New manager announced for Asbestos Resource Program

Lincoln County has named a replacement for the outgoing manager of the Lincoln County Asbestos Resource Program.

Noah Pyle, the Program’s resource coordinator for the past two years, will take over from Nick Raines, who is leaving for a job with Hecla Mining Company.

“Nick has left big shoes for me to fill,” Pyle said via email. “His institutional knowledge of the program’s history and the project’s history was an invaluable resource to the ARP.”

The Asbestos Resource Program, or ARP, operates out of the Lincoln County Environmental Health Department. Established in 2012 to provide education and outreach about asbestos exposure as a result of the Libby Asbestos Superfund site, the program is funded by a cooperative agreement and grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.

While Pyle reported Wednesday that he was “currently running around with my hair on fire trying to get my feet under me,” Lincoln County Health Department Director Kathi Hooper said via email that “I am confident that he is ready to take over.”

“(Noah) is intelligent, skilled, (and) great to work with,” she wrote. “Of course there will be a transition period while Noah gets up to speed, but I am thankful to Nick for hiring and training such a capable successor.”

Hooper noted that Pyle is a West Point graduate and an Army veteran “with a great deal of leadership experience.”

Pyle said his first steps are to familiarize himself with the job’s administrative aspects and to “continue to increase my knowledge of the history of the project and all the people and agencies involved, and to support the Institutional Controls Steering Committee and the City-County Board of Health.”