Mayoral candidates respond to questionnaires

Name: Bob Wells Rice

Occupation: Syntech, retired U.S. Navy, director of Hill County United Way

Educational background: Graduated from high school: attended Havre Central and Havre High School, and Saint Louis High School. Degree from Columbia College.

Favorite TV show: "JAG"

Favorite book: "Arnheiter Affair"

What makes you more qualified than your opponent?

I believe I am more qualified than my opponent to be mayor of Havre for several reasons. The first being I am an outsider to the current system. I look at things with more objectivity than Mike Shortell would because I am not, nor was I ever, a part of the current system. We've all heard the phrase, "You can't see the forest for the trees." Well, I believe that to be true in this case. My opponent has established friendships in City Hall over the years, just as I have in the Navy. When you make decisions concerning the welfare of friends, your judgment sometimes becomes cloudy. I enter City Hall with no baggage. I have no friends, no acquaintances, and no expectations. I'm not looking for a job and currently have a great job which I enjoy, but I have always been a public servant at heart and I know what it takes to manage and be responsible for other taxpayer's money. I did it for 30 years. I was always very frugal with my military budget because I knew it belonged to the people I served and when it was gone, it was gone. I possess the leadership skills it takes to be an effective mayor, and I don't believe you can run Havre from behind a desk. You will see me around town and have the opportunity to talk to me about the job I'm doing or not doing.

I am a good listener and don't believe things are done the way they are just because they have always been done that way.

My leadership system is by example. I will lead but would not expect my peers to do anything I wouldn't do myself. I take a lot of pride in everything I do, and it will reflect on the appearance of our downtown.

I also was a security officer in the Navy, and attended the Navy's Counter Terrorist School. I'm familiar with things that are happening in our country presently, and I can remember discussions we had about the possibility of anthrax being used as a weapon. I'm familiar with both military and civilian police department procedures and fire department procedures having been attached to Lakehurst, N.J.'s crash crew for two years and participating in several accidents.

All of these things, I believe, will make me a better mayor. I don't believe that any one past position dictates that I would be a better mayor, but I believe my overall experience package gives me an edge. I pride myself in professionalism. Ask anyone who served with me or has worked with me in my community projects. I do not believe there is anyone who has better credentials for the job than I.

Please identify the top two problems faced by Havre and explain your proposed solution(s).

The biggest and most obvious problem I see in Havre is the poor economy. You would have to live in a vacuum not to know this, but it's been around for awhile, just gradually getting worse with little light at the end of the tunnel.

It has taken us years to get into this situation so it won't be easy getting out, but we can start by working together as a community. Businesses, city government and concerned citizens will the task easier. I have a few ideas I would try should I be elected mayor. The first being to sell Havre to retired military people through military newspapers that are read by most military people. We sell what we have to sell, which is our way of life, our beautiful surroundings, our schools, our recreation, and our wonderful people. Retired military bring many things to a community besides money. They usually have children for our schools, they buy homes, and one or both husband or wife are community minded. They want to retire to an area that is affordable and safe for their families. This would be an effort that would have to be worked consistently and with vigor.

I would also like to get the Canadians back in the previous numbers. They like to come down to Havre. We need to give them a reason to do so. I would work with Canadian mayors and try to find out what it will take to make this happen. The Canadians have an interest in Havre, we all know this, and they are willing to invest in our community.

I would also like to bring back some of the festivities we had when I was a child like Frontier Days. These were fun and brought people to town. I would work with the business community to see what we can do to either expand on events or come up with new ones to try. It will be a trial and error situation until we find something that works.

I would establish a website for the city of Havre and put our assets on the site so tourists and businesses have access. I will work diligently to find new businesses and, just as diligently, to support the ones we currently have.

This job of our economy will be my number one priority. I will be open to suggestions and looking for any gimmick that could bring tourists into Havre.

Just a thought, but how about Havre, Mont.Home of Uncle Sam, and we carry the patriotism theme into our town and businesses. Just a thoughtafter all Uncle Sam does live here.

I believe our second problem is our declining population, which contributes to our lack of tax base and basically contributes to our poor economy. Our population has declined to the point that we are no longer a Class "A" city. We will need new jobs to bring people back to Havre. So indirectly, our economy drives both population and tax base.

Do you support the proposed widening of Highway 2 to four lanes? Why or why not?

I fully support the widening of Highway 2 because I believe it will eliminate one of the safety problems encountered on the present two lanes. I also feel it will bring more traffic through our great city; thus, giving us the opportunity to attract these businesses in one way or another. I also feel this will be encouraging for other businesses to come to Havre. I realize this is currently a dream among many, but dreams are how most projects began life.

