Ward takes over as Gerald’s mayor on Thursday

Linda Trest, Staff Writer
Posted 4/10/19

Hillary (Haase) Ward will once again be the mayor of Gerald. In last Tuesday’s General Municipal Election 164 voters cast ballots. Of those, 118 marked their ballot for Ward. Challenger Brad …

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Ward takes over as Gerald’s mayor on Thursday

Posted

Hillary (Haase) Ward will once again be the mayor of Gerald. In last Tuesday’s General Municipal Election 164 voters cast ballots. Of those, 118 marked their ballot for Ward. Challenger Brad Landwehr won 44 votes. Two voters chose to cast a write-in vote. Incumbent Mayor Carey Parker withdrew his name from the race, choosing not to serve again.

Ward and Landwehr also faced each other in a race for mayor in 2016. In that election, Landwehr captured 89 votes while Ward, a declared write-in candidate, tallied 159 votes.

In the city’s only other race, two-term incumbent Ward 1 Alderman Stephen M. Grgurich lost his seat to newcomer Angela Koepke. Grgurich pulled 36 votes to Koepke’s 79. 

Ward 1 Alderman Ruth Haase will retain the seat to which she was appointed last year. Haase ran unopposed and captured 93 votes with nine voters choosing a write-in candidate.

Kent Richardson, who was appointed to fill an aldermanic seat in Ward 2, was approved by voters to retain that seat. Richardson was also unopposed in the election and garnered 42 votes, with five voters choosing a write-in candidate. 

Ed Adams will round out the table of the board of alderman. He will not face reelection for his Ward 2 aldermanic seat until 2020.

The new board and mayor will be sworn in and seated at the April 11 re-organizational meeting of the Board of Aldermen, held at City Hall at 6:30 p.m.

Overall, Franklin County saw a 16.18 percent turnout for the April election, according to County Clerk Tim Baker. Of the 62,907 voters in the county, only 10,179 of them showed up at the polls last Tuesday.