Candidates vie for city, district seats

SANDPOINT — Bonner County cities and school districts will be holding elections on Nov. 5 and a number of candidates are running for mayor, council member and trustee positions.

Sandpoint has the largest number of candidates in the county, with three people vying for the mayor position, and five City Council hopefuls.

Mayor Shelby Rognstad is running for re-election against Shannon Williamson, who is the current council president, and local pastor Kenneth Lawrence. Three seats on council, currently held by Thomas Eddy, Bill Aitken and Deb Ruehle are up for election, with only Ruehle running as an incumbent. The other four candidates for council are Shannon Mitchell, Jacque Guinan, Andy Groat, and Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce president Kate McAlister. The three elected candidates will serve a four-year term.

In Ponderay, Mayor Steve Geiger is running for re-election against hopeful Tara Tribbett, who is also running for a position in the Lake Pend Oreille School District trustee election. There are two council seats up for election as well, currently held by Brenda Thompson and Gary Kunzeman. Both incumbents put in their bid, as did Northside Fire Chief Brad Mitton.

Ponderay voters will also see a question on the ballot regarding a five-year, 1-percent local option tax. If passed, the additional tax would apply to goods and services within the city, though it would not apply to hotels or purchases larger than $999.99. The purpose of the proposed tax is to fund the city’s Field of Dreams recreation project and a safe public access to the lake via a railroad underpass.

The city of Dover is the only other city with a contested race for mayor, and current mayor Annie Shaha is not on the list as she is not running for re-election. Vying for her position is Freda King and Mike Davis. Dan Parkin and Tom Williams are a shoo-in for the two council seats opening up as well, as current council members Woody Goodvin and Diane Brockway are not running for re-election.

In Kootenai, current Mayor Nancy Lewis is running unopposed, as is seat 4 council member Daniel Schock. Seat 2, being vacated by James Macha, has three candidates vying for the position — Bryan Black, Fabiola Ferris, and Margaret Mjelde.

In Hope and East Hope, current mayors William Breen and Vern Fleisher are running unopposed. In Hope, Bill Percy and Bruce Stutzke are running for the two open seats on council. In East Hope, Phil Kuranz and incumbents Deborah Field and Ian Barrett are vying for two open seats in their city as well. A little further east in Clark Fork, incumbents Sharon Banning and Stanley Spanski are the only candidates on the ballot for the two open seats on council.

On the west side of the county, Priest River has two four-year seats and one two-year seat open on council. Incumbents Doug Wagner and Greg Edwards are running for the four-year positions, as is Eagle’s Nest Motel owner Sean Schneider. Billy Mullaley, who served as Priest River mayor from 2000-2004 and on council for a number of years prior to that, is running as a write-in candidate for the four-year seat as well. Kevin Wylie is running for the two-year position vacated by Gary Stewart in July when he moved outside of city limits. Wylie will be appointed as an interim council member at the next meeting on Oct. 7 as well.

Oldtown’s current mayor Lonnie Orr is running unopposed, as Gary Stovall who is running for the single council position opening up.

The West Bonner County School District has three zones with seats opening up. In Zone 1, Lesa Souza is vying for the position against incumbent Margaret Hall, and Troy Reinbold is running against incumbent Bruce Hollett in Zone 3. Todd Sudick is the sole candidate the Zone 5 seat currently held by Samuel “Ranger Rick” Hall.

In the Lakeland Joint School District, Randi Bain is running against incumbent Rena Olmstead in Zone 1, and Ramona Grissom is running against incumbent John Shaffer in Zone 2.

The Lake Pend Oreille School District has a contested trustee election in Zone 4, with Tara Tribbett and incumbent and current vice chair Geraldine Lewis vying for the seat. Voters in the school district will also see a question regarding whether to make the current two-year, $25.4 million maintenance and operations levy permanent.

The two-year, $25.4 million levy was approved by voters in March and makes up 35 percent of the district’s general fund budget for fiscal year 2020, which began July 1. If the measure is approved by voters, the district would be able to levy up to $12.7 million per year indefinitely. While the board could lower the amount in future years if state funding provided for it, they could not levy more without going back to the voters for approval.

The election will be held on Nov. 5, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. To find your polling place, register to vote, or to request an absentee ballot, go to idahovotes.gov or bonnercountyid.gov.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.