by Michael Howell
Paige Trautwein was sworn in last week as Clerk of District Court once again. She started working in the courthouse in 2001 and was elected Clerk of Court for the first time in 2012. This year she will begin her 12th year on the job.
“I really enjoy my job,” said Trautwein, “ and I just keep working on it every day to make things better. I’ve spent a lot of time working on the technology side of it and working on state committees for that to bring e-filing and paperless courts into Montana.”
She said those are probably the biggest achievements besides the fact of just running a fiscally responsible office and training her crew to be the best they can be in providing customer service and “doing the best that I can for the people” who elected her to office.
County Commissioner Dan Huls was also sworn into office for a second term. Huls, who has served as Chairman of the Ravalli County Board of Commissioners for two years now, was selected as chairman once again and said he was “honored to do so.” He said the past term was both challenging and rewarding.
“Once back in the day when I was heavily involved with the Planning Board as a volunteer, I said being a commissioner was the stupidest job in the world and why would anyone want to do that, but I’ve actually enjoyed myself very much,” said Huls. “It’s been good so far and I’m looking forward to four more good years. Hopefully we will have more successes and keep Ravalli County the last best place that it is.”
Huls said that in the coming year the Commissioners will be tackling the revision of the Ravalli County Subdivision Regulations but will be waiting until after the legislature is done with the Subdivision and Platting Act and other things that may impact the county. He said the county’s Natural Resource Policy was also due for an update and they had already started the ball rolling in that regard.