Winners of contested election races react

Several contested races in the area were decided last Thursday by voters in the city/school election here in Adair County.

According to unofficial results released election night, 722 of 3,274 registered voters in the county went to the polls for the city elections, for a 22% voter turnout. In the school election, 847 of 4,535 possible voters went to the polls for a turnout of 18.67%.

Herrick wins race for school board seat

Molly Herrick defeated Doug Holliday in the only truly contested race on the ballot for Nodaway Valley school board last week.

Jamie Campbell of Fontanelle, who was on the ballot against Kristen Jensen and Daniel Shilling, declared he wasn’t interested in a position anymore, so Jensen and Shilling each won seats on the board. Jensen received 370 votes and Shilling 210.

The margin of victory in the Herrick vs. Holliday race was 276 to 155.

Herrick, a mother of children in the district with a design background, said she’s excited to take on the new challenge. In her campaign for the seat, the Nodaway Valley alum touted community support and the fact that the NVCSD is rural as strengths, while communication and opportunity for growth as areas of needed improvement, in her opinion.

“I’m just very excited to take this on. I think we’ve got a great group of younger folks on board,” Herrick said. “I think it’ll be good working together, and I’m happy to represent our school district. I really appreciate all the support from everyone and am excited to see how this will unfold.”

Alexander Maeder (64) beat Angie Blazek (15) and Casey Osborne (6) in a contested race for an at-large Orient-Macksburg school board seat, but Osborne did win a seat through write-ins for District 3.

City results

In contested city elections, Tyson Sickles (68 votes) and Sam McIntire (55) each had reactions to winning seats on the Fontanelle city council. They outlasted Dianna Goetz (52), Nichole Queck (42) and Kalvin Edwards (16) for those spots.

Sickles, who works for the Iowa Department of Transportation, is wrapping up a term on the Nodaway Valley School Board and is a volunteer firefighter and EMT, said he has an “open door” policy with citizens, wants to hear them out and be a positive force for Fontanelle moving forward.

“First off, I’m just appreciative to win one of the spots, that the citizens have that much faith in me. They know what I’m about and have trust in me, of some sort, and that means a lot going forward. I’m to the point that we have some big decisions coming up in the next month or two. We have a lot of things on our plate, so it’s getting the nuts and bolts figured out and what’s going to be best for the city going forward,” Sickles said. “You can’t be in a public office like that and have an agenda. Everybody wants things to go a certain way, but what it really comes down to is we have to make Fontanelle move forward and make it viable so people can live here in Fontanelle.”

McIntire, who moved to town from Stuart not long ago, was just as pleased to win a seat on the council.

“I appreciate that as a relatively new person to the community I have been given this opportunity to help lead the future of the city,” McIntire said. “I’m anxious to get started and look forward to getting to know more members of the community.”

Incumbent mayor Mary Sturdy-Martin received 67 votes to defeat challenger Michael Walker (50) and retain her seat as mayor.

Sturdy-Martin said she’s “excited” to continue as mayor and counts it a “great opportunity to go forward” because of the acclimation period it takes to be mayor, then the pandemic hit.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to move things forward with the city and really gel people and their passion. That’s what I love about our town, that there’s so much passion for our community, and we need to bring that together,” Sturdy-Martin said. “We do have some hard choices and decisions too, but that comes with it. I’m excited to work with the new members of the council, to bringing everyone together.”