Libby native and resident Jeff Koskela has spent many years observing the politics in Lincoln County and he believes he has more to offer than other candidates vying for the District 1 Commissioner seat.

“I think I can offer more in leadership and management to the county’s residents,” he said in a recent interview with The Western News. “I’m not happy with the current direction the county is going. I have 38 years of successful business management and we need to get the budget situation under control.”

For several years, the county has used federal money and in-house cuts to help balance its budget. Officials say more logging and mining in the county will help its bottom line, but Koskela pointed out that the job of the commission is to manage and oversee department budgets as well as oversee department heads so the county can provide services to its citizens.

“I am definitely not against logging or mining, but there are no goals, no positive feeling among many county departments and employees,” Koskela said. “Each department should have a capital improvement plan. If there is any money left over at the end of the fiscal year, it should go into capital improvements and not misappropriated.

“Taking extra money from one department for another should not be happening.”

Koskela said he’d like to see more public input.

“I wouldn’t have a problem seeing the commission meetings begin at 6 p.m.  every other week. We need to hear from the residents to see what’s really important to them,” he said. “Is it a pool or a jail or something else?

“Ray Hollingsworth went to the city years ago and offered to build a pool as long as the city (Libby) would provide the water for free and he was laughed at,” Koskela said. 

The 60-year-old owner and operator of Kootenai Truck Repair, located on county Port Authority property, also spoke about the much-maligned entity.

“In 2018, I told them how much money was wasted there and that it needed to be dissolved,” Koskela said. “Well, they dissolved it, then turned around and reorganized it and that was illegal. The $18 million that was wasted there could’ve been spent a lot better.”

He said he’s also concerned the Master Stewardship Agreement the county signed with the Forest Service is in competition with the Good Neighbor Authority.

According to the Master Stewardship Agreement, the county can receive money from the Forest Service for work it has done on federal lands in the county.

Koskela said his work on Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ Citizen Advisory Council, working as a state livestock inspector, speaking at Fish and Game Commission meetings and helping organize the youth baseball teams his sons played on are also beneficial to his ability to be a commissioner.

According to information on the county’s Election Department website that he submitted, Koskela graduated Libby Senior High School in 1984 as an honor roll student and he joined the Air Force when he was a junior in high school on a delayed enlistment program. 

“After basic training I was stationed at Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. After leaving the Air Force I returned home to Libby where I worked many jobs days, nights and weekends to save money to attend Helena Vo Tech for diesel mechanics. In Helena I also worked nights and weekends. I worked summers at Granite Concrete in Libby and back to Granite Concrete after I graduated.”

Koskela was working full time at Granite Concrete when he started Kootenai Truck Repair in August 1988. He worked nights and weekends while working full time at Granite Concrete. 

“I was able to open Kootenai Truck Repair full time and we’ve been at our location for 23 years,” he said. 

He’s been married to his wife, Lisa, for nearly 38 years. They raised two sons, Spencer and Tucker and have three grandchildren.

Koskela is running against current commissioner Brent Teske, and another challenger, Stu Crismore in the June 2 Republican primary election.