Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin and the City Council must have been thrilled by the interest generated by the recent council vacancy.

Fifteen residents applied to replace Councilman Todd Tondee, who will become a Kootenai County commissioner next month.

Top-notch individuals wanted the City Council job, including applicants with extensive planning backgrounds such as Mel Palmer and Linda Wilhelm. Several others also were qualified for the post, including former Councilwoman Jackie McAvoy and former mayoral candidate Kerri Thoreson.

In the end, the council selected a candidate who already has left his mark on Post Falls: former superintendent of schools Richard Harris.

If Harris does nothing else for his community, he’ll be remembered as the superintendent who turned the school district around after a series of high school bond failures and low employee morale. The Post Falls School District couldn’t pass a bond election for a new high school and was struggling to pass levy elections before he was hired as schools superintendent in 1994.

Ultimately, Harris used his consensus-building skills to gain the confidence of his skittish constituents in 1998 and won approval for the new high school on Poleline Road on a fourth try, by one vote.

The $18 million high school building had become a source of community pride before Harris retired three years later.

Harris won’t encounter a train wreck when he joins the council next month, unlike the situation he faced at the school district. For years, the city of Post Falls has been run by progressive mayors, council members and a city administrator who helped transform the former bedroom community into a vibrant Idaho city. Tondee is only the latest elected Post Falls official to win a Kootenai County commissioner seat.

Frank Henderson, Kent Helmer and current Commissioner Gus Johnson served as Post Falls mayors before moving to the county courthouse. Jim Hammond, a former mayor and council member who stepped down earlier this year as the city administrator, will join the Idaho Senate this year as vice chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.

Together, the four and their councils prepared for the future by extending sewer and water lines, rebuilding and expanding the road system and sewer plant, securing water rights, upgrading parks, and attracting key businesses such as Buck Knives, Cabela’s and the furniture manufacturer now known as flexcel.

Gone are the days when Post Falls embraced a bed race to show neighbors that it was more than a bedroom community for Coeur d’Alene and Spokane.

Harris will join a council that remains committed to attracting quality businesses and industry to expand the tax base and spread the property tax burden further.

The council will remain challenged to provide the infrastructure to keep up with annexations pushing across the Rathdrum Prairie – and to provide the parks, playgrounds, ball fields, bike trails and other recreational amenities that are crucial for a superior quality of life.

Harris has proven he can fix an entity that’s broken. He now has the chance to use his vision and hands-on experience to help Mayor Larkin’s administration and the City Council manage River City’s dramatic growth.