Chouteau County Republicans vie for commissioner seat: Dan Wirth

The Chouteau County resident and business owner Dan Wirth is running for a seat on the Chouteau Commission in this year's Republican primary against incumbent Clay Riehl.

Wirth said he's a sixth-generation Montanan who's lived in the county since 2005, having moved to the area from Wolf Creek, where his family owned a ranch.

He said he and his family thoroughly enjoy being a part of the local community and his enthusiasm for it, as well as his belief that he would have a positive impact on the community, was the primary reason he decided to run.

He said he's been a coach for the Fort Benton Little Guy Wrestling Club for four years and his wife is on the board of the area's animal shelter, the Dedman Foundation, which he has done volunteer work for as well.

He said the people of the county are consistently amazing and he wants to work for them.

"This community is amazing," he said. ... "That was the big driver. When I was thinking about whether or not I could help people, I thought, 'With the business success I've had, shoot, I don't see why not.'"

Wirth said his opponent clearly wants what's best for the county and has done a good job, but he wants to bring a new perspective to the commission, one of innovation he developed through business success.

He said he runs his own business, Fat Lab Forge, which produces farrier - horse shoeing - tools, including specialized farrier knives, which filled a niche few people even knew was there, and he wants to bring that kind of future-forward attitude to local government, solving problems many people don't even see yet and finding imaginative ways to do all the projects the county has on the docket.

Before becoming a farrier, he worked at his father's business, Wirth Excavation, where he learned a great deal about gravel and the gravel market which he said will also be a benefit, as the state of the county's gravel roads are a big deal for him.

Wirth said the county hasn't done a bad job with the hundreds of miles of gravel roads, but he does feel like they can do more, including addressing some roads that become impossible to safely drive on during inclement weather.

"It's not being horribly managed, but at the same time, it could be managed better," he said.

He also said he wants to make sure the county is hospitable to new businesses, especially young people in agriculture, and are not adversely affected by taxes.

In general, Wirth said, there aren't any huge crises facing the county at the moment, but he does feel there are a host of general issues that he can help address.

Commissioners in Chouteau County are in the office every Monday and every other Tuesday, but are always on call, he said, an arrangement he has dealt with before as a farrier who frequently worked on therapeutic cases that required him to be on call.

He said he'd also like to streamline communication between the public and the commission by setting up a Facebook page, or something similar, that will allow people to write to them directly instead of having to call the courthouse and get their cell numbers.

As for communication within the courthouse itself, he said, he hasn't spent a huge amount of time there, but as far as he can tell things seem to run well so he doesn't have any particular concerns on that front.