Three candidates vie for community council seats

Jacob Doran / West Shore News

Lakeside voters will determine the fate of two community council seats in the May 5 elections, when three candidates will vie for the pair of two-year elected terms.

Voters have much to consider, since each of the three candidates is well-known in the Lakeside community and have much to offer in the way of experience.

In light of the major changes and decisions that have been considered by the community council over the past couple of years, many community leaders have urged residents to become active with the council and vote in the upcoming election.

Consequently, the West Shore News has provided information about each of the candidates - Keith Brown, Barb Miller and Marc Liechti, to help voters with their decision.

Keith Brown

Keith Brown was appointed in October of 2007 to fill a seat on the Lakeside Community Council that had been vacated by long-time council member David Reynolds.

Brown has served on the Council for a year and a half and seeks to retain his seat for a second term.

With more than 20 years experience in business management and information technology, he presently serves as chief executive officer for Merlin Information Services in Kalispell, where he has been employed since January of 2005.

Prior to joining the Merlin team, Brown spent five years with Starbucks Coffee Company, as vice president of information technology. There, his responsibilities included the oversight of multiple units - teams of between 300 and 400 people - who provided support to worldwide systems for the supply chain, financial and human resources divisions.

"Many of these decisions involved gaining cooperation from very diverse stakeholders," he said. "For example, the decision to deploy financial systems into the Asia Pacific region in support of growing company operations in this area."

Brown stressed that such a task was a challenging one.

"The local Asian operations were much smaller than those in the U.S.," Brown said. "It became very important to balance all of the needs and viewpoints and come up with solutions that were locally and regionally relevant that satisfied corporate needs. I was heavily involved in creating a collaborative environment that eventually came up with a solution that satisfied all those needs."

Brown compared the decisions facing communities to those that must be faced by corporate decision makers on a regular basis, referring again to the challenges of running a global operation for Starbucks.

"The dynamics involved in decisions regarding the community are similar," he said. "There will always be different cultures and values, different partners and interests, local relevance versus more regional or national interests, high visibility, etc. I've been involved in helping resolve similar types of extremely difficult issues."

Brown said he considers the highlights of his time with the Lakeside Community Council to have been giving back to the community, gaining valuable knowledge and experience in regard to the planning process, as well as reviewing and offering suggestions with respect to numerous proposals ranging from subdivisions to zoning proposals, local parks, and the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan revision process.

If re-elected, Brown said two of his goals would be to improve communications and participation with the public of Lakeside and to establish a solid partnership with the Flathead County Commissioners, as well as other policy makers.

"Currently, the Lakeside Council does not have enough clout with the decision makers within county and state government authorities," Brown said. "It is crucial these partnerships be strong if the Council is to be given more local decision-making responsibility. In particular, I would like to see decisions made locally ultimately be fully supported at the county level, which doesn't always happen today."

Brown purchased property in the Flathead in the early 90's and became a permanent Lakeside resident close to five years ago. He now enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife, Charlotte and their four children, Nicole (15), Emily (13), Megan (11) and Alex (8).

Barb Miller

During the past year, Barb Miller has become a familiar name and face in the Lakeside community, due to her involvement in the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan revision as the project manager and secretary for Lakeside Neighborhood Plan Committee (LNPC). That plan was scheduled to be presented to the Lakeside Community Council in its entirety earlier this week.

Miller has played a major role in organizing and leading workshops for the LNPC to keep the plan's revision moving forward, coordinating a major survey of the Lakeside residents and landowners, processing information from public records and community input, and presenting updates on the process during meetings of the Lakeside Community Council.

Barb and her husband Doug have two children and two grandchildren, who live in Virginia. She and her husband visited the Flathead in 1999, 2000 and 2001 and subsequently purchased land in Phase 2 of Tamarack Woods in 2002, for a home they began in 2003 and where they would retire a few years later.

