New council, new mayor and new policies: Teske looks back on his time as mayor, and looks forward to new city improvements

It’s been nine months since the process to recall former Libby mayor Doug Roll began and five months since he resigned.

Four of the current six council members are new as of last year, and mayor Brent Teske took the reigns when Roll resigned.

After first hearing the news that Roll resigned, Teske said the first thing that went through his mind was concern about what was going to happen next.

“Nobody really knew,” Teske said. “Even when I first got on council, people were asking if I was going to run for mayor. My answer was always, ‘I don’t know.’ People still ask me if I’m going to run for mayor, and I don’t know. Down the road, the more confident I become in the job, I may look at it more seriously.”

When Roll resigned, Teske was the only person to put his name in the hat.

That wasn’t what Teske wanted, however. He wanted an old-fashioned election with debate and competition. Teske compared the appointment to winning a participation trophy — not quite the same experience as actually winning.

Still, he said he takes the job seriously, and plans to do the job to the best of his abilities.

Teske said he wants to put the past controversy and issues behind them, noting that most of the issues could have been resolved with communication.

Since then, Teske said one of his biggest policies and difference between him and Roll is communication.

“We’re working on being more proactive than reactive,” Teske said. “It’s a new council, but these guys genuinely care. They’ve got their heads on straight. They’re vested, they want to see their kids grow up here and they have businesses here. I’m happy and confident with them.”

Like the county, the city is suffering from an economic downturn, but Teske said that while it’s a big concern for the city, he doesn’t want to dwell.

“You still have to conduct business, you still have to move forward,” Teske said.

When it comes to being reactive as a city, one of the “hard lessons” as Teske put it to learn from is the fire hall roof project.

At a Chamber of Commerce Luncheon last week, Teske went over some of the projects that the city has accomplished over the last year.

While Teske summed up the positive progression and attitude the city has, The Western News met with him to discuss, in detail, the projects the council and city crew either plan or hope to have completed in the future.

An in-line generator at the Libby Dam, paid for by Flathead Electric, is expected to be installed at the end of February. The generator would hook up to Flathead Electric to bring power to the city. The in-line generator, that already has engineering plans ready, would offset the cost of something city-related.

One of the costs it could offset is a possible expansion of the water storage at the water treatment plant.

The old water line that goes from the lower reservoir to the water treatment plant has been replaced with a plastic-type material that doesn’t, rust, break as easily and flexes with the ground. They’ve also worked on the PC valves at the water line near the radio station.

After water mains constantly having breaks around town, the city is also looking at extensively replacing some of the he mains and service systems this summer if they can receive the funding. Teske said that up until 10 years ago, they were still taking out wooden pipe.

The council is also working on updating their improvements plan, which was originally drafted in 2011. The improvements plan is the direction the city wants to go for infrastructure, Teske said. In hand with that is the preliminary engineering report, in which the engineers layout the project’s plan. After the plan is updated, they can start applying for state and federal grants for infrastructure.

They’ve had some signage change just in the last couple of months, but they’re expecting change more in the future. Teske said that they want to unclutter some signs along Mineral Avenue, and turn some of the signs slightly toward the road along the diagonal parking side, so people can see them. Over the fall, the city crew took off the rusted brackets, formerly used for banners, from the light poles.

They are also looking at alternate routes for the ambulance in the winter. Currently, the route goes through Louisiana, but during the winter the route is narrowed. Teske said that a new route could mean stop signs on Dakota Avenue.

In the past few years, the city has repaved around 106 blocks in Libby. Prior to that, Teske said, the fixes were mostly reaction patchwork when a road needed repair. Some of the pavement has been chip sealed to help the porous-new road stay sealed from rain and freezing.

Teske said that he’s working on opening up communication with the Cabinet View Golf Course again to layout a plan to pay off their loan from years ago. The golf course, which was a subject for discussion during the City Council’s meeting Tuesday, came to the city quite a few years ago for an up-to $1.5 million loan to expand to an 18-hole golf course. Along with that, they purchased some property to create a subdivision. To pay back the city, they were going to sell off the subdivision lot-by-lot. When the housing market tanked in 2009, the payback didn’t go as planned.

Teske also noted that new businesses are popping up all the time.

“It seems like every council meeting, there’s two-six new business licenses also,” Teske said. “That comes with the confidence in the economy. People are starting to feel a little better about it we’re seeing Mineral Avenue fill back up.”

Bethany Rolfson is a reporter at The Western News and can be reached by phon at 293-4124, or by email at reporter@thewesternnews.com.