Clara Mears-LaChappelle vows to be a full-time commissioner with an open-door policy for her constituents.

The District 3 commissioner race pits two longtime West Valley residents for the seat being vacated by retiring Commissioner Dale Lauman. Mears-LaChappelle is running as a Democrat and faces Republican Gary Krueger in the Nov. 6 general election.

District 3 covers the southwestern portion of Flathead County. All county voters will vote in the District 3 race.

Mears-LaChappelle is a proponent for job growth but wants to safeguard the Flathead’s natural and recreational amenities.

“People come here for the scenery and we must be vigilant in guarding against those who would destroy what we have, under the guise of industrial expansion,” she said.

She favors creating jobs in all sectors, not just in the building trades or through industrial expansion.

“We must stop the building of commercial business and industrial facilities in residential areas,” she said. “We have large landowners that are getting their way and trampling upon neighborhood plans and abusing the wishes of their neighbors.”

In past years Mears-LaChappelle has been a vocal opponent of gravel-pit development in the West Valley and has testified at public hearings time and time again in favor of neighborhood preservation over pit development. 

Two years ago she opposed a zoning text amendment that includes asphalt and concrete plants in the definition of gravel extraction, citing potential degradation to water and air quality in her neighborhood.

“Yes, we have the right to do what we choose to do with our property, but not at the expense of the people living next door,” she said.

Mears-LaChappelle lives on the Lost Creek Fan, an aquifer she said was contaminated nearly a decade ago by pollution from a high concentration of nitrates caused by agriculture spills.

“We do not need this to happen anywhere else in our valley,” she said.

She said she feels commissioners need to listen to neighborhood groups such as land-use advisory committees and other neighborhood councils to avoid “self-serving agendas.”

The Whitefish jurisdiction battle over the two-mile planning “doughnut” is another neighborhood dilemma the incoming commissioner will deal with. That battle is tied up in litigation awaiting a court ruling. Mears-LaChappelle said she’s heard from doughnut residents on both sides of the fence. Some like the city’s oversight in that area; others feel it’s taxation without representation.

“We need to sit down and have everyone voice their opinions and then go from there,” she said.

Mears-LaChappelle said her many years of service as an emergency medical technician give her a unique perspective in addressing the ongoing operation of the 911 central dispatch center that has been working through a number of issues since it started up two years ago.

“They’re still not getting the funds to maintain it and it needs to keep money coming in,” she said. “They didn’t foresee the future. I’d really look into it.”

She also said communication among the various first-responder agencies has been an ongoing problem, one she’d like to see addressed because she’s “behind the police and firefighters 400 percent.”

The future expansion of the county landfill will be needed, Mears-LaChappelle acknowledged. She’d urge anyone thinking of buying a home in that area to do research and be well aware of the anticipated effects that will have on the surrounding neighborhood.

As a commissioner, she said she’d keep a close watch on any attempts at unrestrained expansion. That includes “lining our highways” with development.

“I have no personal agenda and nothing to gain,” she said. “We need to think of our children and grandchildren. If we do not turn this around, they will have nothing.”

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