Duane Larson has made a lot of difficult decisions during his 23 years on the Kalispell City Council.

Some votes he realizes now were visionary efforts to secure Kalispell's future and preserve its past. But other votes, he readily admits, "were gambles" he hoped would turn out OK, and most of the time they did.

Larson is in a reflective mood these days as he closes out his long stretch of public service on the council. At age 74, he's decided not to run for re-election and spend a little more time with his family.

"I've always been committed to the job, and never took time off in the summer until the budget was approved," he said.

Larson's tenure with the city of Kalispell goes back 45 years. He served 22 years with the Kalispell Fire Department, becoming assistant chief in 1979 and chief in 1986 before closing out that vein of service.

Making the transition from fire chief to council member wasn't easy, Larson recalled.

"In the Fire Department you had to make instant decisions and live with it. There was no time to reconsider," he said. But when he joined the council, he felt bogged down in committee meetings that often went round and round. Often times there was revoting on issues and flip-flopping on big decisions.

"When I first got on the council and looked out in the audience it was pretty scary," Larson said. "You could tell which ones would favor something. I thought it would be about 50-50 with people for and against, but that wasn't always the case."

Sometimes, he was in the very uncomfortable position of voting in favor of a project that was clearly unpopular and controversial. Kalispell's Streetscape project was one of those tough issues, and Larson said it's probably the most difficult decision he's made as a council member.

The $2.3 million downtown infrastructure and beautification project in 2002-2003, which added landscaping, period lighting and crosswalk extensions, was seen by some as frivolous and unnecessary.

"I supported Streetscape because I felt we needed to maintain downtown viability," Larson stated. "Some opponents now think that the project was beneficial."

Larson has supported many other unpopular council decisions over the years, such as the vote to accept and treat sewage from Evergreen.

"It was an unpopular decision, but I favored it," he said. On one side of the fence, opponents thought Kalispell would suffer by making outlying Evergreen more attractive for investment. But on the other side, Larson said, the city got a big government loan "on the premise we were going to help Evergreen."

Larson has always believed that council decisions don't stop at the city limits, but rather have far-reaching implications for the entire county. He believes the city's relationship with the county, and Evergreen, has improved through the years.

The Kalispell Kidsport complex and renovation of historic Central School into a museum are accomplishments Larson is proud of. There was opposition to both of those projects in the beginning, but he believes the citizenry can now see the tangible results.

"The quality of life in the city of Kalispell is really good," he said. "It has improved over the years."

Renovating the former Wells Fargo Bank into a new City Hall was another of those controversial decisions Larson supported. Even though the project was plagued with cost overruns that drew public criticism, he believes it was a good investment and kept the synergy of city government in the downtown area.

Larson faulted former City Manager Jim Patrick with allowing cost overruns to occur without letting the council know. Patrick later was fired, though city officials never said exactly why he was let go.

Larson has seen many city managers and mayors come and go, and believes current City Manager Jane Howington may be the finest manager Kalispell has seen.

"We probably have the best manager right now and I don't say that lightly," he said. "We've had some good managers."

Larson pointed to former City Manager Chris Kukulski as another top performer. He still keeps in touch with Kukulski because they both serve on a state committee for the Montana Municipal Interlocal Authority.

The longtime councilman has had his favorites with mayors, too. While he was a big supporter of Mayor Pam Kennedy, Larson said Tammi Fisher is "doing an excellent job" as the current mayor.

Larson's last year on the council is shaping up to be a memorable one. Recently the city was in the limelight over an arbitrator's decision to pay Kalispell firefighters a lump-sum of several hundred thousand dollars in back pay, a move that would have forced the city to lay off seven firefighters.

Larson suggested the two sides renegotiate to avert layoffs, and a compromise was struck. The renegotiated contract allows firefighters to keep pay raises and longevity increases but requires each firefighter to take an unpaid Kelly Day (a day off taken at a scheduled interval in addition to normal time off) every 28 days. It also does not allow a firefighter to work another's Kelly Day.

"I felt it was a reasonable compromise on both sides," Larson said.

Larson has called Kalispell home for 56 years. He was born in Hamilton and lived there until he was 7, when his father moved the family to Great Falls, then to Seattle and finally to Northern Idaho, where Larson graduated from Spirit Lake High School.

He met Bev, his wife of 56 years come June 28, when he was in the eighth grade.

"I invited her to a Boy Scout dinner and dance. It was our first date," he recalled. "We've been together ever since."

They married when he was 18 and she was 17, and then moved to Kalispell where Bev completed her final year of high school and he got a job at Jet Oil in Evergreen.

The couple raised three children - Darrell, Tim and Kelly - and have seven grandchildren.

Larson had a close call health-wise two years ago when an adrenal gland burst. While suffering severe chest and groin pain, he drove himself to the hospital - "Something I've told a hundred people not to do" - where he learned it wasn't the heart attack he thought it was. Two surgeries and 90 days of hospitalization and rehab later, Larson was on the mend.

He likes to tell the story about when he was brought out of a 21-day induced coma, and the nurse began asking him questions to orientate him. He got the first couple of questions correct: yes, it was 2011 and yes, Obama was president.

Then the nurse asked him how long he'd been married, and he replied "377 years."

His good-natured wife suggested that "maybe it just seems that long."

"I have no idea where that came from," Larson said with a laugh. "Maybe I was figuring it in dog or cat years."

Larson doesn't plan on attending council meetings once he's finished at the end of December, but he might watch the meetings on TV once in awhile. Quitting cold turkey after so many years might be difficult, he admitted.

"It's been a good thing for me," he said of his 23-year council run. "I've enjoyed it."

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.