Commissioner Ken Kestner

Lake County Commissioner Ken Kestner took office on January 2, 2007. Commissioner Kestner is currently in his second 4-year term which expires December 31, 2014.

Commissioner Kestner was raised as one of six kids on a family farm near the rural community of Almyra, Arkansas and attended high school in DeWitt, AR.  

Commissioner Kestner’s background includes:  BS degree in Biology with accompanying graduate studies;  enlistment in the United States Marine Corps with one combat tour in Viet Nam;  one tour with the Peace Corps in Nicaragua, Central America;  twenty-one years with the USDA-Forest Service;  six years with the USDI-Bureau of Land Management;  one & half years on Lakeview Suburban Water District Board of Directors;  seven years on Lake Health District Hospital Board of Directors.  Currently Commissioner Kestner serves on the Lake County Fair Board, the Lake County Development Board (non-profit devoted to economic development), the Goose Lake Medical Services Board (non-profit devoted to enhancing peripheral services of local hospital), Rotary and is active in the local Layne Clifton Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4070.  

Commissioner Kestner’s emphasis as commissioner is first & foremost guarding and thereafter promoting the interests of Lake County.  Personal interests include: vegetable gardening, camping, riding his Harley-Davidson, and sight-seeing road trips with his wife Mary.

2011 Liaison Responsibilities

Airport
Assessor                                                                                              Board of Property Tax Appeals
Community Development Loans                                                     Economic Development
Fair Board                                                                                              - Enterprise Zone
Mental Health                                                                                    Planning & Building
Security/Safety/Facility Committee                                              Surveyor                                              
Telecommunications                                                                         Veterans Service Officer
Weed Advisory Committee

Shared Board Responsibilities:

Area Commission on Transportation                                               County Lands (incl. Parks/Marine)
County Road Advisory                                                                       Extension Services - OSU
National Schools & Counties Coalition                                              Railroad
South Central Oregon Economic Development District