HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE— Local entrepreneur Helen Owen recently filed for the District 1 BOS race, after being encouraged by family, friends and members of the community, where she plays a big part as a child educator. Having come from a traditional local family, Owen believes she is the candidate who is the most familiar with the things that have been going on in the area, the troubles and the changes.
According to Visit Lake County, Owen Ranch is located in Hidden Valley Lake. It offers horseback riding, trail rides, lessons, summer camps, and boarding.
“My family’s been here since the mid-1800s. I grew up on cattle ranches. I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while. Actually, I was asked to do it by another supervisor several years ago, and I wasn’t in a position where I could, but it kind of planted the seed. You can thank Rob Brown for that. He had talked to me many years ago and it wasn’t the right time because I was raising kids,” she said.
Owen thinks the current government needs to focus on “where we’re going to put our money and prioritizing what’s more important. As far as how we want to grow, we obviously need to get our economy going again. I am a different type of candidate. I’m a big supporter of our first responders. One of the problems with keeping good responders here is because of the wages, (being) so much lower. We need to find out what we can do to better take care of the people who are taking care of us. Balancing the budget, where you are going to prioritize, is going to be a big one.”
According to Owen, “the most important thing that a lot of places have lost is public safety. That’s huge,” she added that the number one priority for her is being an advocate for kids. “I would like to see mentor programs,” she said. Owens stated that she aims for tourism to return to its full strength as well because it would help the economy rebound.
The only female candidate running for District 1 as of press time, Owens wants to meet with and talk to local law enforcement agencies, in order to coordinate response during emergemcies. “We’ve taken in and rescued animals during the fires,” she said about her ranch in Hidden Valley Lake. “We team up with other people. We’ve been doing it for many years. We go out, get animals, bring them in and rescue mostly livestock, but we did have rabbits and all kinds of cats. We have one of the most amazing communities here. I absolutely love it because everybody helps everybody when you need help” – and that is one of the reasons she said she is starting her journey in politics.
“Communicating and actually listening to what our professionals in the business have to say, their experience or what they know is one of the things I think I’m pretty good at doing. We always learn every day in every aspect of life; even I’m still learning. You’ve got to listen. My mother taught me many years ago: ‘Listen to anything anybody has to say; that doesn’t mean you have to use it.’ You may learn that doesn’t work for you or that doesn’t work period. It’s worth your time to listen because you can pick up on something in there that’s gonna stick in your pocket and use it later,” Owen said, adding that if elected she will be talking directly to law enforcement or firemen and finding out what they feel the issues are to try and solve them with their aid.
