Powers beats Quist in primary

The City of Columbia Falls will undergo a government review and Debo Powers beat Guthrie Quist easily for the Democratic seat on the November ballot in House District 3.

Those were the local takeaways from the June primary last week.

North Forker Powers beat Quist, who lives in Creston, 993-363. Powers will face Republican Cathy Mitchell in the November election.

The government review was quite a bit closer, 481-444.

The city underwent a government review 10 years ago, as a committee ultimately determined that the city’s governmental structure should remain unchanged.

Currently Columbia Falls has a city manager form of government, where the elected city council oversees a city manager, who does the day-to-day business of the city and then reports back to council twice a month and sometimes more than that.