Sparse participation, slow government response and, of course, a lack of money top the list of frustrations among community councils around Missoula County.

Representatives of all six councils and a soon-to-be-formed seventh one in the Evaro area met Wednesday night at the Missoula Children’s Theater to share their triumphs and their headaches.

The Seeley Lake and Lolo councils have been around for years. But boards in Bonner/Milltown, East Missoula, Swan Valley and West Valley have all formed since 2006, when county commissioners created the Rural Initiatives office in the Office of Planning and Grants.

Director Pat O’Herren and Rural Initiatives hosted Wednesday’s all-community council meeting, the first of its kind.

“This is an opportunity for you all to get to know each other and hopefully learn from each other,” facilitator Marcia Hogan said.

It was also a chance for Rural Initiatives to introduce a new handbook for its councils, which provided such guidelines as how to run a meeting; how to communicate with state, federal and tribal agencies, and how to work with people with disabilities.

Most of the citizen councils get low attendance at their regular monthly meetings, unless there’s a hot-button issue on the agenda. That’s a problem in East Missoula, Dick Ainsworth said, because the council doesn’t really have such issues.

Input was no problem at West Valley’s first meeting last spring, said Colbert Howell. The Frenchtown Fire Station overflowed with people in response to a postcard mailing that claimed the county planned to ban wood burning.

“We had 200 angry people show up in a meeting hall that would hold 80 to 90, so we had two meetings that night. We had the first meeting, then we had a rerun for the second crowd,” Howell said.

He counts it as the council’s biggest achievement that it helped defuse that anger.

Poor attendance by council members has hampered Bonner/Milltown, which Bob Starr said went several months this summer without a meeting.

“We had a wreck with that this year,” Chuck Erickson agreed.

Swan Valley’s council feels like it’s flailing for attention. Mike Lake said a commissioner or someone from Rural Initiatives should attend a meeting in Condon once every three months.

Devin Jackson said the Lolo council has tried for years to address traffic issues on U.S. Highways 93 and 12 by proposing stoplights and speed limits. Response time from the state Department of Transportation has been glacial.

“We have no control whatsoever of our traffic,” he complained.

Jon Haufler’s top priority for the Seeley Lake council was succinct.

“We need more funding,” he said.

The county allots each council an annual operating budget of $1,000. Seeley’s council tries to keep the community informed with a Web site and a twice-monthly newsletter. It needs to audio record its meeting to dispel misinformation, and it would like to make awards to community members. But it costs money to do all those things right, said Haufler.

Sue Hadnot said Lolo has the cooperation of a local newsletter publisher and the post office to receive bulk rates on mailings. Nonetheless it’s a big chunk of change to post notice of meetings to 2,500 addresses.

Reporter Kim Briggeman can be reached at 523-5266 or at kbriggeman@missoulian.com.