City Councilor Andy Feury attended Flathead High School along with the late County Commissioner Joe Brenneman. They took American history class together back when school kids read printed newspapers like the Christian Science Monitor on Fridays.
Feury said that his parents worked in Missoula back in 1948 when Harry Truman made a whistle stop on the coastal Hiawatha rail thru town at two in the morning. 2,000 locals turned out to see the president who would energize America and advocate for national health insurance.
I’ve known Andy Feury for decades as a skier, businessman, and community leader. It’s clear to anyone who knows him that he gives a damn about Whitefish and our surrounding community. Feury stands with workers and retirees, is pro housing and pro community. Feury listens to locals and that matters most in politics and community.
Feury was the mayor back when I first watched him in action working on behalf of the citizenry. That was a long time ago. Feury and the late Chet Hope sat in the old councilchambers, way before city hall was rebuilt to modern standards.
These guys knew community, understood people, and worked with local business to make town better for locals and visitors. They were my mentors of public service. They taught me the way. I watched as they listened and treated people well, both community members who agreed with positions as well as those who disagreed. Community and people were the hallmark of their service, the way forward.
I regularly attended city meetings back in the day, late into the night. Often the curfew siren would blare and the meeting would stop mid-sentence. That siren was loud in the old city hall as limited government waited for silence to return.
Feury was there when the state of Montana came to town to sell off the public lands surrounding town. It’s fair to say that without locals like Feury, the Whitefish Trail might’ve never occurred and the public lands surrounding town would’ve been sold off to the bevy of out-of-state developers hungry to build the next gated private community.
Feury won’t take sole credit for the many projects during his time with the city but I know first-hand that projects like the Whitefish Trail, which spurred later conservation in Beaver Lake, Haskill Basin and Trumble Creek, were due to his passionate leadership. I was there and watched him in action, his kindness, his candor, and economic understanding of a valley which he’s lived in for a lifetime.
“I went out on a limb to champion that project,” Feury said confidently about the Whitefish Trail and conservation, “That’s a legacy project.” Feury was there 20 years ago as I and hundreds of locals turned out and gave the state an earful at Grouse Mountain Lodge about our public lands being sold off to developers.
Feury was there as Whitefish urged the late Bob DePratu and the state legislature to enact a tourism tax to fix the potholes around town, to maintain city parks, and return large portions of tourism money back to homeowners and small business owners as tax relief.
Feury was there and helped build the Wave, the O’Shaughnessy Center, Smith Fields, the Stumptown Ice Den and now the North Valley Music School. It’s apparent that during his decades of public service, Andy Feury has always put locals first.
Making everything partisan as many do while seeking office is one terrible idea. Our community simply wants to do better as we embrace the next chapter of township. During these turbulent times, go with proven leadership and consensus candidates like Andy Feury. No one wants a local government that acts like the feds and punishes people for how they voted.
Locals deserve a strong leader, with historic perspective and known politics. Locals trust Feury and thank him for his decades of visionary leadership to the people of Whitefish. In politics, trust matters most.
Spot polls won’t help. Consultants won’t get you there. Start with conviction, project confidence. To Feury, service has been about listening to local people, fixing roads, providing trails and parks, open public amentias like schools and skate parks, and housing that works for locals.
Flathead needs more conversations. Talk with neighbors. Engage local people. None own all the answers, no matter how long we’ve lived here or if we arrived yesterday. Only by listening to each other will we move forward. Feury is the kind of guy whose been around town long enough to learn how to listen, knows when to act, and has the compassion to honor both long-time locals and newcomers alike.
If you’re a part of Whitefish, you’ve likely trusted Andy Feury in the past and know our future is sustained through upcoming mail ballots. Feury has proven adaptable to fresh thinking as new truths present themselves to our community. To leaders like Feury, debate yields reform. Our future is together. Do your part, vote like a local.