It’s time to step up to the plate, Glenn Kolodejchuk said of his decision to run as a Republican candidate for the District 1 Flathead County commissioner position.

He likes challenges and knows being a commissioner brings plenty. “I’m up for the challenge. I want to learn. I have a positive attitude,” he said.

His thinking outside the box is another good trait to bring to the commission, he says.

“I don’t come into this race with an agenda, I’m proud of that,” Kolodejchuk said. “I don’t come to the commissioner’s job with a bunch of promises or plans for changes.

“I’ve lived in Flathead County for 45 years as a strong blue-collar worker,” he said. “I feel I’m bringing common sense to local government. I want to be part of the decision-making process for the county.”

While working his way up from the bottom in the timber industry to a supervisory position with Plum Creek, Kolodejchuk says he learned to get the facts and evaluate them to make good decisions. He said he would continue that process as a commissioner.

Kolodejchuk lived through cutbacks in the timber industry and watched his neighbors and friends suffer through the county’s economic downturn.

He took a chance opening his own business, took a hit due to the weakened economy, and found another job.

Increased efficiency in county government “essentially means doing more with less,” he said. Flathead County already is doing that, he said, and must continue.

Kolodejchuk touted his people skills as a good quality for a commissioner.

“I can talk to people at all levels, in all corners of a department.”

He said he thinks his ability to reach out to people at all levels of county government, to hear their input and suggestions, could help him identify ways to boost efficiency.

“We need to ask the people doing the work what they think,” Kolodejchuk said. “Maybe we’re missing things.”

Discussing the Whitefish “doughnut” debate, Kolodejchuk says the fact that litigation is pending to determine which government should have jurisdiction in the area can’t be changed.

However, he said elected officials need to recognize and acknowledge that “we have more in common than our differences. We need to work on what we have in common. We can come to a solution.”

The city of Whitefish and Flathead County disagree about who should have planning jurisdiction in the doughnut area.

Simply, Kolodejchuk says, “people should not be regulated without representation.”

“I don’t have a dog in the fight,” he said of the doughnut issue. “We need to finish it and move on.” The citizens elected city and county leaders “to come to a solution to resolve it.”

Kolodejchuk said he thinks Flathead County taxpayers “are fed up with paying for lawsuits.”

He worries that the county gets sued too often because “people want to pull out the six-shooter and start firing off lawsuits” rather than work toward resolution.

“We need to put people in the right positions and get good advice and do the right thing” to avoid litigation, Kolodejchuk said.

Of the 911 dispatch center, Kolodejchuk said, “like anything new, it will need some fine tuning.” The consolidated dispatch operation has been open less than two years. It operates through an interlocal agreement between the county and the three incorporated cities within Flathead County, with each entity paying a portion of the costs based on population.

“We can’t forget that at an operation like the 911 center, the technology constantly changes and needs to stay current,” he said. Flathead County is a leader in emergency services technology and consolidated dispatch work, Kolodejchuk said, and the 911 center needs to be used to its potential.

He says the various involved entities need to work together on the center through its autonomous board.

“We can’t play politics with a 911 call,” Kolodejchuk said.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or by email at sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.