Two candidates file to run for Ward 3 City Council seat

Lindsey Ratliff and Marc Whitacre have filed to run for the Havre City Council Ward 3 seat now occupied by Jay Pyette, papers filed with the Hill County Clerk and Recorder’s office say.

Ratliff, a Havre High School social studies and art teacher filed Tuesday, while Whitacre, an opthalmologist at Northern Montana Hospital, filed Wednesday.

Pyette has not yet filed for re-election.

Mayors Tim Solomon of Havre and Ray Lipp of Hingham have filed for re-election, as have Havre City Judge Virginia Siegel and Havre Ward 2 Council member Karen Swenson. Those candidates had no opponents as of Wednesday.

The Ward 3 seat marks the second contested council seat in November’s city elections. Sarah Griffith and Will Lorett have both filed for the Ward 4 seat now held by Matthew Boucher, who has not filed for re-election.

No candidates had filed as of this morning to run for the Ward 1 seat held by incumbent Terry Lilletvedt or to run for the Ward 2 seat vacated by council member Brian Barrows with his April 3 resignation.

The filing deadline is June 19.

Ratliff, a cousin of state Rep. Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre, said Wednesday that she has always been interested in making a bid for a council seat and decided to do so after seeing one of her ward seats was open.

“It just seemed like there is never a right time to do it, so if I am going to run why not run now?” she asked.

Ratliff added that she believes in civic duty and wants to ensure Havre is a great place to live for future generations.

After her vehicle recently hit a pothole and required $600 in repairs, Ratliff said, if elected, she wants to work to improve the city’s streets. She also said that she wants to make sure Havre is a place where small businesses can thrive.

Initially from Fairfield, Ratliff moved to Havre in 2013 to accept her job at the high school after she graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. She married Dustin Ratliff in October and is stepmother of his three children. She is active in the First Lutheran Church.

Whitacre, who has lived in Havre since 2011, said he has wanted to run for council for some time.

“I just had to wait until I thought I could possibly win, (and) I had enough name recognition,” Whitacre said, “and established my credentials and reputation in the community.”

Whitacre and his wife, Erica Farmer, are widely known in the community for their purchase and restoration of the Havre Historic Post Office, where they live with their three children, and later the Masonic Temple, now the 305 Building.

The purchase and rejuvenation of both buildings have provided space for other businesses, Whitacre said.

Whitacre went to college at an early age, and graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s in Chinese and Japanese language and literature with a minor in English literature from the University of Arizona.

He later attended and graduated from medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. He has practiced ophthalmology and has been a professor in that field at several universities and has published more than 25 peer reviewed articles.

Whitacre said he is an advocate of the city improving its ambulance service that can cut down on what he calls unnecessary and expensive air transport from Northern Montana Hospital to Benefis Medical Center in Great Falls.

He said he also is interested in taking up a range of other issues including improving the city’s drinking water, making information about city business more accessible to the public and taking action to improve city streets.