Longtime commissioner Carol Brooker to retire

Longtime County Commissioner Carol Brooker is retiring at the end of her term in December. Carol is stepping down from the political life to spend time with her husband, Tim, and her young grandson in Missoula after serving the people of Sanders County for the past 27 years.

Brooker said, it was time go hiking and fishing and enjoy more "me time."

Brooker is a graduate of Sentinel High School in Missoula in 1972, and also a graduate of the University of Montana in home economics. Her goal was to be a home economics teacher, except life got in the way of her plans.

She and her husband purchased a lumber yard/hardwood store called Plains Building Supply. The lumber yard prospered over the years until they sold it and moved on to other ventures.

Brooker's political career started with being elected to the Plain’s school board and served for nine years until the opportunity to run for the county commissioner office came up in 1994. Brooker’s interest in running for the job was her enjoyment of working with people in the community.

After winning the election for her first term, Booker immersed herself in the day-to-day operations of just what a commissioner does. One of the many aspects of the job included managing the growth of the county as well as funding the many agencies involved in servicing the people of Sanders County.

In her time as county commissioner, she saw the county grow from around 9,000 residences to over 12,000 now. Some of those growing pains that are regularly addressed by the county commissioners come from new homeowners moving in to the outlying areas expecting the same services that they had previously enjoyed, with many concerns being snowplowing in the winter.

When asked about the most important skill a new county commissioner needs to have, Brooker said, ”Be a good listener, always listen first, let them talk first.”

One of the many concerns the current Sanders County Commissioners has is the ongoing sewer project in Paradise. She felt that the sewer project should go through. Many of the current systems in Paradise are just holding tanks that need to be pumped out on a regular basis. For almost 10 years, Sanders County has been working on the sewer project, well aware of how the costs are going to impact the people in Paradise.

After 27 years of service with the county, she was still encountering new learning experiences.

Brooker wants to thank the public for her five terms as Commissioner and is excited to become a full-time grandmother and enjoy all that Montana has to offer.