Athol Mayor Put Her City First Jean Hill’s Eight-Year Term Will End When Spurlock Takes Over Tuesday

Jean Hill’s in midsentence when the phone rings. Again.

She scoops up the cordless phone with a practiced hand.

“City Hall,” she says.

After eight years as Athol mayor, Hill hands over the gavel Tuesday night to her successor, Lanny Spurlock. Hill, 64, decided last summer to give up the post.

“I sent a note out with the water bills saying I wasn’t going to do this anymore,” she says. “My husband deserved some of my time.”

Hill leaves behind late-night calls about broken water lines, burned-out street lights, kids shooting birds in the park.

“It’s a thankless job, and there’s no money in it, so you have to love your city,” she says.

Still, she’ll miss helping run the town of 420 people.

“I’ll miss the contact with the city. You know everyone in town.”

Not that everyone always agreed with Hill.

“Most of the opposition she had was from the council itself, and it was just because she was female,” says Councilman-elect Bundy “B.J.” Chamberlain. “They are from the old world.”

Hill’s departure means that for the first time in at least 18 years Athol will not have a woman on its council. Vicki Upchurch was mayor before Hill.

“Now we’re going to have all men. We’ll see how they can do,” chuckles Liz Hasbrouck, president of the Athol-Bayview Area senior citizens’ group. “This will be interesting.”

Supporters credit Hill with shepherding through a $330,000 state grant to build a 250,000-gallon water reservoir.

After Athol nearly ran out of water during 1991’s fires, Hill lobbied state officials in Boise for money, then went door-to-door to convince her neighbors to pay $70,000 collectively in matching funds. They agreed, by a vote of 78 to 7.

For 28 people, Mayor Hill had a slightly more personal impact. Idaho mayors are empowered to perform wedding ceremonies, and it’s one of the tasks Hill liked most. She did 14 weddings, including those of a niece and daughter.

“The first one I did at the Garwood bar. I said ‘If any man can show just cause (to prevent the wedding) …’ and some guy jumped up. I just ignored him and kept going.”

Like the achievements of many small-town officials, much of Hill’s work went unheralded.

She pushed for portable bathrooms, a water fountain and playground equipment at the city park. She helped get City Hall a more efficient gas furnace, and a basketball court outside. When no one could find an auctioneer for the charity auction at Athol Days, Hill picked up the microphone.

Born in Illinois, Hill was raised in Montana. She dropped out of high school to marry at the end of her junior year. In 1968, she divorced and moved with her five children to Athol, working as a cook in the city’s cafes. She liked Coeur d’Alene, and Athol was the only nearby place with enough room for horses.

In 1974, Hill remarried. Today, she and her husband, Loyd, share a home on 13 acres.

Seven years ago, she earned her high school diploma, in order to get a higher-paying job. “It was something I should have done years ago,” she says. “There’s no money in working in a small town.”

A decade ago, after her youngest daughter graduated from high school, Hill ran for a City Council seat and won.

“My kids were gone, and it was some idle time,” she says.

Two years later, she was elected mayor. Athol has nearly doubled in population since then. In a sign of the times, the city recently prohibited construction of more billboards. After years of little or no growth, housing projects are sprouting.

But there still aren’t any stoplights, and roads aren’t paved.

One of the biggest battles during Hill’s tenure - one she lost - was over sewers. The city has none. Since Athol is located over the Rathdrum Aquifer, state health officials want to discourage more septic tanks.

Hill lobbied council members to start developing a sewer system. They weren’t interested.

“Right now, we’ve basically got an unofficial moratorium on growth in the town,” says Chamberlain. Sewers are inevitable, he predicts.

In the end, Hill won over several of her critics, says City Clerk Charlotte Hooper.

“She’s not afraid to call them and talk to them,” Hooper says. “They may not agree on everything, but they do get business taken care of.”

Hill could also stand her ground. After musicians in a local band promised there would be no drinking during an Athol Days performance, they showed up with beer.

“She walked right up to the band and practically took the bottles away from them,” says Hasbrouck, of the senior citizens’ group. “She was just backing up her own word.”

Although she had decided against running for mayor, Hill hopped back into the race last November for a council seat. Trying to head off a candidate who she didn’t think would be good for Athol, she began going door-to-door again. It was her fourth campaign, and she had less than three weeks until Election Day.

The 44 write-in votes she collected weren’t enough to win.

“I’m going to miss it,” she says of City Hall. “My stomach was upset for a couple of days after I lost my election, then I got used to it.”

She’ll still go to city meetings, though.

“I may be one who raises my hand,” she says with a laugh. “If they’re doing something I don’t like, they’re going to hear about it.

“This is my town, too.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo