Page 20 - Flathead Beacon // 9.24.14

20 | SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
COVER
FLATHEADBEACON.COM
Warm
ters when he was in sixth grade after she left a difficult marriage and pursued her master’s of education degree.
“That’s probably where I get my driving force from,” Mitchell said of his mother.
He met Belinda at San Diego State University, where he was taking a class, and they married their senior year of college, 39 years ago.
He graduated from Cal-Poly with a degree in park administration and hor- ticulture, and started working as an as- sistant superintendent at a golf course in Los Angeles.
After a year of living in the city, he and Belinda decided to move to White- fish, where Mitchell had spent summers as a kid with family friends.
Eventually, Mitchell joined up with a golf course construction company, where he would work for 20 years, consulting on golf course projects locally, such as Iron Horse Golf Club in Whitefish, and internationally, in the United Kingdom.
Working in such a large, successful company taught him the value of hav- ing the right people in the right jobs, and also impressed upon him the impor- tance of surrounding himself with intel- ligent people, he said.
He carried that lesson with him to the city council, and had friends and mentors with varying expertise he could call upon when faced with a foreign issue.
“It’s a lot of work,” Mitchell said. “I’ve got a good team.”
THE DOUGHNUT
In July, the Montana Supreme Court ruled that Flathead County has jurisdictional control of the area sur- rounding the city of Whitefish known as the doughnut.
The commission recently put in place interim zoning as a precursor to a more permanent solution for an area that has been the subject of legal wran- gling for years.
Mitchell said he agreed with the commission’s decision to enforce inter- im zoning in the doughnut, which dur- ing his time on the Whitefish City Coun- cil he dealt with in depth.
At that time, Mitchell said he was against engaging the county in a lawsuit, because “if it kept moving up the legal ladder, the city would 100 percent win or 100 percent lose,” he said.
Now that the county has jurisdic- tional control of the area, Mitchell said the interim zoning would keep it as close to the status quo as the county can manage while more concrete plans are developed.
Those plans should include many public meetings, he said, with spe- cial attention paid to the opinion of doughnut residents.
“They’ve spent six years in limbo,” he said. “We need to hear from them.”
Schnebel, however, disagreed with the commission’s recent decision to put interim planning in place. After lis- tening to multiple doughnut residents
speak about how they prefer keeping the Whitefish regulations in place, she said she would have looked into differ- ent solutions, perhaps contracting with a Whitefish planner to help adminis- ter those zones while the county goes through the planning process.
“It’s not a black-and-white is- sue,” she said.
She also believes the county will be under plenty of scrutiny now that the state Supreme Court has decided the county has jurisdiction over the area surrounding the city of Whitefish.
Such pressure will allow for a bet- ter solution as far as zoning and future planning are concerned, she said.
COUNTY GREEN BOXES
This summer, the Solid Waste Dis- trict Board presented Bigfork residents with a plan to build a new site like the residents requested, which would be paid for with a special fee district, in- stead of closing the current green box site like the county originally intended.
Schnebel said the board’s change of plans is proof the county can make good decisions when it listens to residents, though she remains unconvinced a new fee is necessary.
“I think that we should be looking to be more creative for funding because I’m not convinced that an additional fee needs to be assessed,” she said.
Mitchell also said he was impressed with the board’s ability to work with the
up this
Fall!
With
New Hours
Lunch Mon - Fri
11am - 2pm
Serviced in our cozy lounge
Dinner Mon - Thur
5pm - 9pm
Fri & Sat 5pm -10pm
Cocktail Lounge
Mon - Thurs 5pm - 11pm Fri & Sat 5pm - 12pm
Closed Sunday
755-4441 139 1ST AVENUE WEST in Kalispell
Political Newcomers Face Off in Lincoln County Commission Race
Russell Bache and Mark Peck bested incumbent Tony Berget to represent Libby on the commission
By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
Two political newcomers are facing off in the Lincoln County Commission race this fall. During the June primary, Russell Bache and Mark Peck both came out ahead of incumbent Tony Berget, who will step down from his position as chairman of the commission on Jan. 1 after six years.
Bache or Peck will join newly ap- pointed commissioner Gregory Larson and Mike Cole, who was elected just two years ago and will be the board’s veter- an member. The commission shakeup comes as Lincoln County continues to face a gamut of issues, ranging from a still struggling economy to a decade- long Superfund cleanup that locals say has tarnished the area’s reputation.
Bache, 63, was raised in Libby and retired from the Navy in 1998. After leaving the military, he became a golf course manager and moved around the West, eventually returning to Lincoln County in 2008.
Peck, 55, was also raised in Lincoln County and spent 20 years with the Air Force, before leaving in 2000. From 2006 to 2010 he was Flathead County’s Emergency Services Director. Since then he has served as a unit manager for the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation in Libby.
Both men say one of the biggest is- sues facing Lincoln County today is its stagnant economy, although it did see some improvements this year, accord- ing to jobs numbers released by the state last week. Last month, the coun- ty’s unemployment rate was at 9.9 per- cent, three points lower than it was in August 2013. Despite the growth, it still is home to one of the highest unemploy- ment rates in the state, along with Sand- ers, Glacier and Big Horn counties.
Bache said if elected he would bring a task force together to discuss ways to bring jobs to Lincoln County. He also said he would do anything in his power to bring business to Libby, especially to the Kootenai Business Park.
“It doesn’t matter to me what type of business sets up shop, we just need jobs,” Bache said. “We can’t just depend on forestry and mining like we used to.”
Peck echoed Bache’s comments about working to develop the business park, but he also said his experience at
the DNRC means he can work with state and federal agencies to help develop log- ging and mining projects, including the Montanore Mine, which has been mired in delays over the last decade.
Another issue facing the commis- sion is budget cuts. Recently, the com- mission announced it would aim to re- duce the budget by at least $900,000, the cuts made even deeper after it was revealed earlier this year that the coun- ty had overtaxed property owners to the sum of $2 million over three years. The county has initiated a plan to pay back everyone and both Peck and Bache said they would support the established timetable, while ensuring the mistakes of the past don’t repeat themselves.
“I’m going to be a budget hawk,” Peck said. “I’m going to have my eyes on that budget all year long.”
With Berget and Downey’s de- partures from the board, the Lincoln County Commission will have some fresh faces come next year. However, Peck and Bache believe that it’s positive to have fresh perspectives on Lincoln County’s issues.
“I think it’ll be a good thing because this county needs some new ideas,” Bache said. “It’ll be a breath of fresh air.”
[email protected]