By JIM LUTGENS
Editor/Publisher
The voters have spoken and there were three decisive winners in the NRHEG School Board race Tuesday night.
Elected were Neil Schlaak with 1653 votes, Dan Schmidt with 1474 and Karen Flatness 1442. Rich Mueller was a distant fourth with 858 while Robert “Kim” Olson totaled 678, and Jessica Duffner 634 despite withdrawing from the race. There were 32 write-ins.
Christine Gislason was reelected mayor of New Richland with 69 write-in votes. Angie Gehrke totaled 58 write-ins, Pam Goehring 20 and John Harrington 13. Dozens of people received at least one write-in vote among 241 write-ins cast.
In Ellendale, challenger Russ Goette was elected mayor with 192 votes as incumbent Mark Skroch garnered 144. Former mayor Steve Engel was the top vote getter for two open city council seats with 270. Also elected was incumbent Duane Goebel with 194. Richard Lassahn had 101 votes.
It couldn’t have gotten any closer in the race for mayor in Hartland, where Debra Flatness won with 84 votes to 83 for runner-up Zachary Jacobson. Nathan Baseman had 18. For city council, Nancy Toot and Linda Peterson were elected with 108 and 92 votes, respectively, while Gordon Jensen totaled 75. There were 16 write-ins.
In Geneva, incumbent mayor Steve Bailey was reelected in a landslide, with 223 votes to 78 for challenger Tim Gassmann. For two open city council seats, Taff Worrell and Janell Tufte were reelected with 182 and 156 votes while Susan Phillips totaled 137 and Christopher George 95. There were three write-ins for council.
Bruce Urbatch was elected mayor of Waldorf with 77 votes to 30 for Alain Jordan Graham. Elected to city council were Kevin Lines and Howard Cordes with 68 and 61 votes, respectively. Dave Bottin had 30 votes. In a special election for city council, Missy Sorbo was elected with 76 votes to Paul Alvin Arndt’s 31.
Bruce Hansen was elected mayor in Clarks Grove with 274 votes. There were 26 write-ins. For city council, elected were Carolyn Weller with 247 and Dick Nelson with 243. There were 13 write-ins.
Edward Mosser, running unopposed, was elected Mayor of Freeborn with 113 votes. Elected to city council were James Beach with 113 and Pat Stenzel with 110.
Elected to Hollandale City Council were Ken Muilenberg with 121 votes and Tom Nims with 90. Steven Manning received 49.