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Afton Servas
Age: 45 Occupation: Policy Analyst for the Kalispel Tribe Prior elected experience: Incumbent Candidate, appointed in 2019, elected to full term in 2020.
1. What have you done that makes you the best candidate?
In my job that’s separate from the Council I work in Government Relations for the Kalispel Tribe. I’ve spent the last decade building relationships with elected officials and state and federal agency employees at the local, state, and federal levels. I have grant and budget writing experience. I’m great at leveraging relationships into funding opportunities. This translates into the town’s citizens seeing large outside investments that increase their standard of living. I was largely responsible for securing the $3.5 million-dollar congressional appropriation from Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers that is paying for the work at the drinking water treatment plant.
2. Where do you see Cusick in 10 years? I don’t see the town changing in the way it feels like living here. I see us retaining our small town feel and people still knowing their neighbors. I see changes having been made to zoning to accommodate for multi-family housing and to encourage small business development. There’s more low- and middle-income housing. The drinking water system has seen a complete overhaul, both in water treatment and the delivery system. Every house has access to high-speed fiber internet. We’ve added a number of small businesses to our tax rolls as a result of the reliability of our infrastructure.
3. What would you like to see changed in Cusick?
It’s important that we continue to focus on repairing and upgrading our infrastructure. The current focus is on the drinking water treatment plant. That investment doesn’t mean anything unless we replace the delivery system. We have a Safe Streets grant with WADOT that’s going to allow us to improve the sidewalks around the school and as well as installing new signage to remind drivers to slow down around the school. The River Rd. has a dedicated pedestrian and bike path from Cusick all the way to Usk. I’d like to work with PUD to install lighting on the section of the path that’s within town limits. We need to create a Utility Advisory Board. Currently, the Cusick Town Council sets water and sewer rates and we adjudicate billing disputes. There needs to be some separation of powers. Our ratepayers in Usk and on the Reservation deserve a seat at the table and for that seat to mean something. The Council has updated the water and nuisance ordinances, but we don’t have a code enforcer. I’d like to partner with the towns in the north part of the county to cost share a code enforcement employee’s salary. Lastly, I’d like to see more people participating in our participatory democracy. If you have time to show up and complain about something, you have the time to brainstorm and implement solutions to the things you aren’t happy about.
