LA GRANDE — A Summerville man has tossed his hat into the ring for Position 3 on the Union County Board of Commissioners.

Brian Sather entered the race Monday, March 11, boosting the number in the race to eight and becoming the fifth candidate to have entered the race since March 5.

Sather is a professor of physical activity and health at Eastern Oregon University. He is interested in recreation and is the co-author of a book on cycling trails in Union County that came out in 2006.

Sather has lived in Union County for 22 years and believes his knowledge of the area would serve him well as a county commissioner.

“I believe I could do a good job and make smart decisions,” he said.

Sather joins La Grande residents Kathleen Cathey, Brent Clapp, Merle Comfort, Robin Church, Jake Seavert and Caleb Sampson and Elgin’s Mark Simmons in the race to succeed Donna Beverage, who is completing her second four-year term as commissioner. Beverage will not seek reelection because of a term-limit measure Union County voters approved in 2016. Measure 31-89 allows Union County commissioners to serve no more than eight years.

Cathey is U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden’s field representative in 11 Eastern Oregon counties. Church is a retired Union County clerk, and Clapp is the owner of Eastern Oregon Alive TV and Brent Clapp Productions. Comfort is a member of the La Grande School Board and InterMountain Education Service District Board, Sampson is a member of the Union County Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, and Seavert is a division manager for Oregon Trail Livestock Supply’s location in Island City. Simmons is a former state representative, who served in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1997-2002 and was speaker of the House from 2000-2002.

The filing deadline for the May primary election is March 12 for candidates.

If a candidate receives at least 50% of the vote in the May primary, that individual will be declared the winner. However, if no candidate tops the 50% mark, the top two finishers will face each other in a runoff in the Nov. 5 general election.

The winner of the race for Position 3 will be sworn in as a new member of the Union County Board of Commissioners in early January 2025.