Dirty politics don't belong in Whitefish

I am writing to express my gratitude to the Whitefish City Council for their courage and leadership in conducting the city's business. In the midst of a global recession, our city has balanced its budget, actually lowering the city levy by 10 percent.

The council has been consistently proactive, as evidenced by two major construction projects currently underway — the Emergency Services Building and the Downtown Infrastructure Improvement Project. These projects have kept many individuals employed who might otherwise have been out of work.

It takes courage to assume unpopular stands, such as awarding the bid for the Third Street project. Some folks were upset because the Central Avenue mock-up was still underway, but that mockup affected Central Avenue, not Third Street.

If the council had postponed awarding the construction contract, they couldn't have started this fall. Failure to act would have threatened jobs by delaying the project for at least another year, wasting countless taxpayer dollars and jeopardizing years of community effort.

If you believe that the council didn't listen to people, go to the city's Web site and find out for yourself. Read the public comments about the downtown project. You will find that public opinion is not uniformly opposed, as the naysayers would have you believe.

I commend the council for reaching a decision to move Whitefish forward, and then awarding the contract to a company which has done an excellent job of mitigating the impact to business, while bringing the project towards completion ahead of schedule.

Whether you agree with the widened sidewalks or not, the improvement project will breathe new life into downtown Whitefish and encourage new investment in the downtown core — clearly demonstrating that the council is not against business.

Serving on the council is a thankless job, involving hundreds of hours of time and a thick enough skin to weather personal attacks. This week, yet another smear campaign was launched against the incumbent, Frank Sweeney — incidentally, by the same person whose one-man PAC unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit to prevent John Muhlfeld from being seated on the council two years ago.

That's unfortunate. People ought to be able to seek or hold public office without fear of personal lawsuits and vicious attacks. Those tactics harm our community and only serve to discourage qualified people from seeking office. Dirty politics don't belong in Whitefish.

Our councilors must approach a diverse constituency and complex issues with leadership and critical thinking. It's easy to be an armchair quarterback and levy criticism — harder to come up with workable solutions that preserve our resources and move our community forward.

I respect anyone who runs for this office and sincerely hope that whoever gets elected will distance themselves from the special interests so intent on influencing this election. We need councilors who will work hard to understand all sides of each issue before rendering decisions which have a long-term impact on the community we all love.

Marilyn Nelson lives in Whitefish.