Havre council election gets contested race

Will Lorett is the second candidate in less than two weeks to file to run for the Havre City Council’s Ward 4 seat in November’s city elections, papers filed Thursday with the Hill County Clerk and Recorder’s office says.

Lorett faces Sarah Griffith, who filed last week to run for the seat held by Matthew Boucher.

Boucher has not yet filed for re-election.

Mayors Tim Solomon of Havre and Ray Lipp of Hingham have filed for re-election, as has Havre City Court Judge Virginia Siegel and Havre Ward 2 Council member Karen Swenson.

Three seats do not yet have candidates. Terry Lilletvedt in Ward 1 and Jay Pyette in Ward 3 have not filed for re-election as of this morning, and no one has filed as candidates for them or the seat in Ward 2 vacated by council member Brian Barrows April 3 resignation.

June 19 is the deadline to file as a candidate.

Lorett said he has contemplated making a run for the past few years. He said he and his wife believe in making things better wherever they go and that includes improving the community.

“I think it’s important to have a hand in that wherever I go,” Lorett said. “So running for City Council seemed right up my alley.”

Lorett moved with his wife from Texas to Havre in 2006. He graduated in 2010 from Montana State University-Northern with a Bachelor of Science in biology and is now working toward his master’s in education through an online program at Montana State University-Billings.

He has three adopted children, Ben, 6; Kadence, 3, and Sammy, 2.

Lorett also works full-time at Northern’s Little River Institute as a science pathfinder, he said, where he helps students with computer science, science and math.

If elected, Lorett said, upgrading the city’s infrastructure would be an issue he would want to work on.

“I think we need to be put into those things as much as possible,” Lorett said.