By BRANDON HURLEY
Managing Editor
news@beeherald.com
Election season was rather spicy throughout the county Tuesday night. Several local communities featured contested races, while a handful of others sought comfort in incumbents.
Scranton will have a new mayor come January, with Jerald Boyd edging on-comer David Dideriksen by nine votes. Boyd received 49.59 percent of the 121 total votes, securing 60 votes while Dideriksen came in second with 51 votes (42.15 percent). Jerry Erwin finished third with eight votes (6.61 percent). Two write-in votes were tallied.
Though no candidates filed for the two open Scranton city council seats, 99 total votes were cast, with an astounding 10 candidates receiving at least two votes while 19 others garnered a single vote.
Dustin Gibson secured 16 votes as the leading vote-getter while mayor pro-tem and newly-elected mayor Jerald Boyd captured 15 votes.
Since Boyd was elected mayor and the most recent Scranton mayor Cole Gustoff stepped down in September citing "personal reasons", leaving three months before his term expired, Boyd will immediately be sworn in as the new mayor. The decision throws a bit of a wrinkle into the city council race, where Boyd currently holds a seat. His council term is not set to expire until the end of the year, which means, by an Iowa law prohibiting a resident from holding multiple city offices at the same time, he must resign his current position immediately in order to become mayor, leaving an open seat on the council.
Boyd must also decline his election to one of the two open seats which were voted on Tuesday evening. If Gibson accepts his election to the council, he will likely be appointed to Boyd's vacated council seat, Greene County deputy auditor Billie Hoskins predicts, finishing out the term before beginning his four-year cycle in January. Bolstered by a single absentee vote despite his candidacy for the Scranton mayoral position, David Dideriksen received 11 total write-in votes to finish third in the council race, earning a seat on the council.
Ashley Squibb finished fourth with 10 votes, just missing out on one of the two council seats.
Clayton Dudley earned nine votes while Jerry Irwin grabbed eight votes to round out the tense race in Scranton. Each elected candidate has until 10 days after the election to take an oath office or submit a letter of resignation if they decide to not accept the elected position.
The city of Churdan ushered in two new faces to the city council, with Mark Kersey receiving 36.93 percent of the 176 votes (65), while Mary K. Vogel secured 31.25 percent of the tally with 55 votes. The duo uprooted incumbents Nick Christianson, a six-year veteran of the council, who secured 33 votes (18.75 percent) while Heidi Geisler, who also had served on the Churdan council for the past six years, tallied 23 votes (13.07 percent).
Incumbent Churdan mayor Joleen Killeen ran unopposed, retaining her post with 93.51 percent of the 77 votes cast, securing 72 votes. Five votes were cast for write-in candidates, making up 6.49 percent of the tally.
In the city of Dana, incumbent mayor Mandy Sims secured all six of the votes cast while 10 votes determined the two at-large city council seats, with a pair of incumbents returning to their seats unopposed. Christopher Vargas nabbed six votes while Anthony Sims recored four votes.
Incumbent Paton mayor Steve Burrell tallied 85.19 percent of the vote Tuesday, securing 23 votes while four write-in votes were cast.
Incumbent Paton city council member Diane Hanlon (45.83 percent) retained her seat, one of two candidates running for the two open seats. Newcomer Zach Schweers actually secured 52.08 percent of the tally to join the local council, recording 25 votes to Hanlon’s 22 votes received. A single write-in was cast, accounting for 2 percent of the vote.
Paton’s Jacob Bohnet was also elected to the council in a special election to fill a vacancy, receiving 100 percent of the 28 votes cast.
In Rippey, incumbent mayor Daniel Brubaker received 100 percent of the tally, capturing 16 votes. City council incumbents Donald Carpenter and Garry Higgins retained their respective seats, each securing 15 votes (48.39 percent) while a single write-in vote was cast.