Hileman wins Municipal Judge job

Attorney Bill Hileman has been elected to serve as Whitefish’s new Municipal Court Judge.

Hileman won the race with 842 votes or 55 percent of the vote during Tuesday’s election. He won out over Whitefish deputy city attorney Kristi Curtis, who earned 621 votes or 40 percent of the vote in the race.

Hileman replaces Municipal Judge Brad Johnson, who has served as judge for 32 years and is retiring at the end of his term. He is currently a partner at the law firm Trieweiler, Hileman & Lacosta.

Attorney Tom Tornow, whose name remained on the ballot despite his previous announced that he was dropping out or the race, earned 75 votes.

Three City Council candidates were seeking election for three seats. Incumbent Andy Feury, along with newcomers Melissa Hartman and Ryan Gregory Hennen, will serve on Council. Feury received the top number of votes at 1,091, followed by Hartman at 1,063 and Hennen earned 962. There was 79 write-in votes in the race.

Election results weren’t announced until after midnight Wednesday morning. The delays was the result of counting machines not handling the folds in mail-in ballots, Flathead County election officials told the Daily Inter Lake. Ballots had to be flattened by hand to feed through the machine.