Berget ends two-decade run in public office

After nearly two decades in public office in Lincoln County, Tony Berget is packing his office for the last time.

Berget, who was unseated after six years as a county commissioner in June’s primary election, previously served as Libby’s mayor and on the Libby City Council.

Berget sat down with The Western News for his exit interview on Dec. 23.

What do you think your legacy will be, or what it is?

Trying to make Libby, our home, a better place. Every time we got any money in we tried to do things to make it a little better, tried to improve the economics of Lincoln County. I mean, whether it’s putting money into Turner Mountain for the chairlift or later putting money into Turner for the warming building out of the $8 million. Every time we got economic development money I tried to put it into the infrastructure.

Every thing we’ve done over the years has been infrastructure. Whether it’s been at the city, we replaced maybe 15% of the water mains while I was there. Sometimes it was a block at a time, but, you know, the point was that every year we replaced water mains.

There’s any number of things I feel pretty good about that we have accomplished. The second nine holes at the golf course. I don’t play golf, but people will travel 100 or 200 miles to play 18 holes where they won’t travel 50 miles to play 9. I think that’s a boon.

You know, tennis courts, I don’t play tennis but those are the kinds of things that when you are recruiting doctors, professionals, people are relocating their business, it’s what they’re looking for. They’re looking for the amenities that you have as well as how the community looks, the people. I guess I feel pretty good about that. We’ve done a lot of infrastructure.

You don’t see a water main, you don’t see how bad they are. I got to see them, some of them look like swiss cheese. And so, when I was mayor we started a campaign replacing no less than one block of water main every year and some years we were able to do a lot more.

Same thing with sidewalks, I implemented a program of us replacing a block or two of sidewalk every year and the city has continued that. Downtown Libby, the business district, it was so bad. The sidewalks were six inches high between the two, there was such a gap, it was nasty. Slowly but surely we have accomplished that.

Even Riverfront Park, we started on that, moved the road away from the river. It used to go right next to the river. It was somebody’s study that said this would be a good place for the park and we moved the road over, then the city with the new mayor and council moved it farther.

The pavilion, with the amish, I negotiated that deal with them, they far exceeded what they owed and built that pavilion, the Fred Brown pavilion. I really pushed to get that name because after following in Fred’s footsteps I had a lot better understanding of why he did this or why he did that. I had a lot more respect for him after following in his shoes.

You know, every time you get a new city council member it’s like they head in a different direction. People sometimes think the mayor directs. No, the city council, they make the vote, they set the tone and, as I learned when I went to Mayor’s Academy, you’re not leading if no one’s following. So, you need to find out where your council wants to go and then you lead them and help them in the direction they want to go.

Over the years some of the city council just wanted to expand the city limits, and we did, we expanded the city limits considerably.

And that was one city council’s real push. Another was to work on the infrastructure, another, they just wanted to do parks. You just go in the direction that your board wants to go.

In terms of your legacy with Lincoln County?

The first thing I found out once I got in here was that Lincoln County was hemorrhaging money. We were spending more than we were getting, even in SRS funds. We used to get $1.6 or $1.1 million in interest income off the road fund, we quit getting that. We were down to $100,000, $40,000, $200,000. We had to make cuts.

We were adding it up the other day, and by the end of this year we will have cut the staffing in Lincoln County, through attrition or sometimes laying off people, of about 15 people.

It’s roughly $3.5 million we’ve cut, over the last six years, out of the county. And it’s never easy. Everybody wants to see the government cut, but when it’s something that affects them, then they don’t want to see it cut. And unfortunately that’s not how it works when you’re making cuts. You try to consolidate, you try to put things together, so that’s what we tried to do.

What are you most proud of?

All the bricks and mortar items that we’ve accomplished. That’s what I would have to say. Pick one. The county roads, working with Mark. Mark did the work, his crew. All I could do was provide him with the tools and support him. Rebuilt 75 percent of the county roads in the Libby area done by this road crew.

When I say rebuilt, these guys are digging them out, straightening them out, digging ditches, they were building roads. A lot of these roads, stumps are still coming through them. In the old days they cut off a stump, brought in some dirt, that was a road, then they put in some gravel. There was never dug down any roadbed. So I feel good about that, I feel good about working with the residents of LC to get the Swamp Creed road rebuilt. Even when I was mayor we were pushing for that, and through the efforts of everyone we got it done.

There’s the fishing pond which we’ve now got the OK and they’re working on it this spring. There’s the dog park because people want to let their dogs run and the only gated area was the soccer field and it was kinda tough for the kids to be playing on the soccer field and have little bombs all over it. Concession stands at the park so now they can support themselves, having money come in selling coffee, cookies whatever to pay for toilet paper, to pay for all the bits and pieces they need there because the money is going away, they’re getting less and less.