We need to encourage our elected officials to be vigilant in pursuing this project, making it come to life.

Do you support the Chamber of Commerce's current plans to build a town square park? Why or why not?

I support the Chamber's plans to build a town park for the reasons listed below:

It will make front street appearances look better. It will provide a place for the new large flag poles the VFW wants to put up on the corner of Third Avenue and Main Street. I realize there is a concern about parking, but of all the citizens I've talked to, only a few believe it's a bad idea. A few concerns are about the tree for Christmas being moved, and some are about the parking. My feelings are if the parking becomes a problem, we sit down and work out a mutual agreement for all. As far as moving the tree, we can move part of the festivities to midtown to include all businesses that rely on Christmas trade to stay in business. Maybe Santa could set up shop in midtown at a different place each time to give everyone a chance to participate in the lighting and draw more people to the downtown area. I believe that if everyone involved will keep an open mind that we can work this out to accommodate everyone.

What do you think the city should do, if anything, to help the financially strapped Heritage Center?

The Heritage Center has been a money issue since it opened. I believe it is a good idea that unfortunately has fallen on bad times.

I believe when it was purchased the city said it would cost the taxpayers nothing. It has reached a point where the taxpayers will have to make a decision as to whether or not they want to put money into the center. I would request we put the center on the ballot.

Name: Michael (Mike) F. Shortell

Occupation: Retired chief of police

Educational background: Graduated from Havre High School in 1964. Graduated with an AA degree in history and social science from Northern Montana College in 1977.

Favorite TV show: "Band of Brothers"

Favorite book: "Clan of the Cave Bear" by Jean Auel

What makes you more qualified than your opponent?

My many years as an employee and department head within the city gave me much experience with budgeting, personnel management, organization, consensus building and team building. All are critical skills for a mayoral candidate.

Through these experiences, I gained a real appreciation of local government's role in the lives of all of us. What is that role? In the most basic of definitions it is conducting the business of the city, providing the essential services we as a community require in order to go about our personal business and our public lives unencumbered from the duties and responsibilities of providing them for ourselves. Those citizens who served as mayor and councilpersons work hard in ensuring that these services are provided in the most efficient and cost effective manner. These are no easy tasks. It takes thoughtful and decisive individuals to make the hard decisions of what must be accomplished, what should be accomplished, and how it will be done.

My knowledge of local government will serve me well as mayor. As a department head, I attended many meetings with the mayor and council dealing with many issues other than those of my department. This gave me a good understanding of how each department functions and its role in city government. I believe that my learning curve will be short. I know the people involved in city and county government. I know and have worked with school personnel, university personnel, civic groups, help groups, and non-profit organizations that all contribute to our well being and quality of life. Most importantly, they know me and know that I am someone who is as committed to the community as they are, and is willing and able to work with them.

Please identify the top two problems faced by Havre and explain your proposed solution(s).

There is no question the economic health of our community is a major problem recognized by most of us. We, as a community, must first of all support our local businesses and institutions. This means buying local, encouraging our young people to stay in Havre for their education at Montana State University-Northern, and consider making Havre their home. We need to be good neighbors with our major employers such as BNSF, the hospital and others. We must work hard to make Havre more business friendly. This last area is most critical. Havre has many things to offer. We have excellent schools, hospital, MSU-N, good clean air, and wide-open spaces. We have a low crime rate, excellent fire department, and ambulance service, a well-trained and very professional police department. Excellent city service workers, art and cultural centers, and hunting and fishing opportunities. We have golf, boating, swimming, and the beautiful Beaver Creek Park, and the Bear Paws. All of these will stand alone as attractions for people to want to come and live and work here. It is, I believe, the responsibility of our city government in concert with our county government, Bear Paw Development, the Chamber of Commerce to use our existing assets as the base for attracting new businesses.

We must also think out of the box. We must work hard to bring our community into the 21st Century with accessible high speed Internet. We need to connect local government into the Internet. A person should be able to sit at his or her computer and access city government to read the minutes of the last council meeting, to pay your taxes, water bill, buy a building permit, schedule an inspection or just converse with the mayor or other city official. You should be able to access the city of Havre Code Book to check on a particular ordinance, or maybe even pay that traffic fine.

This is not to say that efforts of these kind have not or are not already being attempted. Much to the contrary. There have been successes. What I mean by "thinking out of the box" for one example is encouraging and assisting local entrepreneurs and inventors to develop and market their products. There are hundreds of patent holders in Montana and we need to get Senators Baucus and Burns and Congressman Rehberg to sponsor a conference for patent holders in Montana and make them aware of the state and federal offices available to assist them in marketing their patent. Of course, we get all the appropriate federal and state agencies to attend to explain the services they offer. We need to urge the governor to appoint a study committee to pick the best of the patents presented and make special assistance available to them so long as they co-operate in getting manufacturing, marketing, and jobs that stay in Montana.

