for 15 years, announced last February that he would not be running again. Candidate filing week is May 11-15.

Eisenhour has lived in the Tri-Area her whole life. She attended Chimacum School through grade 10, when she transitioned to the Port Townsend Migrant Education Program so she could fish with her family and graduate on time.

After attending Evergreen State College, she returned to Jefferson County in 1995 and ran the Fountain Cafe in Port Townsend with her mom.

In 2000, she married Ike Eisenhour, a sculptor. They moved to downtown Port Hadlock, where she has lived since.

Since her childhood in Irondale, the Tri-Area has seen some major changes. Eisenhour played a part in several of those changes.

At 26, she was on the county’s planning commission, which created the first comprehensive plan.

In 2008, in the midst of a recession, she was the executive director of the Jefferson Land Trust, which worked to protect hundreds of acres of farmland in the Chimacum Valley.

“I played a big part in laying the groundwork to the revitalization in Chimacum,” she said.

Eisenhour highlights her experience working with nonprofits and community organizations to make major improvements in the community. In 2011, when the Jefferson County Library did not pass a bond, she worked to raise hundreds of contributions to remodel the facility.

Currently, she oversees the multi-million dollar budget at the Northwest Maritime Center, as well as a staff of 40 employees.

“At work, we are meeting the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic daily,” she said. “I am proud of our efforts to chart a new path for our organization. It’s difficult and rewarding work.”

As she gears up to run for commissioner—something she has known she wanted to do for many years now—Eisenhour is brainstorming ways to lead the county out of an economic downturn as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Working in a crisis is a space that I’m comfortable being uncomfortable in,” she said. “The ability to pivot, to rethink the problem, will be an essential skill.”

She hopes to obtain federal funding for the Port Hadlock sewer project, increase affordable housing in the Tri-Area and develop policy and programs that support local families and create jobs.

“Hadlock is and needs to continue to be a place for people to live,” she said.

Eisenhour said she knows the next couple of years are going to be challenging, but that doesn’t stop her from wanting to run for commissioner.

“About two months ago, it was like lightning struck and the decision was made,” she said. “I’ve always been the kind of person that sees a crisis as an opportunity.  … It’s going to take a lot of community engagement and pulling up our bootstraps to figure out how to do a lot more with a lot less.”