Three new mayors elected in Lake County; road levy passes
Three new mayors were elected in Lake County, a Ronan council race is a dead heat and rural voters approved a road maintenance levy, according to unofficial results announced by the Lake County Election Office on Election Night, Nov. 2.
Businessman Eric Huffine is Polson’s new mayor. He received 621 of 1,168 votes (53.2%) to defeat attorney Rachel Wanderscheid. Huffine owns and operates Riverside Recreation, a boat and water recreation business based at Riverside Park along the Flathead River. He also owns Pablo-based Wall and Slab Concrete Construction. Current Polson Mayor Paul Briney did not seek re-election.
Ronan Mayor Kim Aipperspach is out after 15 years in the post. Voters chose Ward 2 Councilman Chris Adler over Aipperspach by a margin of 155 votes to 125. Bob Sager received 57 votes.
In St. Ignatius, Councilman Daren Incashola holds a 10-vote lead over incumbent Steve McCollum in the race for mayor. McCollum was elected to the mayor position in 2017.
The tightest race was in Ronan’s Ward 1, where incumbent Marilynn Tanner and challenger Ryan Corum each received 68 votes. There were no write-in votes cast in that race.
The Lake County Election Office counted less than 10 provisional ballots on Monday, and none of those affected the Ward 1 race in Ronan. Election Administrator Toni Kramer said there was one undervote cast in Ward 1, meaning one elector voted for city judge and/or mayor but left the Ward 1 question blank.
Elections officials were set to hold their canvass with county commissioners on Wednesday, Nov. 10. They’ll have five business days to conduct a recount and must certify the results by early next week.
Kramer said she was still consulting with the county’s legal staff regarding what happens if the race remains deadlocked, but it’s possible that a winner would be chosen by the Council’s other elected officials currently in office. Check leaderadvertiser.com for updates on this race.
In Ronan’s only other contested race, Allysen Jones was elected as new city judge after defeating Zachariah Miller 192 votes to 134.
The Polson City Commission added a new member. Jake Holley, a technical writer and documentation specialist at Black Mountain Software, defeated Walgreens manager Jen Ruggless by a margin of 110 votes to 86 to claim Lou Marchello’s Ward 1 seat. Marchello opted not to seek re-election.
Meanwhile, Laura Dever of Ward 2 can remove the “interim” from her title. Dever was appointed in July to replace Patricia Corrigan-Ekness, and she held off a challenge from retired law enforcement professional David Coffman to retain the seat. Dever received 253 votes, while Coffman received 219 in the unofficial tally.
Incumbent Brodie Moll ran unopposed in Ward 3 and received 361 of 378 votes cast in his ward.
The county’s rural voters approved a levy to fund the purchase of oil for rehabilitation of chip-sealed county roads. It’s a continuation of a levy approved in 2018 that funded three summers of road work.
Under the new levy request an owner of a home worth $200,000 will pay $10.80 annually, the same as the previous levy. Property owners within Polson, Ronan and St. Ignatius did not vote on the levy, as the additional tax will not be added to their tax bills.
Commissioners released a statement Monday thanking voters for passing the levy.
“The Lake County Commissioners would like to thank County voters for approving the two year levy to purchase road oil that will be used to repair more of our chip sealed roads. The previous levy provided enough money to purchase oil for three years of summer work by the road department and 42.5 miles of chip sealed road were addressed. Roads that were improved were distributed around the County in hopes that all residents would benefit from the dollars generated from the levy.”
The request received 3,064 yes votes (61%) and 1,951 no votes.
New terms for elected officials begin at the first of the year.