After 14 years of community involvement, Langley resident Dean Enell has decided to try to make a difference from the county’s seat of power.

The Democrat announced he is running against Island County Commissioner Mike Shelton for the District 1 position. Shelton, a Republican, has held the seat for 12 years and is running for another four-year term.

District 1 includes South and Central Whidbey, from Clinton north to the San de Fuca area.

Enell cites a love of Island County as his main reason for running.

“Whidbey Island is a very special place,” he said. “I’d like to keep it that way — for us and for our kids.”

Enell is in favor of what he calls “smart growth,” with development that preserves and enhances the beauty of Whidbey Island. He doesn’t want to see the type of development that has engulfed the nearby communities along the I-5 corridor.

“We can still accurately describe our lifestyle as rural,” he said. “This lag in development affords us the opportunity to learn from their mistakes, to keep our communities liveable, our natural areas protected and our quality of life high.”

He felt the current board does not have a very good record for being environmentally sensitive. He knew of only one Environmental Impact Statement required for a project in all of Island County.

“They’re not very supportive of that whole area of concerns,” he said. “They see environmentalists as special interest groups to keep off their backs.”

Enell would also like to see a more representative board of commissioners. He noted that except for Bill Thorn’s term from 1996 to 2000, Republicans have had a lock on the commissioners’ board. He hopes to change that.

“We have three like-minded peas in a pod determining how our money is spent, where the county is headed, what’s important and what’s ignored,” he said.

He feels that bringing a different perspective to the board will foster a healthy debate about the issues facing Island County.

Enell describes himself as an activist who has tried for 14 years to preserve the unique attributes of Island County, since moving here from Tacoma.

He was a member of the Smart Growth Coalition, which gave input to the commissioners in forming the Growth Management Act comprehensive plan, and is also on the boards of Whidbey Environmental Action Network, South Whidbey Children’s Center and Maxwelton Salmon Adventure.

He has been a Hearts and Hammers house captain for four years, and was a founding member and chairman of Whidbey Washington Conservation Voters for five years.

As an environmental, Democrat activist, Enell acknowledges winning conservative Oak Harbor voters will be his biggest challenge. While he is running for the District 1 position, he will be on the countywide ballot.

He said he is familiar with the Naval base and its importance to the community.

“I am in favor of keeping it off the base closure list,” he said.

He intends to pound the pavement in Oak Harbor, meeting with local Democrats, city officials and citizens to learn the issues they would like to see addressed by the county. While his stands on issues such as growth management come out of his experience in the south end, he hopes that will translate to the north end as well.

“That will be my challenge,” he said.

If elected, he would like to see the law changed so that voters in each district elected their commissioner, rather than countywide.

Enell recently retired from a career that included project management, engineering and software application development for aerospace and high-tech concerns.

He also has a Web site with information about him and his campaign issues at: www2.whidbey.net/dino/start.htm.