Cheney public safety wins big

Tuesday night was a good night for public safety measures on the West Plains.

As of press time, the city of Cheney’s Proposition 1 was passing easily with 58.73 percent of the vote. The measure would do a one-time lift of the city’s property tax levy lid, raising over $410,000 officials have tagged for use by the police and fire departments to meet personnel and equipment needs.

Meanwhile, Airway Heights’ Proposition 1 for the purposes of funding emergency medical services in the city was also passing, receiving 66.40 percent yes votes. That measure will impose an EMS tax levy of 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value for the next six consecutive years, beginning in 2016.

Both cities’ respective city councils were waiting on the election outcomes for both measures before proceeding with aspects of their respective 2016 current expense fund budgets.

Most of the contested council, school board or fire district commissioner seat races on the West Plains had pretty clear-cut winners Tuesday night. The two exceptions were city council positions in Airway Heights and Medical Lake.

In Airway Heights, challenger Larry Bowman held an 11 vote lead over incumbent Jack Collins, 208 – 192 (49.88 percent to 47.17 percent), in the race for City Council Position 5, with 108 undervotes, meaning 108 voters didn’t bother to mark a box for either one. In Medical Lake, Don Kennedy led Jessica Roberts by 22 votes, 296 – 274 (51.03 – 47.24) in the race for City Council Position 7, which is being vacated by retiring incumbent Art Kulibert.

Running unopposed for council seats in Airway Heights were newcomer Aspen Monteleone and incumbent Dave Mallet. Unopposed candidates retaining seats in Medical Lake was Howard Jorgenson, John Paikuli and Laura Parsons while in Cheney, incumbents Doug Nixon, Ryan Gaard and Jill Weiszmann were winning unopposed races, as was newcomer Dan Hilton.

In school board director races, Medical Lake’s Rod VonLehe, Felicia Jensen and Ronald Cooper were all retaining their seats with no opposition.

What might be one of the most interesting developments taking place election night was in the Cheney School District races where incumbent Henry Browne was easily retaining his Director No. 3 seat over challenger Patrick Rushing, 59.60 percent to 38.70 percent (2,141 – 1,390) while in the race for Director No. 5, challenger Mitch Swenson held a comfortable lead over incumbent James Whiteley, 55.14 percent to 43.29 percent (1,893 – 1,486).

What is interesting about those races was the number of undervotes. Of the 4,620 ballots cast in the Browne-Rushing race, 1,089 didn’t vote for either candidate while of the 4,628 ballots cast in the Swenson-Whiteley contest, 1,249 came back without a vote for either.

Director No. 3 represents Airway Heights and a good portion of unincorporated portion of the county between that city and the Four Lakes area. Director No. 5 represents residents in the Windsor-Marshall area.

Even in the voting in Director District No. 4 in north Cheney, where newcomer Stacey Nicol was running unopposed to replace retiring long-time director Rick Mount, there was a significant undervote. Of the 4,597 ballots returned, 1,732 came back without even a write-in candidate named.

Martha-Lou Wheatley-Billeter, the county’s public information and communications manager, said there could be any number reasons why voters fail to select any candidate in a race. When asked Tuesday night about the Cheney School District races, Wheatley-Billeter didn’t know what to say.

“It’s open to interpretation,” she added.

The county will continue to count ballots through the week, and Wheatley-Billeter said they expect significant numbers on Wednesday and Thursday. As of Tuesday night, just 28.16 percent of the 286,245 ballots mailed had been returned.

Results are not final until the election is certified on Nov. 24.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].