"When my husband and retired and made Lakeside our permanent home in 2006, I was determined to use some of my newly found free time to get to know and to help the community," Miller said. "I first joined the Lakeside Community Club, helping with the annual fair and caring for the potted flowers in downtown Lakeside during the summer. Then, I saw the opportunity to volunteer for the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan Committee in the fall of 2007.

"The Committee is sponsored by the Community Council. I have found it a great way to learn more about Lakeside, the County, and all of the surrounding area as well as contributing to a plan that will preserve Lakeside's small town atmosphere and great features. When I heard about the terms for two Council seats expiring, I thought this might be yet another way to continue to learn and to serve at the same time."

If elected, she desires to help the community council develop better communications with the community at large, thus keeping Lakeside residents informed and aware of the issues and decisions that affect them.

"In my work with the Neighborhood Plan, I have found that many residents and property owners seem to be unaware of the Council, the issues it deals with, and their meetings, agendas and actions," Miller said, "There should also be more information available to the community on follow-up actions by the County Planning Board and Commissioners after the Council has made a land use recommendation impacting Lakeside.

Miller says she recognizes the need to preserve the rural character and small town atmosphere and of the Lakeside community, through informed recommendations to the Flathead County Planning Board and Flathead County Commissioners, regarding future development applications.

She also intends to follow closely the adoption process for the 2009 Lakeside Neighborhood Plan, which will soon be released in draft form for the public, and help implement the recommendations set forth in the final version.

"My experience in a 30+ year career as a Project Manager may help get some of these actions and projects organized and started with the right charters and work plans," she said. "I look forward to serving on the Council and doing whatever I can to help preserve Lakeside as the great place that it is-and keep learning in the process."

Marc Liechti

Marc Liechti is best known locally as a past president of the Lakeside Somers Chamber of Commerce and as the current president of the Lakeside County Water and Sewer District, where he has served as a board member for eight years.

Liechti was born and raised in Rapperswil, Switzerland. After finishing his engineering schooling and his mandatory military service, he decided to expand his language skills and attended further schooling in California. During his attendance at UCSB, Santa Barbara to further study English, he met his wife Marceen and married in December of 1988.

In 1993, after four years of living in Camarillo, Calif., and working for an engineering, Liechti decided to move his family someplace where he and his wife could raise their children "in a safe and welcoming community." Since Marceen had relatives living in Kalispell, Liechti's family visited and decided to move to the area on faith, trusting that they would find employment and live the life they were looking for.

Today, Liechti is the owner and principal of APEC Engineering. With more than 27 years of experience, he heads up the civil engineering department and provides APEC with knowledge and expertise in infrastructure design, water utility, wastewater treatment design and implementation, and the subdivision planning process.

Over the years, Liechti has volunteered his time and talents to the Lakeside Swimming Beach, Ben Williams Park, the Lakeside Zoning Committee, the Lakeside Somers Chamber of Commerce, Lakeside Chapel and the Lakeside County Water and Sewer District.

He currently sits on a review board as part of an appointed committee for the Flathead County Subdivision Regulations, on which he and other members work toward making those regulations more applicable for all the users and residents in the valley.

"I'd like to serve the community locally even more and make sure that we can mold and keep business going in the community," Liechti said. "After the first neighborhood plan was approved, I worked on the committee to establish zoning in the downtown and surrounding area.

"I want to serve on the council to help the community and try and improve the development and potential of other projects within the community-to participate in the orderly growth and development of Lakeside."

Liecthi said he has observed the neighborhood plan revision from the outside and has some concerns with the current direction that the updates are taking.

Beyond Lakeside, Liechti has also volunteered as a soccer coach and baseball coach and is the current president of the American Legion Lakers baseball organization in Kalispell, with which he still enjoys coaching from the sidelines as he watches his son Tobias play his last year for the Kalispell Lakers.

Marc and Marceen have three children, Tobias, Kirsten and Jessica, each of whom has attended Lakeside and Somers Schools and currently attend Flathead High School or MSU in Bozeman.