Plains hires new town judge

The Plains Town Council unanimously voted in a new town judge at last week's monthly meeting.

Tom Collins was sworn in by Mayor Dan Rowan two days later to replace the vacancy left by Joe Eisenbrandt, who retired after 11 years for medical reasons.

"I'm very pleased and honored to be doing this," said the 65-year-old Collins, who considered a judge position three years ago in Thompson Falls, but didn't pursue it. He decided to toss his hat into the ring for the Plains job when it recently opened up. Collins had been shadowing Justice of the Peace Doug Dryden for weeks in Thompson Falls to get an idea of what the job entails and to see if it was something he'd like to do. Collins was among three people, including one woman, all from Plains, who submitted letters of interest for the job, said Rowan. Collins might also be the Hot Springs judge, too.

Collins spent nearly 20 years as the director of Camp Bighorn, a Christian camp along Highway 135. He was also the CEO of Camp Bighorn and Lone Ram Ranch from 2004 to 2016, when he retired. Collins has a bachelor's degree in business personnel management, a master's degree in business administration, and a doctorate's degree in leadership. Although he has no background in criminal justice or law enforcement, he feels confident that he'll make a good judge.

Collins has already started going through the town's ordinances and the Montana Code Annotated. "My learning curve is going to be pretty steep," said Collins, who will rely on his Christian faith to guide him in his decisions. He believes that much of what he'll be doing is common sense, but he also has law books to rely on. In addition, he'll be attending an eight-day class in December and pass a final test.

The Plains man said that although he was retired, he wanted to do something for the community. "I wanted to be of some service to the people of Plains," said Collins, who also hopes to help people understand their responsibilities as citizens and educate people about local laws.

"Judge Eisenbrandt served the Plains community for many years and we appreciate his work ethic, dedication and the professionalism that he showed during his tenure as the town's judge," said Rowan. "It is a challenging proposition for the new judge to fill the void left by Joe's retirement, however, we are confident that our new judge will rise to the occasion," he added. Collins will begin his role as judge on June 26. He said he has great respect for Eisenbrandt as a judge and as the chief of police.