Lincoln loses a community leader and a friend

It's about 10 a.m. Monday morning as I write this, and things seem off kilter. The snowstorm that has finally blanketed Lincoln with much-needed snow continues outside, but something, or rather someone, is missing.

It's at about this time on most Mondays that Bill Frisbee would stop in. Today, it would probably be to take a quick break from clearing parking lots of snow, but most times it was just to chat with my wife, Erin. Sometimes it was about projects or events they were both involved in, Most times it was just to catch up.

Last Monday, he didn't stop in because he was in the hospital to deal with lingering complications from a surgery he had last year. We had no idea we wouldn't be seeing him again.

Normally if I report on someone's passing I do so in a normal story, but I found myself unable to do that this time. In the six-and-a-half years since Erin and I bought the BVD, Bill and his family have become an important part of our lives here. He's been a fixture in Lincoln for much longer than that and it's hard to overstate the impact he's had on the community in that time.

Readers know that during our tenure, Bill's name has probably appeared in the BVD more than any other when it came to local news. I know people assume Bill was my "go to" guy for stories because of our personal relationship, but in reality, if there was something going on that warranted a story, Bill was often involved in some way, usually in a leading role. More importantly, he was willing to go on record with his remarks, which is something not everyone is willing to do these days.

In the time I knew him, he served on the Lincoln School Board, the Lincoln Hospital District, the Lincoln Rural Fire District, the Lincoln Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Lincoln Sewer District, the Lincoln Heritage Alliance, the Upper Blackfoot Valley Historical Society and Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild. Just this month he was honored as the Emergency Medical Technician of the Year by the Lincoln Volunteer Ambulance.

My introduction to Bill wasn't a particularly amiable one. One of the first stories I tackled here dealt with a dispute between the then-owners of the Hotel Lincoln and the Sewer District over the need to install a grease trap.

I thought I'd done a reasonably good job of reporting on it, even getting some comments from Bill, who was Chairman of the Sewer District at the time. But there was more to the story than I knew and Bill sent us a letter to the editor, calling out some of his concerns with what I'd reported.

At the time, I didn't really know Bill, or like him very much, but it soon became clear he was a subject matter expert on how local organizations operate in an unincorporated community. The truth is, I found his propensity for telling me I was mistaken about things incredibly aggravating. I spent a lot of time in my first year here looking up information, rules and laws trying to prove that what he'd told me was wrong. I was rarely able to do so. But the few times I did, he was willing to concede, sometimes grudgingly, that he may have been mistaken. It definitely helped me get a better handle on a few things, although I still have a knack for confusing the titles of Chairman and President, despite his best efforts.

Given his extensive volunteer experience on local boards and his family history here, Bill did become something of a sounding board for me. Usually, it was just to double check that I had gotten basic local facts or names right, but he also provided insight into the nuance and context of certain situations.

Throughout the years of meetings and interviews, the one thing that stood out to me about Bill was that - like it or not - he stood by his principles and convictions, and when it came to community service, those usually rested upon what he felt was best for the organization he represented, and what was best for the community as a whole. People who didn't agree with those principles or convictions may have taken it personally, but from what I could see, his positions or decisions were rarely, if ever, based on emotion or personal animosity. Still, Bill certainly didn't necessarily mind needling people who wanted to make it personal.

Over time, Bill and Jill became good friends to Erin and me. If I'm honest, they probably had a closer relationship with Erin than with me. We would go out for drinks together on occasion, and Bill was one of the only people in town I felt comfortable joking with, and he appreciated a good zinger aimed his way. As an Army veteran, I liked to give him a bad time about the Air Force and his taste for Coors Light among other things, but I tended to keep him a bit at arm's length because I knew he was often a person I had to interview for stories.

When it came to civic duty, Bill picked up the torch here from his father, and I find it odd that some people in Lincoln felt an urge to vilify him for his involvement in so many local organizations. He once said one of the things that frustrated him most was when someone claimed he sought seats on various board for his personal benefit, when in fact he'd been asked by someone else to serve on every board he'd been on. A few years ago, that sort of criticism prompted him to step away from some of the organizations on which he served. But when the Fire District found itself short a trustee at the end of 2015, Bill was asked to put his name forward. Despite reservations, he agreed. As LRFD chairman, he led efforts to eliminate an 'us vs. them' mentality that had developed between firefighters and trustees over the years.

At times like this people only like to remember the good in someone, but to be fair, Bill had his faults just like anyone else. He could be annoyingly obstinate when he felt he was in the right, and he could get a little self-righteous or suspicious about things. And, yeah, maybe at times he was motivated to volunteer by a degree of ego, but I think that's true of everyone, when you get right down to it.

In the end, what really matters is that Bill was here for Lincoln. He was here for his neighbors and, as an EMT, he was here for complete strangers. And he was also here for Erin and me. He helped us out in ways both large and small. From fixing a flat tire, to checking on Erin's step father, Woody, when he was having difficulty, to helping us find a new home for the BVD, Bill proved himself to be a good friend.

While neither Bill nor I would probably say we were 'best friends,' he was the best friend I had here. And some who butted heads with him may not want to admit it, but he was probably the best friend the town of Lincoln had.

It's Monday evening as I finish this. I'm sitting at a desk that used to belong to Bill, in a building that had been his office for several years. Bill installed the door to this office a couple years ago. It's a smidge off kilter these days, and cold wind sometimes whistles through the gaps.

Last Monday I thought I'd have the chance to give him a bad time about that.