Stevi gets two new council members

by John Dowd

Stevensville has seen a lot of turnover recently regarding council members. Over the last couple of months, three new council members have taken a seat. Melissa Bailey took over Stacie Barker’s seat in the last Stevensville election, and with two council persons having stepped down, two more seats needed to be filled. Two community members stepped up to fill Former Council member Samantha Bragg and Cindy Brown’s seats.​

Karen Wandler
Karen Wandler is taking on Cindy Brown’s Ward 2 seat and is excited for a chance to be back with the council. Wandler was on the council for a short time in the past, in a similar fashion to now, having been appointed. She started around the end of February and will finish out Brown’s term.

Wandler was born and raised in Stevensville and remembers a lot of the town’s history and context. She raised her kids there and wants to see the town come together and put differences aside.

“I’m interested in healing some of the problems we have had here,” said Wandler, who hopes to bring stability with her to the council. She also said she will do her best to come with a “willingness to listen to people and their concerns.” Wandler added that, in her experience, “people sometimes hesitate to talk to other people about their problems.”

Wandler hopes to be an ear for people and also wants to bring honesty to the people of Stevensville. Another of her goals is to get to the bottom of the price concerns the town residents face regarding water and sewer. She wishes to learn “what we as citizens can do to stabilize the budget.”

Wandler said she has learned a lot already, like the budget constraints facing the town. She has had to put her ear to the ground, learning a lot from members of the public who have shared their concerns. She said, even for those who don’t normally speak up for themselves, it is important for people to go in and talk to the town staff. Speaking of the town staff, Wandler said, “They are an outstanding group of people that work there, and they will deal with people honestly and straight forward.”

For Wandler, the future of Stevensville looks positive. She finished, saying, “It’s time we settle down and listen to each other.”

Talon Ross
Talon Ross will be taking over Samantha Bragg’s Ward 2 seat, and this will be his first time on the council. According to Ross, he “kinda fell” into the council position. After attending a meeting discussing the Stevensville Town Growth Policy, he and others in attendance were told the town needed a new council person. Ross said, “I can’t tell someone else to do something if I’m not willing to do it myself,” and so he threw his name in. He believes it is important for the town to have a full council, and his name was the one drawn for the seat.

Ross said this is his first time doing something like this, and he has learned a lot already. For him, it has been a lot of fun learning the procedures and getting a handle on how things really work.

“It’s challenging, for sure, but it’s a lot of potential growth, for me personally, which is exciting,” said Talon.

For him, so far council has been “what you make it.” A lot of the issues he is often looking at are entirely new to him, or new in the perspective from which he has to approach them. He tries to go to the town hall to dive in deeper to various topics that come up before meetings at least once a week.

Ross compared being on the council to his job with the forest service, which is different every day, and where he needs to look at things objectively and make decisions.

Ross is employed with the U.S. Forest Service as a fuels technician. He works with fire crews, specializing in fuel reduction. He also works in fire suppression, often spending a lot of his time writing burn plans. He hopes to bring that same open-mindedness to the council position and to look at all the facts.

Some issues of interest for Ross are water and sewer prices and facility updates; the amount of water that is leaking into the ground is a real concern that the town is planning to treat and process.

Ross also said there has been an uptick in accidents on Main Street. Ross noted it is interesting that the increase in accidents has come in a time of year when there is traditionally snow or ice, but without the cold weather. To him, this seems to speak to the growth the valley is facing.