Two candidates withdraw from city council races

The Daily Inter Lake

Matt McConville announced last week that he no longer is interested in serving on the Columbia Falls City Council, although his name will remain on the November ballot.

McConville had filed to be a candidate for one of the three council positions up for election this year, his first run at the office. But in a letter to the city's Finance Director Susan Nicosia last week he explained that he "just got spread too thin," he told the Daily Inter Lake on Monday.

"I didn't feel it was fair to the community," McConville said, if he didn't have the time to do a proper job as a council member.

He is the assistant manager of Cardinal True Value, is on the board of trustees for the United Methodist Church, and helps stage Heritage Days in Columbia Falls each year.

The filing deadline for candidates was July 2.

It is too late for candidates' names to be removed from the ballot. If McConville is elected, he will have to go through a formal resignation process to be removed from the council, Flathead County Election Supervisor Monica Eisenzimer said.

McConville's withdrawal means the Columbia Falls council elections will be uncontested this year: Three other people have filed for the three vacant seats.

Incumbents Mike Shepard and Dave Petersen are running for re-election and Shawn Bates has filed for the vacancy being left by Harvey Reikofski, who is stepping down from council service.

Another council seat will be open, too, but not until after the election.

Don Barnhart is vacating his seat to run for mayor. Current Mayor Jolie Fish is not running for re-election and Barnhart is unopposed in the race. With his mayoral post virtually assured, he will leave a council vacancy when he is sworn in as mayor in January.

At that time, the council will appoint a new member to fill out Barnhart's term.

In Whitefish, council member Nick Palmer also has dropped out of the council race.

Palmer had filed for re-election, but announced at a Whitefish City Council meeting several weeks ago that he was withdrawing from the race.

His decision followed difficult discussions about the downtown streetscape project, but when asked Monday he declined to elaborate on his reasons for withdrawing.

Remaining in the Whitefish city election race are incumbent Frank Sweeney, who was appointed in January to fill out the remainder of Shirley Jacobson's term, and first-time candidates Chris Hyatt, Bill Kahle and Phil Mitchell.

Those four candidates are vying for three seats on the council.