Council candidate says budget is the main focus

After eight years on the Columbia Falls City Council, Harvey Reikofski is ready to serve another four years. But like the other two incumbent candidates, he's mostly satisfied with how city government functions and doesn't have an agenda.

Reikofski spent three years in the Army, including about a year in Germany as a mechanic for an anti-aircraft unit. He brought along his wife and older daughter when he went overseas.

When he returned, he attended school to learn diesel mechanics. Saying he had long wanted to move to Montana, he packed up the family and left the West Coast for Missoula in 1978. Shortly afterwards, the family moved again - to Columbia Falls.

Reikofski was a founder and former president of Montanans For Multiple Use. His biggest concern has been maintaining access for snowmobiling on public lands. He says he gave up most of his MFMU duties in 1993 and quit snowmobiling about 12 years ago. Then his daughter moved back to the Flathead and he got back into snowmobiling with her.

Like some other councilors, Reikofski said he was approached about filling a vacancy on the Columbia Falls City Council. They knew him from his attendance at council meetings.

"I talked to my family," he said. "It also couldn't interfere with my multiple-use work or my snowmobiling."

Reikofski was appointed to the council in August 2004 to complete a 2 1/2 year term. He was elected to the council for a four-year term that ended in December 2009 and then was appointed to finish a two-year term that ends in December. He said it's been a great experience.

"I learned how city budgets work, how city departments operate, and I liked the conservative style of Columbia Falls' city government," he said. "I had heard about people with axes to grind in the past, but I never saw any of that."

Reikofski served on two selection committees that chose new fire chiefs and on the committee that oversaw the city's acquisition of River's Edge Park. The biggest factor facing Columbia Falls city councilors is the budget, he said, and he credits former city manager Bill Shaw and current city manager Susan Nicosia for maintaining a conservative fiscal approach. The city needs to continue to focus on keeping taxes low while maintaining appropriate levels of service, he said.

"If we could see some improvement in the budget, I'd like to see more patrolmen and some paid firemen," he said. "We're down to bare bones now. People say we should cut down some more, but we can't."

Budgeting for street paving will become an issue in the future, Reikofski said. The city managed to save money to get a lot of street work done in the past few years, but it hadn't counted on spending $80,000 for the Truck Route after the county handed the road back to the city.

"There will be more paving issues coming up," he said. "Especially reconstructing roads. Where the money will come from I don't know."

With both daughters back in the Flathead, Reikofski and his wife Barbara are more than happy to watch over their grandchildren. Like the other four candidates, he doesn't plan on spending money or time campaigning for election.

"I'd like to see some new blood," he said, adding that he was disappointed the two challengers didn't show up at city council meetings after they announced their candidacies.