April
7 Election
Write-in votes decide Lyndon mayoral race
Vickie Peek | Reporter
The April 7 election brought many changes to Osage County city
governments and school boards. All winning candidates were certified
by the Osage County Commission April 13, and no requests for a
recount were made to the county clerk’s office by the deadline
of 5 p.m. April 14.
Newly elected city officials will begin their service in the first
regularly scheduled meeting for each city, and all newly elected
school board members will begin their service July 1.
In Burlingame, Ray Hovestadt Sr. beat incumbent Brenda Dorr by
129 votes to take the mayor’s position. R. Martin Kane came
in third, and Julia Self was voted out of the running in the primary
election.
Rosie Parker and Jim Nelson won the two open positions on the
Burlingame City Council with 203 and 195 votes respectively to
fill the seats of Kevin Fry and Dustin Swander. There were no
incumbents in the race. William Croucher came in third with 73
votes, beating Grant Damron with 55 votes, Kelly Lord-Vandruff
with 30 votes and Jana Franzen with 25 votes.
The Carbondale City Council race was closely watched with two
write-in candidates campaigning to fill the three seats of Lee
Curtis, Patty Kreshel and Michael Fulton. Fulton was the only
winning incumbent, retaining his seat with 183 votes. George Reed
came in second with 156 votes and Michael Reynolds took the third
open seat with 122 votes. Janey Wallace came in fourth with 68
votes and the two write-ins, Gregory Wallace and incumbent Kreshel,
received 31 and 14 votes respectively.
Write-in candidate Jeff Bronson won the Lyndon mayoral race without
a major campaign against Martin Price. Bronson garnered 126 write-in
votes of the 178 total votes cast for both candidates. The mayor’s
seat is being vacated by Bruce Williams who did not run for re-election.
Kay Jones, Wayne Howard and incumbent Doug Watson, with 145, 125
and 122 votes respectively, won the Lyndon City Council seats
of Vincent Miller, Janet Stout-Wolford and Watson. James Thurman
received 99 votes.
Melvern Mayor Joe Warner won the mayoral race with 58 of the 77
total votes cast for him and Robert Trendel.
On the Melvern City Council, incumbent councilman Mike Volkman
with 67 votes, Sean Criqui with 55 votes and William Zabel with
50 votes, won the three seats of Nancy Alley, Larry Allison and
Volkman.
Every Olivet candidate was a write-in. Bill Miles was the only
mayoral candidate who received votes and won with three write-in
votes. Larry Dorr, Mary Brown, Tim Ormsby became city council
members with three write-in votes each, Pat Harsch became a council
member with two write-in votes and Debbie Neil became a member
with one write-in vote.
In Osage City, former councilman Quintin Robert ran unopposed
in the mayoral race and became the mayor with 332 votes, replacing
Steve Haller.
Osage City City Council incumbents Loren DeBaun of Ward 2, Edwin
Mueller Sr. of Ward 3 and Becky Brewer of Ward 4 won the race
to keep their seats in each of their wards, with 42, 81 and 95
votes respectively. All incumbents but Brewer ran unopposed, and
she won with 95 votes over Marcia Haller’s 49 votes in Ward
4. Matt Brewer ran unopposed in Ward 1 and won with 104 votes.
Overbrook City Councilman Don Schultz ran unopposed to win the
mayor’s seat with 243 votes, replacing Jack Young. Schultz’s
mayoral win will create a vacancy on the city council because
his council seat was not up for election. The council will follow
the city’s procedure to fill the vacancy.
Jon Brady with 189 votes and Carol Baughman with 116 votes won
the two open seats for Overbrook City Council being vacated by
Larry Coursen and Bob Sisson.
In Quenemo, incumbents Juanita Adams, Loren Gray and Raymond Bennett
were all re-elected for their open seats, with 21, 20 and 13 votes
respectively.
Scranton City Council member David Barnes ran for mayor and won
with 105 votes, beating Philip Parsons who had 64 votes and Frank
Stokes who had 26 votes. Randy Jackson with 151 votes and Gary
DeShazer with 142 votes won the city council seats vacated by
David Barnes and Kenneth Croucher. Croucher and Terry Ralston
Jr. lost the race with 47 and 46 votes respectively.
In the USD 420 Osage City races, Position 4A was won by incumbent
Patrick Bean with 255 votes to Jennie Long’s 217 votes.
Position 5B was won by Raymond Lauber with 195 votes, over incumbent
Diane Kimball’s 169 votes and Brian Poertner’s 101
votes. Cindy Cook won Position 6C being vacated by Teresa Talkington
with 236 votes over Diane Scott’s 220 votes.
USD 421 Lyndon’s race for Position 1B was won with incumbent
Devin Sprecker’s 151 votes, compared to Lori Sturdy’s
90 votes and Brent Baker’s 24 votes. George Stutzman was
voted out at the primary race. Position 2B had no declared candidates
and Robert Knoernschild won back the seat he was vacating with
four write-in votes. Melissa Herdman ran unopposed for Position
3B and won with 223 votes.
In USD 434 Santa Fe Trail’s races, Zachary Anshutz won the
Position 4 seat with 651 votes over incumbent Brad Fischer’s
368 votes. Incumbent Randy Boudeman ran unopposed for Position
5 and won with 799 votes. Shandy Vollrath won Position 6 with
548 votes against Chris Kendall’s 449 votes, replacing Carolyn
Hug.
At USD 454 Burlingame, Michael Thompson won Position 4, being
vacated by Darla Garrett, with 274 votes. Incumbent Cathy Fagan
won Position 5 with 277 votes and incumbent Tanyea Bingham won
Position 6 with 251 votes. All candidates ran unopposed.
USD 456 Marais des Cygnes Valley incumbents retained their positions.
Billie Jo Doty ran unopposed for Position 4 in District 1 and
won with 133 votes, Raylen Phelon ran against Robert Bradley for
Position 5 in District 2 and won with 115 votes compared to Bradley’s
54 votes, and Karla Saffle ran unopposed for Position 6 in District
3 and won with 152 votes. |