I don’t fly an airplane but we get 90% of airport upgrades through the federal government every time you buy a ticket part of that money goes towards those. We tried to put the infrastructure in to make them nice.

Bricks and mortar, that’s what I’m most proud of. You look back six years and look at the difference of what we’ve done. Let me take you on a little road trip around the area and show you what’s been done, it’ll shock you.

Sometimes you don’t do the work, you support the people that do. The tennis courts, I feel so good about that. Those guys put $10,000 apiece, individually, into that, why would we not support that, as government?

The new memorial, veteran’s memorial, why wouldn’t we throw a little bit of money or whatever we could to help put that in?

And what would you say were your biggest challenges?

The biggest challenges have been, when you’re making cuts, dealing with individuals and things. The fire department thing, that was a tough thing to deal with. Having to make cuts and standing there with a room full of people from Eureka being angry, those are tough things to deal with.

And sometimes not being on the same page with one of your fellow commissioners that you work with side by side, but not being able to agree on something, sometimes that’s a tough thing to do.

There are things that I didn’t want to go the way they did. Sometimes you don’t get things your way. I won some, I lost some.

Is there anything particular that stands out in your mind, something you wanted to get done but didn’t?

You’ll have to let me think about that for a minute. There’s one I look back at and I think, ahhh, I made a mistake when I was at the city, we gave a road to the hospital. I think that was a mistake, it’s just kind of a cluster over there now.

I’d like to have seen Montanore get up and running, I’d like to have seen more logging, any of those things, jobs. I’d like to have seen Stinger work out and be working completely. I’d like to see the building right now have railroad cars in it.

What are you going to miss least about this job?

Just that, making decisions that aren’t popular that need to be done. Disappointing people because they want something and you can’t do it for them.

And what are you going to miss most?

Working with people, being able to help. We upped the amount veterans get for burial, it used to be $250, we upped it to $400. Those are things that, being able to do good things.

Talk to me about the campaign, I was told you were kind of lackadaisical in the primary, what happened?

To be honest, I wasn’t sure I wanted to run again. I knew I’d really upset people. So, my heart wasn’t in it. I was burned out a little bit. We had dealt with the fire department, then the over-taxation happened, it’s just like, all of those things. You just kind of get tired.

Some people convinced me that you just can’t walk away, you should at least be willing to stay in there and fix the problem. So I said, yeah, I’ll do that but as far as spending money for the primary. I just didn’t.  Last time I campaigned, this time I figured if I came out of the primary I’ll put some effort into it.

I also felt like if I didn’t make the primary, that’ll be OK too.

You get tired of all the negativity all the time. You’re trying ot be upbeat and make your home a better place. This is a perfect opportunity, have a lot of new blood in place. I feel pretty good, there’s a lot of good people coming in and a new cast. It’s not a bad turning of the page for Lincoln County.

So, the question you’ve been dreading, what’s next on Tony’s agenda?

I wasn’t as worried, but I get a little more worried as time gets closer. I like working on real estate. I like buying old houses and fixing them up. It’s a little bit of a hobby for me ,so I’ll probably do a little more of that. So, who knows? Maybe I’ll be working in the oil fields in North Dakota this time next year. I really have no idea.

My wife’s got a really good business, an online business, but I don’t want another desk job.

So you’re not looking to go back into the public sector?

Not for now. I think you’ll see me with a pretty low profile for the next couple of years. You know, there’s chamber dinners, there’s fundraisers, there’s meetings in the evenings, I’m a little burned out from always being engaged all the time. I’d kind of like to unplug for a while.

There’s some new blood, there’s some new people. It’s kinda like when I was mayor, I kind of quit going to city council meeting because there’s new people, they don’t need somebody hanging on, somebody trying to convince them of what they should do. Mark Peck doesn’t need me coming in here saying “Mark, you’ve got to do it this way.”

They got to make their own decisions. They don’t need me sitting in the audience saying, “ahh, when we were…”

I don’t plan on being a reporter for The Western News.

So you don’t want my job?

No, and I don’t want to be editor or publisher.

Let’s talk about Mark for a minute, what’s the one piece of advice you’d give him?

I think the biggest thing for Mark is keep a sharp eye on those finances. That money is dwindling, we’re getting less and less. It’s going to be tough, you’re going to have to make some tough decisions.

He’s got to make some tough calls, and he knows that, there will be some tough cuts. You know we’re not done. The money’s just not there.

OK, famous last words. What’s your parting shot for Lincoln County?

Bob, it’s time for me to go, my car’s out there waiting for me. Wait, I don’t know if I want to say that.

I’m going to put that in there, “it’s time for me to go, my car’s outside.”

I am honored, privileged and really appreciate the people of Lincoln County who have voted me into mayor, city council and as county commissioner. I have always taken that very seriously and I really appreciate their votes and support. I only want to see this area succeed.