A dreamer and a doer

Published 6:00 am Sunday, January 19, 2025

IONE — Newly-elected Morrow County Commissioner August “Gus” Peterson lives in the same red-brick, three-story house he grew up in on land in Ione.

A fifth-generation dryland wheat farmer, Peterson now shares the house with his wife, Sami, their black-and-white shorthair cats, Willow and Juniper, and their two young dogs, Rosie and Benny. The pair is expecting their first child in the coming month. His parents live in a one-story house on the same land, just across the driveway, with their own dog, Frodo.

Morrow County voters elected Peterson, 29, to a first term as commissioner. His interest in politics is not new, however. At Oregon State University he studied agricultural science and political science, and after returning to Morrow County, he ran for his new post and lost.

Stepping into a public-facing leadership role is something he’s waited a while for, Peterson said. The campaign he ran in 2024 focused on communication and trust in public officials. He told voters he wants to help mend the divisiveness seen throughout the county during the past few years.

“ I want to make the world a better place. It’s one of my deep parts of who I am,” he said in an interview at his home Jan. 15. “We gotta start with where you live, and I really like Morrow County. It has faults, and I love it anyway.”

Doing the work

Since winning the seat, Peterson said he has attended school board meetings, city council meetings and other public events throughout the county during the past few weeks, trying to show up for his community and his constituents as he said he would and rebuild public trust. Even when people disagree with him, he said, he will listen, answer questions and explain his reasoning.

“I think that’ll go a long way, and that’s going to take time,” he said. “That is not a short term fix, and I know that.”

Leading up to his first meetings as a commissioner, Peterson said he read about 1,000 pages of documents about the county courthouse and the county’s land use. During the board’s meeting Jan. 8, Peterson proposed repealing a decision the board made last year about the location of the county courthouse, moving it back to Heppner.

“ It was awful. The very first thing that I did was guaranteed to upset people,” he said. “I felt awful afterwards because there was no way that I could make a decision that would not hurt people whom I love and respect, and I didn’t like that.”

At the same time, he said, he knows feeling bad about a decision that affects people’s lives means he’s taking his role seriously.

Finding balance in the chaos

As a commissioner and a soon-to-be-dad, Peterson said he’s trying to be intentional about work-life balance. Now, he leaves the house daily to work on his computer and get up to speed on all things Morrow County. He said having reliable benefits and health care is something he doesn’t take for granted, and those things only motivate him to work harder for the county.

But, when he leaves his desk, he leaves thinking about work there, too.

“I have a responsibility to my family,” he said. “But also if I’m going to be an effective leader, I need to be somebody who can maintain my own health and life, and that means I’ve got to have boundaries.”

By going into work every day and responding to people and organizations regularly, and getting his work done on time, he said, “I think I’ll be all right.”

On the other side of work-life balance, he and Sami Peterson like to play board games, such as “Terraforming Mars” and “Dungeons and Dragons,” with their friends and family.

“We’re pretty into the nerd board games,” he said. “We’re into the heavy stuff.”

He also loves to travel; he studied abroad for about three months in New Zealand, studying their approach to agriculture. Peterson’s been to about 15 countries, and growing up, he lived in Mexico for the year of fifth grade.

Representing the county

Sami Peterson talked about what it has been like to see her husband go through the process.

“I’m just so proud of him,” she said, a soft smile spreading across her face. “He’s a hard worker and he’s got big ideas.”

She said while her husband is now a political and public face, she’s happy to stay out of politics. She works at their church part time as a secretary (or, as Gus said, “doer of all the things that need to get done”) and the couple volunteer with the church’s youth.

He said as a representative, he said he wants to “put people and put communities in the best position to succeed,” and he hopes his role will help give them the tools they need to reach whatever it is that success looks like.