Six Candidates Vie For 3 Seats On Cda Council

From a railroad worker to a former Perot staffer, six people will compete for three City Council seats.

Chad Solsvik 25, filed his petition for office Tuesday afternoon, hours before the 5 p.m. deadline. State law requires candidates have signatures from 40 voters in order to run for office.

Solsvik works for the Burlington Northern Railroad, as a conductor and a yard master. He is a fourth-generation Coeur d’Alene resident and believes voters want a councilman “who will listen to them and respond to them,” he said.

“I’ve seen a lot of people go into City Council meetings who aren’t heard or are ignored,” Solsvik said. The city is too quick to annex new areas and isn’t careful enough about development, he said.

“They are developing makeshift neighborhoods, and don’t have the jobs to support them,” Solsvik said.

Robert J. Wachter, 72, also filed for office Tuesday. He was chairman of Ross Perot’s United We Stand America organization in Idaho during the 1994 election.

Wachter spent 20 years working for General Telephone, starting out digging ditches and then rising through the management ranks. He started his own management consulting firm and worked around the country for several years.

Wachter returned to Coeur d’Alene eight years ago. He was part of the Kootenai County Commissioners’ Citizens Advisory Board, and recommended the county hire a professional manager.

“I feel I’ve got the expertise and the background to contribute to the city I was born and raised in,” Wachter said. “I would have time to study matters that come before the council” and make fair and impartial decisions, he said.

Wachter describes himself as a centrist and a fiscal conservative. He says growth is the most important issue before the council.

Political newcomers include D.E. “Sam” Sears, Sr. and Chris Copstead as well as incumbents Dixie Reid and Ron Edinger also are in the race for four-year terms on the council. Sears’ two previous careers include 20 years as an Air Force photographer and 20 years working in the U.S. Forest Service nursery here. He is 65.

Copstead, 46, is a advertising specialist with the Spectrum Co. He ran a local office supply store called The Inkwell until last spring.

Two of three incumbents are seeking re-election.

Ron Edinger, 59, works for the school district and has been on the council for almost 26 years.

Dixie Reid, 52, is running for a fifth term. Part of a longtime Coeur d’Alene family, she is an interior designer who recently opened her own business, Dixie’s Inside Connection.

Mike McDowell, Kootenai County’s chief deputy assessor, isn’t running.

Political insiders expect him to make a bid for the assessor’s job in two years.

No matter what the outcome of the Nov. 7 election, there will be one other change in the council. Mayor Al Hassell will appoint someone to fill Dan English’s position.

English leaves the council after next week’s meeting to become Kootenai County clerk.

He replaces Tom Taggart, who left the office to become the county’s first administrator.

, DataTimes