Florence overturns incumbents

By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

A Marion businessman won a contested county commission race and two incumbent Florence city officials were unseated during Tuesday’s elections.

When all ballots were counted, David Crofoot won the race for 4th District county commission with 408 votes, followed by Amy Soyez with 292, Trayce Warner with 97, and 54 write-in votes. Ballot results did not specify whose names were written in, but former commissioner Dan Holub announced his write-in campaign a month ago.

“I look forward to working with the whole group and making Marion County a better place,” Crofoot said. “We can all work together and get a lot accomplished,”

The 5th District county commission seat had Jonah Gehring unopposed.

He garnered 273 votes.

City elections

David Mayfield was elected Marion mayor by 315 votes over John Wheeler’s 296 votes. Mayfield is a former city administrator and Wheeler an incumbent city council member.

Incumbent Jerry Kline, with 405 votes, and Ruth Herbel, with 304 votes, were elected to Marion city council. Jacob Harper garnered 271 votes.

Hillsboro mayor Lou Thurston and councilman David Loewen both won re-election with 269 votes for Thurston and 146 for Loewen. First-time candidate Renee Gehring was elected on 124 votes, taking the seat vacated by her husband, Jonah, who will now take a seat on the county commission.

Burns city council candidate Cecilia Kennedy, the only candidate on the ballot, lost her bid for the seat, being beaten out by a write-in candidate with 19 votes and another write-in candidate with 14 votes.

Florence mayor Robert Gayle was overturned on his bid for re-election. He fell to William Harris, who took 89 votes to Gayle’s 78.

In the race for Florence city council, Daniel Ludwig won with 40 votes over incumbent Paul Reid’s 32 votes for Ward 1, and Beverly Baldwin and Mary Shipman finished in a tie with 48 votes each.

In the Goessel city council race, Ben Schmidt netted 69 votes, Kevin Klassen got 64 votes, Dean Snelling got 45 votes, and Cynthia Gaddis got 21 votes.

In the election for five Lost Springs city council members, Trent Hajek and a write-in candidate tied with 22 votes each. Leah Hajek got 20 votes, a write-in got 16 votes, Jessica Moenning got 13 votes, a write-in got 10 votes, Jan Zinn got 4 votes, Joseph Zinn got 3 votes, Joyce Buckland-Rohloff got 2 votes, and a write-in got 1 vote.

Tom Spencer got 128 votes for Peabody mayor. In the Peabody city council election, Rick Reynolds got 117 votes, Jay Gfeller got 115, Alan Gillen got 68 votes, and write-ins got 37, 4, and 3 votes.

In the race for Ramona City Council, Jayme Brunner and Arthur Stroda each got 12 votes, followed by a write-in who got 10 votes. Ben Calvert and a write-in each got 1 vote.

School board elections

USD 206 school board seats are at large and four were needed. Bradley Crisp and Kendall Claassen got two votes each and Penny McNeill and Stephanie Meyer got one vote each.

USD 284 position 3 was Warren Harshman with one vote. Position 7 was Brian Filinger with one vote.

USD 373 winners were Nathan Dominguez, Luke Edwards, Allen Jantz, and Carmina Suter, with two votes each. Andy Harder, Mallory Morton, Melissa Schreiber, and Matt Treaster, all listed on the ballot, got no votes.

USD 397 position 1 was won by Thieen Antoszyk with 36 votes over Jesse Brunner with nine votes. Position 2 was won by Steven Jirak with 30 votes over a write-in with one vote. Position 3 went to Terry Deines with 53 votes over a write-in with two votes. Position 7 went to Lance Diepenbrock with 135 votes. Coming in behind were Anita Svoboda with 92 votes, Michelle Hajek with 43 votes, and a write-in with 1 vote.

USD 398 needed four at-large positions. Donna Glover got 192 votes, Stacey Parks got 186 votes, Hope Reynolds got 177 votes, Timothy Caldwell got 136 votes, a write-in got four votes, and two other write-ins each got one vote.

In USD 408, Javan Koehn won position 1 with 842 votes over a write-in with 25. Position 2 went to Nick Kraus with 1,002 votes over a write-in with 16. A write-in for position 3 got 209 votes. Position 7 was won by Jeremiah Lange with 954 votes over a write-in with 19 votes.

USD 410 positions are all at-large. Roderick Koons got 335 votes, Jared Jost got 365 votes, Timothy Kaufman got 328 votes, Jim Paulus got 290 votes, a write-in got five votes and two other write-ins got one vote each.

USD 411 Position 1 was won by Sara Hiebert with 172 votes over a write-in with two votes. Position 2 went to Maynard Knepp with 167 votes over a write-in with two votes. Position 3 went to Kyle Funk with 176 votes.

USD 460 school board elections drew no votes at all with Phil Diller, Susan Lamb, Michael Wallace, Michael Weber, John Wetig and Delvin Wohlgemuth on the ballot.

The only USD 481 candidate was Brittney Lorson for position 4. No candidates filed for positions 1, 2, and 7. Neither Lorson nor anyone else got a single vote.

Directors

Grad Gorsuch, with 24 votes, Cliff Hodson, with 19 votes, and Allen Albright, with 18 votes, were elected directors for Eastshore. A write-in got one vote.

Thomas Neff, with 81 votes, Wilma Iselie, with 66 votes, and Travis White, with 54 votes, were elected as directors of the county lake. A write-in candidate got 21 votes and another write-in candidate got one vote.

Kathy Silhan, the only candidate on the ballot, was elected as one of three needed positions for Pilsen. Write-ins took 13 and 11 votes.

Races with no candidates filed

Races for Durham mayor and city council, Lehigh mayor and city council, Lincolnville city council, Lost Springs mayor, Tampa mayor and city council, USD 481 positions 1 and 2, and 7 were all write-in elections.

Constitutional question

A constitutional amendment question whether to eliminate a provision in the Kansas constitution requiring the state to adjust census numbers for military personnel and college students drew 1,179 votes to eliminate the adjustment and 863 votes to keep the adjustment.