Familiar faces fill Ponderay council races
PONDERAY — When residents head to the polls Nov. 3 to fill the city’s two open council seats, the names of all four candidates will likely seem familiar.
Council members Sherry Blood and Steve Geiger Jr. are both looking to keep their seats, but the incumbents are facing two formidable challengers in political newcomer John Darling and former Ponderay mayor Jesse DeMers.
After four terms on the council, nobody would begrudge Blood for wanting to take a break from city government, but she said there are too many mportant issues on the horizon to call it quits. In addition to nagging funding and growth issues, Blood said she hopes to find ways to improve Ponderay’s infrastructure.
“I’d like to see the stormwater plan that we’ve developed carried all the way through,” she said. “There’s some road issues, too. We’re a very small town and we don’t have a lot of room, but there’s some infrastructure that needs to be tended to.”
Having already served Ponderay for six years on council and another eight as the city’s mayor, DeMers is not lacking experience at the city level of government. She opted not to seek a third term as mayor in 2007, but after taking a two-year break from politics, DeMers said she is ready to get back to work.
“I feel that the city of Ponderay has so much going for it and I just think we need to sit down and plan our future, not just sporadically come up with something off the top of our head and not be able to answer questions about it,” she said.
Though he has the least amount of political experience, Sandpoint Furniture/Carpet One co-owner John Darling has been an active member of his community for years. Darling began contemplating a council run after friends and customers suggested the idea. He said whatever he lacks in experience, he will make up in hard work and new ideas.
“I think I’m a young mind — I’m only 35 years old — and I can add some new, fresh opinions,” he said. “I think the existing council has done a great job and I’m not necessarily getting in there to change anything, but I definitely think I can bring some fresh ideas.”
Although he’s been on the council for nearly two years, this November will mark the first time Geiger officially runs for office. Geiger was appointed to the council in early 2008 after his father, former Councilman Steve Geiger Sr., stepped down.
Since taking over, Geiger has grown to love the position and said he wants to see through some of the issues he and the rest of the council have worked on over the past two years. Infrastructure funding, or the lack thereof, tops Geiger’s list of goals for the coming years.
“The distribution of money and how we get our money in revenue sharing from the state is a big issue, because we’re really getting the shaft,” he said. “So we’ll just be trying to come up with some funding sources that are fair to everybody.”