Community Council seats three new members

The Upper Blackfoot Valley Community Council welcomed three new members and bid farewell to one at their monthly meeting, Tuesday May 21.

Lewis and Clark County Commissioner Susan Good Geise swore in Toni Austad, Karyn Good and Roger Dey as the newest members of the council, and thanked Linda Daugherty for her faithful service to the community.

Daugherty had planned to resign for personal reasons some time ago, but agreed to stay on until new council members were elected or appointed.

“Thank you for hanging on and keeping us alive,” Muse said to Daugherty. “We’ve had this council die a couple times. In 2006, it died and we brought it back in 2008 and we’ve been barely holding on since then.”

“I would just hope there is more interest as time goes on, not only to serve but also to come and attend,” Daugherty said.

Prior to the new appointments, the death of Bill Frisbee in January and the resignation of Mike Nordahl last year had left the UBVCC with just three members: Daugherty, Chairman Zach Muse and Vice Chair Ron Zarr. The council is set up as a seven-member organization, it has often operated with five members. Austad, Good and Dey submitted candidacy documents for the open seats, but with only three candidates for four open seats, an election wasn’t required and the Commission was able to appoint them directly.

With Daugherty’s departure, two empty seats remain to be filled to constitute the full seven-member council.

Geise said the UBVCC, known as the Lincoln Community Council prior to the 2008 revival, is a pretty unique organization. She said the Lewis and Clark County Commission originally created the council as an advisory body that would allow the people of Lincoln to have internal conversations about concerns or issues the county may be able to address.

“It is very rare that the commission does not follow the advice of the Upper Blackfoot Valley Community Council,” she said. “That’s why this group is really important and why I always hope we see more people coming. This is the group that speaks for Lincoln and I wish we had a similar organization in Augusta, but we don’t.”

Geise said the commissioners, including her predecessors, have always been interested in what’s going on outside Helena, contrary to popular belief. “I know they think Helena is the center of the universe, but they do recognize August and Wolf Creek and Lincoln,” she said.