Government Briefs

Libby Elections

Four Libby City Council positions are coming open for election, and the final day for candidates to file is less than a month away.

Chris Nelson, deputy clerk and assistant election administrator, said there are three, four-year council positions and one, two-year position for which people can apply. The application costs $44.17 to file and the last day to file is Monday, June 17.

The council member seats up for election are those of Rob Dufficy, Hugh Taylor, Peggy Williams and Brian Zimmerman.

Dufficy said applying for the position is a pretty simple process. Applicants only have to go to the election department at the county courthouse and fill out paperwork.

Dufficy said he just wants to get the word out about the council member positions.

Grant award

The Renewable Resource Grant and Loan program awarded the City of Libby a $125,000 planning grant, according to the city administrator.

Jim Hammons, city administrator, said the city now has roughly $812,000 which can be put toward water projects such as water main replacement. This is really good, he said.

Most of the grant money will probably go to the engineering side of the work done, he said.

Transparency week

Hugh Taylor, Libby City Council member, is planning a transparency week for Libby from Sunday, June 2, through Saturday, June 8.

Dan Clark, from the Montana State University Local Government Center, will be giving a presentation on Montana’s constitution, the right to know and the right to participate on Tuesday, June 4, at 6 p.m at Libby City Hall, he said. The presentation will cost the city between $700 to $800, taken from the city’s professional service account.

The city will also have Libby Public School Superintendent Craig Barringer and Libby Police Chief Scott Kessel give a presentation about the levy for the School Resource Officer on Wednesday, June 5, at 6:30 p.m. at city hall, he said.

There will also be an open house for the public on Thursday, June 6, at 6 p.m. at city hall, he said.

Live-streaming

The Libby City Council is working on setting up permanent cameras to live-stream meetings the first week of June, according to council member Gary Beach.

Beach said he is researching how to get cameras set up and is looking into using YouTube Live. There have been a lot of requests to stream the meetings, he said.

Once set up, hopefully the live stream will get more people involved in the council meetings, he said. Recording meetings and then rebroadcasting them might be the simple option.

In the past, the council looked into live-streaming and creating a Facebook page, but it never ended up happening, he said. The council is getting back into the process now.

To begin with, Beach plans on using his laptop until “all the kinks get worked out” with live-streaming. Later in the process, the city will decide how they want to stream it, whether it’s with a laptop or a camera.