Trustees elected to Flathead Electric Co-op board
A Flathead Electric Cooperative crew works on a utility pole on Sixth Street East in Kalispell on Wednesday. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
The Flathead Electric Co-op Board of Trustees will have a new member following last week’s election.
Jake Van Houten won the District 2 seat for Lower Valley, Somers, Lakeside, Creston, Rollins and Cooke City, receiving 3,254 votes over incumbent Charlotte Housel, who received 2,760 votes. Challenger Mark Liechti received 649 votes in the District 2 race.
A pair of incumbents will keep their seats on the board.
In District 3 for Whitefish, Big Mountain and Olney, incumbent Jay Downen was re-elected, receiving 4,589 votes to challenger Curran Edland’s 2,076.
Facing no opposition, incumbent Alan Ruby was re-elected as well, receiving 6,224 votes for District 5 in Kalispell north of U.S. 2.
Voters also overwhelmingly passed a series of amendments to the board's bylaws, with 5,101 voting in favor and 356 voting against. Passing those amendments will allow for technological progress, such as the option of electronic voting, and flexibility on when the board's annual meeting is held, among other advancements.
Election ballots were due to the independent election processing company Survey and Ballot Systems by April 9. A total of 6,988 ballots were received. Candidates had to be members of the co-op and live in the district they sought election to represent.
THE CO-OP also announced Monday that trustees have filled a vacancy on the board for District 4. Steve Streich of Kalispell was selected for the seat that covers Helena Flats and Columbia Falls Stage, following the February resignation of District 4 trustee Doug Grob.
Streich owns and operates Streich Farms, a Montana seed potato farm that has been family owned and operated for nearly 70 years. He has also served as a board member for cooperative businesses for many years, including CHS-Mountain West Cooperative and Flathead Farm Mutual. Streich will serve as trustee until the 2022 Annual Meeting, at which time a District 4 trustee will be elected by the members.
For more information about the co-op’s Board of Trustees and their districts, visit www.flatheadelectric.com/about/board/.