May elections see a few contests

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

Election filings for the May 7 election closed Feb. 17 with a few contests going to ballot in the south county—Granite Shoals, Meadowlakes and Highland Haven.

The Marble Falls Independent School District Board of Trustees will have no election and in Marble Falls one seat drew no candidate at all. No council contest developed in Cottonwood Shores, but a special election will be held on sales tax.

Marble Falls

In Marble Falls, Mayor John Packer filed for re-election. Parks and Recreation Committee Chairman David Rhodes filed for Place 2 and attorney Megan Klaeger filed for Place 6.

As no one filed for Place 4, the council again will have to choose a replacement. They did that in October when Richard Westerman was appointed to the unexpired term of Raymond Whitman in Place 5.

None of the council incumbents filed—Mayor Pro Tem Jane Mare Hurst, Place 2; Rachel Austin-Cook, Place 4 and Rayan Nash, Place 6.

Granite Shoals

In Granite Shoals, a drawing was held Tuesday, Feb. 21, for ballot order in the one contested race, that of mayor. Incumbent Carl Brugger will be listed above political organizer Mike Steenbergen.

Filing unopposed for re-election were businesswoman Anita Hisey and Jim Davant, a retiree who has served on the Planning & Zoning Commission and Street and Water Advisory Group, and local surveyor Todd Holland, for Places 1, 3 and 5, respectively.

Meadowlakes

Meadowlakes voters will have choices and a drawing will be held Monday, Feb. 27, at 10 a.m. to determine ballot order. The incumbents in Places 2, 4 and 5—Alton Fields, Clancy Stephenson, and Barry Cunningham—said they would not run for re-election.

David Baker, a retired public school administrator and frequent citizen volunteer, is unopposed for Place 2.

Places 4 and 5 are contested, however.

For Place 4, Mel Hazelwood, pastor of Valley Spring and Cherokee United Methodist Churches, and Edwin O’Hayre, a retired school teacher, both have filed.

For Place 5, Charles E. Henley, a retired electrical engineer, and Bobby Brown, retired from both law enforcement and systems programming, have filed.

Highland Haven

“We have four candidates for a two-year term,” reported new Highland Haven City Secretary Jeannie Gruetzner.

They are incumbents Lonnie C. Ball and Bill Passmore and new candidates Marvin Filla and Alvin Kahanek.

Incumbent Don Hagans is unopposed for the one-year term that was up for election.

Cottonwood Shores

Although no race developed in Cottonwood Shores, citizens will have on the ballot the option to continue collecting sales tax for the repair and maintenance of roads. If voters re-approve, as they must periodically, the city will continue to collect one quarter of one percent of sales for that purpose.

Since it was instituted in 2005, the portion of city sales tax dedicated to streets has brought in $26,857.43.

Mayor Donald Orr, retired from engineering sales and general management in Austin's technology community, filed for re-election. Stephen Sherry had filed for Place 4 on the city council and Brigitte Thomas, appointed Jan. 19 to the unexpired term of Marley Porter in Place 2, filed to continue in that position.

MFISD

For the Marble Falls Independent School District Board of Trustees, Place 3 incumbent Lee Ann Johnson, board secretary and a professional association director, filed for re-election.

Larry Allen Berkman filed for Place 4, which Mike Savage will be leaving.

Incumbent Kevin Kyle Virdell, a local bank branch president, filed for re-election to Place 7.

All three entities in north Burnet County will have contests.

BCISD

For the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District (BCISD) Board of Trustees, Place 3, Suzanne Brown, a local event planner, is unopposed. Incumbent Craig Barefoot, who had filed for re-election, withdrew on Friday.

Three candidates have filed for Place 7. Charles Williams, who was appointed by the board to serve the unexpired term of Jim Luther Jr., did not file for election.

The candidates are Mark Kincaid, retired Burnet High School principal; Ross Behrens, a law enforcement officer with the State of Texas, and Kerry Carrol, owner of K Bar T Custom Homes.

Bertram

In Bertram, three places are open on the council as well. The alderman seats held by Pat Turner, Mike Knoarik and Cindy Callihan are up for election.

Turner, a retired nurse who completed an unexpired term and was then elected, filed for re-election to a second full term.

Four more citizens had filed by Friday, according to City Secretary Georgina Hernandez. They are Jean Worrell, a school bus driver; Allen J. Rodgers, a retired electrician and electronics technician; Jane Scheidler, a natural resource specialist, and Mike Louis Dickinson, local businessman.

Burnet

Citizens in the City of Burnet will get an exercise in living with a city charter—two ballots.

Two candidates filed for the position of mayor, now held by Mayor Gary Wideman, who has reached his term limit. They are Crista Goble Bromley, the retired director of city administrative services, and Philip Thurman, president of the Burnet Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors and a council incumbent.

By the terms of the Burnet City Charter, Thurman will have to resign from the council, with a year remaining on his term of office.

Since three seats on the council are already up for election, the charter again comes in to play: a special election must be called to replace Thurman.

City Secretary Kelly Dix confesses that even she has double checked the requirements and has included charter excerpts for the agenda of a special city council meeting called for 5:30 p.m. this evening, Wednesday, Feb. 22 (available under “Top Topics” at www.CityofBurnet.com).

The council will have to declare Thurman's seat vacant and call an election for the next available date, May 6.

“Candidates will have until 5 p.m. Monday, March 6, to file for that race,” said Dix. “It will be on a separate, second ballot.”

Declared candidates for the three seats normally up for election are incumbents Tres Clinton, a pilot, and Paul Farmer, an IT coordinator, and new candidates Zachary Worrell, a firefighter and school bus driver, Ashley Barnett, a firefighter and paramedic, and local business owner Cindia Talamantez.

The legal deadline for withdrawing from a ballot is Friday, Feb. 24. Any candidate in the regular election would have the option of withdrawing and filing like any other new candidate for Thurman's seat.