Primary Election Results:
Big winners are Bigler in
Mt. Pleasant, Anderson in Spring City
By Robert Stevens
08-17/2017
The dust has settled in the primary elections for both the Mt. Pleasant mayoral race and the race for two four-year council seats in Spring City.
At 8:10 p.m. on Tuesday night, the Sanpete County Clerk Sandy Neill submitted the initial results for both races.
In Mt. Pleasant, there are 1350 active voters, but 42-percent voted. Interim-mayor Sandra Bigler had the lion’s share of the votes: 365 from the initial count.
The Messenger tried to call Bigler, but was unable to reach her.
Bigler’s two opposing candidates, Dan Simons and Todd Horn, only had 194 votes between them, but Simon’s 129 votes was enough votes to keep him in the running for the general elections.
“For everyone that voted for me, thank you,” Simons said. “For everyone who didn’t vote for me, just know that I want to work for you. I would be a full-time mayor, and I am not afraid to get my hands dirty.”
Simons said if he was elected mayor of Mt. Pleasant in the general election, his first priority would be improving the city infrastructure, which he says has been neglected for several administrations. Simons says his second priority would be to increase the tax base, by trying to encourage new businesses to put in roots in Mt. Pleasant.
Todd Horn received 65 votes in the Mt. Pleasant race.
In Spring City, 59-percent of 526 voters came out to vote. With two four-year council seats up for grabs, four candidates—Chris Anderson, Michael Black, Tom Brunner and Kimberly Lloyd-Stewart—move onward and upward, while Joseph Fuchsel will drop from the ballot.
Chris Anderson was the dominant candidate in Spring City, garnering 222 votes from the initial count. Michael Black received 127, just one more vote than Tom Brunner’s 126. Incumbent Kimberly Lloyd-Stewart collected 100 votes, which was more than enough to pass Fuschel’s 19, and end up on her way to the generals with the three councilmember-hopefuls.
Current Spring City Councilman Cody Harmer says he has spoken with a number of citizens inquiring about who he feels would be good candidates for the open council seats. While Harmer didn’t want to openly endorse any candidate, he said he was impressed that he had received just as many inquiries about which candidates he thought would work well with the mayor and the pre-existing councilmember who still had time left on their council term.
“I think that’s a real vote of confidence from our citizens,” Harmer said. “The fact that they are concerned about solidarity between the council shows that they don’t want to see the progress we have made as a city hampered.”
Harmer did say he felt that at least one of the hot button topics for Spring City’s two-seat council general election would be fiscal responsibility.
The final and official results will come next Tuesday with a canvass.
“We expect a very small amount of additional ballots, so we won’t count again until it’s time for the canvass,” said Sanpete County Clerk Sandy Neil.
The general elections will be held Nov. 7.
