Former mayor enters city council election

Two more candidates have thrown their names into the mix for this year’s Whitefish City Council election.

Whitefish business owner Jennifer Frandsen and former Whitefish mayor Andy Feury formally filed last week to run for one of the three open council seats.

The terms of current councilors Chris Hyatt, Phil Mitchell and Bill Kahle are ending this year. None of the three are planning to run for re-election.

Filing for city elections closes on Thursday, June 27.

Frandsen is active with organizing the downtown Tuesday Farmers Market and is on the board of the nonprofit Youth Image Project.

She is an owner at the Old Town Creative website development company based in the Railway District. Old Town is responsible for creating the Whitefish Visitor Bureau website. They also work with companies across the globe, and recently were honored for a website they developed for the Norwegian energy company Statoil.

“I love Whitefish and our community,” Frandsen said about entering into the city election. “I want to continue to contribute to this community. It takes a lot of volunteers and I want to be one of those volunteers.”

Feury resigned as mayor in 2007 after nearly eight years in the position. He successfully ran for mayor in 1999, ran unopposed in 2001, defeated Mike Gwiazdon in 2003 and ran unopposed again in 2005.

Life Noell is the only other candidate to formally file for the 2013 election, as of presstime. Noell serves on the city park board, weed control advisory committee, and pedestrian and bicycle path advisory committee. He unsuccessfully ran for council in the 2011 election.

All of the council terms are volunteer positions held for four years. Candidates must be registered voters within the city of Whitefish and city residents for at least 60 days preceding the election.

The four-year term for Municipal Judge Bradley Johnson also expires at the end of the year. Johnson was first elected city judge in 1985 and later was elected municipal judge when the city changed to a municipal court system in 2009.

He has filed for re-election.