One example is a gentleman in Gildford who holds six or eight patents that he cannot get the state of Montana to consider using on our highways. He has production/manufacturing problems. He has marketing problems. He needs support and expertise to overcome all of these.

My point is that we need to encourage local people to create new businesses in our area. It is just as important to our well-being as attracting out of area business. As mayor, I will push these ideas from here to Helena and wherever else I need to go.

Havre was incorporated in 1892. Many of our downtown buildings, streets, and water and sewer lines were constructed shortly after. There are some of these buildings that beg renovation to preserve our cultural heritage. Some of our streets and sidewalks are in great need of repair and replacement. As mayor, I will make every attempt to encourage property owners to take advantage of Historic Preservation funds, CTEP, UTEF, sids, tax incentives to upgrade their buildings in the downtown areas.

The city is presently upgrading the water plant, and there are plans in the works to extend water lines in the south end to loop the west and east water towers. This will, along with the proposed connection of 12th Avenue to Bull Hook Boulevard will provide better access to the Heritage addition, which is presently accessible from Bull Hook Road and a narrow "alley" off 17th Street or by a makeshift dirt road which exists on private property. These projects will not only provide better service for the people living in the area, but will give access to city services for future building expansion in the area. Without these improvements, the possibility of a building moratorium is not out of the question.

We must find ways to improve our east end's roads, sidewalks and sewer systems. Many are outdated and beg repair. Many of the homeowners in the East End simply cannot afford excessive sids tacked onto their property taxes. We must find ways to financing that will assist them. The use of CTEP (Community Transportation Enhancement Funds) and UTEF (Urban Transportation Enhancement Funds) are possible ways of partnering with homeowners to help in the upgrades. The downtown sidewalks have also been the topic of public discussion recently. I have ideas regarding this issue that I would gladly discuss with anyone.

None of these ideas are easy. They will take much thoughtful and careful research in cooperation with city and county government along with Bear Paw Development and the mandate of the citizens of Havre to see them through.

As mayor, I will work diligently towards these ends.

Do you support the proposed widening of Highway 2 to four lanes? Why or why not?

I support the 4 for 2 campaign as do the majority of the people I have visited with. It makes sense for the economic health of our area, as well as for the safety and convenience of the millions of tourists and commercial traffic that travel across the Hi-Line every year. As metro areas like Seattle and Minneapolis continue to grow and the population density and traffic increases to the south of us, it seems that a major surface route across the northern tier would be a great benefit to everyone.

Do you support the Chamber of Commerce's current plans to build a town square park? Why or why not?

I do like the idea of a town square park. It would certainly beautify that section of First Street and with the Heritage Center anchoring the south end of the Third Avenue business district, it provides the potential for Third Avenue with the appropriate funding sources, e.g. Historic Preservation Funds, TIF, CTEP, to be upgraded and beautified and perhaps become the focus of downtown revitalization. There is a concern, however, that I would like to see resolved. It is the objection raised by several downtown businesses over the loss of parking in the area. With the loss of parking spaces in front of their businesses coming with the widening of U.S. 2, I can understand their concern. I would hope that an acceptable solution can be found and that the project goes ahead.

One must remember that the Town Square Park is a private collaboration between the Chamber of Commerce and the owner of the property. The city's role and responsibility would be limited to ensuring compliance with the appropriate building and traffic regulations.

What do you think the city should do, if anything, to help the financially strapped Heritage Center?

I believe that every one of us in the Hi-Line area should support the Heritage Center to become the focus of our cultural heritage, art, theater, and home of the magnificent Clack Museum. We do this by supporting programs, volunteering our help and resources, donating to the endowment fund and generally taking ownership as the hard working staff and volunteers have been doing these past few years. They can't do it by themselves, and it is too valuable to us all to have it fail because we didn't properly support it.

For those who do not know, the city owns the building. It would be extremely difficult if the Heritage Center fails, and the city would have to assume the maintenance costs of the building. I do not think there would be sufficient funds within the budget to assume these costs, and I am not sure I would support this scenario. It is in all of our best interests to support the center and museum so it can thrive. I also believe the city could work with the Heritage Center and Bear Paw Development to find funding sources for the museum and Heritage Center. One of the problems I suspect is causing difficulties in qualifying for foundational funds is the fact that it is a foundation itself. That is an area that perhaps needs looking into.