Page 10 - Flathead Beacon // 8.6.14

10 | AUGUST 6, 2014 NEWS FLATHEADBEACON.COM New Commissioner Takes Reins in Lincoln County
Gregory Larson appointed to represent Troy after Ron Downey announced he was stepping aside for health reasons
By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
Two months after Commissioner Ron Downey announced he was step- ping down from his post for health rea- sons, the Lincoln County Commission has appointed Gregory Larson as his re- placement.
Larson emerged from a field of eight candidates vying to represent the Troy area and was sworn in on Aug. 5. He will serve the remainder of Downey’s term until 2017.
“I’m really looking forward for the chance to get involved again and get in the mix,” Larson said.
Larson graduated from the Univer- sity of Wisconsin at River Falls in 1975 with a bachelors of science in land man- agement. He then spent 33 years work- ing for the U.S. Department of Agricul- ture’s Natural Resources Conservation
Gregory Larson was appointed to replace Ron Downey on the Lincoln County Commisson. COURTESY PHOTO
natural resources.”
Commission Chairman Tony Berget
said that Larson’s experience in natural resources is what gave him an edge, but also noted that he had a lot of support from Troy residents and businesses.
“He seemed to grasp the issues bet- ter than anyone else,” Berget said. “But we had a lot of great candidates and we were impressed with all of the applica- tions.”
Larson joins the county commis- sion just months after the June primary. Chairman Berget, the longest serving commissioner and a former Libby may- or, was ousted in a three-way primary election race with Mark Peck and Rus- sell Bache. Now, Peck and Bache will face off during the November general election to see who will represent Libby.
The morning after the election, Downey surprised many in the county and Troy when he announced that he would resign on Aug. 1. In his letter to the commission he said it had been a great honor to serve the county but he believed he would be unable to fulfill those duties in the coming months and years.
The election and resignation leaves Mike Cole, who represents Eureka, as the longest-serving commissioner on the board.
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Andrew Ryan Dlask given three suspended 10-year sentences to the Department of Health and Human Services
By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
A 22-year-old Libby man was given
three suspended 10-year sentences to the Department of Health and Human Services in Flathead County District Court on July 31 stemming from a May
2013 crime spree in Whitefish.
Andrew Ryan Dlask was initially
charged with three felony counts of bur- glary, one felony count of theft and one felony count of criminal mischief but was later found to be unfit to stand trial.
In May 2013, according to court documents, Dlask broke into at least three homes in the Whitefish area and stole four bicycles, three computers, an iPad, an electric scooter and two jugs of dimes, among other things.
On May 22, the Whitefish Police Department received a report of a 2000 Nissan Frontier pickup that had been stolen. Soon after, officers spotted
the vehicle and tried to stop it, but the driver, later identified as Dlask, parked the vehicle and ran into a swamp and through the woods. Police officers fol- lowed him and after a lengthy foot chase apprehended him.
At the Whitefish police station, Dlask admitted that he and an accom- plice, Casey Ehrlick, had committed the crimes. Ehrlick, who was 18 years old at the time, was later arrested and charged with burglary. He has since pleaded not guilty.
Late last year, Dlask was commit- ted to the custody of the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs after a
medical evaluation found him to “suffer from a serious mental illness” and stated that he would be unable to stand trial.
In a plea deal made earlier this year, County Attorney Ed Corrigan offered to dismiss two of the three felony burglary charges if Dlask pleaded guilty to the burglary, theft and criminal mischief charges.
On July 31, Dlask was sentenced to three concurrent and suspended 10-year sentences to the Department of Health and Human Services. Dlask must also pay more than $7,000 in restitution to the victims of the crime spree.
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Service, specifically in the resource con- servation and development program. Larson was the program coordinator for the Libby area from 1998 and 2005 and helped draft the area’s economic devel- opment plan. After he retired from the USDA, he worked as a consultant on Lin- coln County’s growth policy plan and has served on the board of the Kootenai River Development Council.
Having a background in resource conservation will help deal with some of the biggest issues facing the county, Lar-
son said. He said he is a firm supporter of using the land and resources Lincoln County has to help its struggling econ- omy and hopes to forge productive re- lationships with local leadership on the Kootenai National Forest.
“We have to be one of the richest counties in Montana with all our natu- ral resources and yet we have the high- est unemployment,” he said. “I strongly believe that the best form of government is government that is close to the people and I believe the same when it comes to
Libby Man Sentenced for 2013 Whitefish Crime Spree
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