Several contested races for area City Council and School Board seats on November 2 election ballot
Allamakee County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections Denise Beyer has released a certified list of candidates for the upcoming School Board and City Government elections scheduled for November 2 of this year. This year’s ballot will include only races for school board seats or city governmental offices, as there are no public measures up for consideration at this time.
CITY GOVERNMENT
All mayor seats up for re-election this year within Allamakee County have just a single unopposed candidate listed on the November 2 ballot. All are currently incumbent mayors, with the exception of the City of Postville, where current mayor Leigh Rekow is not seeking re-election but Dennis Koenig, former Allamakee County Supervisor, is seeking that office.
Otherwise, current mayors in Waukon (Pat Stone), Waterville (Dave Monserud), New Albin (Alberto Whitlatch) and Harpers Ferry (Jerry Valley) are all seeking re-election unopposed. City of Lansing Mayor Melissa Hammell was recently elected in a September 14 special election to serve the remainder of the four-year term (ending in 2023) of that office after previously elected mayor Kyle Walleser resigned due to a change in his employment status that would not allow him to fulfill the duties of mayor.
The Waukon City Council will have four seats up for election this fall, with Arvid Hatlan being the only incumbent in those four races and running unopposed to retain his Ward 3 seat on the council. One of two Waukon City Council At-Large seats on this year’s ballot has a mid-term vacancy caused by previous councilman John Ellingson moving outside the city limits, with Andrew Sires running unopposed to try and fill that At-Large vacancy.
The other At-Large seat on the Waukon City Council will have both Nicholas Engrav and Kevin Johnson vying to replace Ben Rausch, who will not be seeking re-election. Ward 1 councilman Gayle Decker is also not seeking re-election and will have his seat sought by Jerry Schoenthal and Stephen Wiedner, who had previously held the Ward 1 seat prior to trying to run for Waukon Mayor in 2017.
The only other City of Waukon item on this year’s ballot will be to elect two members to the Veterans Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees. Just two candidates, Patty Nordheim and James Sewick, are vying for those two seats on the board.
Two other communities also have competition on this year’s ballot for city council positions. The City of Lansing has three at-large council seats up for election this year with five candidates vying to fill those seats. Incumbents Deb Volker and Michael J. Manning will be joined by newcomers Steve Murray, Lisa Welsh and Ian Zahren in seeking those Lansing City Council seats.
The City of Harpers Ferry also has more candidates than open seats on its city council, as two at-large seats are up for election this year. A trio of candidates, Kenneth Barta, Alan Garin and Larry Schulte, are vying for those two council seats.
The City of New Albin has three at-large council seats on this year’s ballot and just enough candidates to fill those three spots, one of them being to fill a vacancy being sought by Maria Stahl and the other two at-large positions being sought by George Blair and Debra Crane. City Treasurer Diane Erbe is also up for re-election this fall and running unopposed.
The City of Waterville has five at-large seats on this year’s election ballot. The number of candidates vying for those seats perfectly matches that number, as Robbie Burrett, David Christianson, Jaclyn Hilleshiem, Jeff Mitchell and Jodi Van Iten are listed as council candidates on this year’s ballot.
The City of Postville will also have two at-large seats on its city council up for election but that same number of candidates seeking those seats. Rebecca Engelhardt and Mary Engstrom are listed as those two candidates.
EDUCATION
The three school districts in Allamakee County will also have seats on their respective board of directors up for election this year, with the Allamakee Community School District being the only one of those three to have contested board races, and having not just one but two of those. The Eastern Allamakee Community School District has two seats up for election on its board, with Arla Wagner running unopposed to fill the District 3 seat and Melanie Mauss seeking re-election to her at-large seat on the board unopposed as well.
In the Allamakee Community School District, incumbent board member Scott Melcher of District 1 is being challenged by Danielle Kruse. Likewise, at-large incumbent Allan Rissman is also being challenged by Tim Smedsrud for that seat.
The Postville Community School District will have two at-large seats on its board of directors up for election. Greg Lage and Larry Schultz are listed as the two candidates vying to fill those seats.
Voters in Allamakee County will also see an item for Director of Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) District 2 on this year’s ballot. Incumbent District 2 Director Kathy Gunderson will be seeking re-election to that seat unopposed.
