Sheldon voters went to the polls Tuesday to select a new mayor and at-large council member, with approximately 28% of Sheldon’s registered voters casting their ballot on election day, or by absentee ballot.
In the mayor’s race, unofficial results find Greg Geels the winner with 577 votes plus 31 absentee ballots for a vote total of 608 votes. Fred Grein received 263 votes plus 15 absentee ballots for a total of 278 votes. There were 21 write-in votes plus 2 absentee ballots for a total of 23 write-in votes.
For the at-large council position, unofficial results show the winner to be Wayne Barahona with 435 votes plus 23 absentee ballots for a total of 458 votes. Kerwin Sterler garnered 205 votes plus 7 absentee ballots for a total of 212 votes. Rick Nordahl received 177 votes plus 15 absentee ballots for a total of 192 votes. Wayne Burnette came away with 42 votes plus 1 absentee ballot for a vote total of 43. And there were 8 write-in votes with no absentee write-in ballots cast.
The vote totals won’t become official until they are canvassed by the O’Brien County Board of Supervisors at their next meeting.
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Original post 1:01pm, May 20, 2019
Sheldon, Iowa — This Tuesday, May 21st, Sheldon voters will go to the polls to choose a new mayor, and at-large city council representative.
The set of circumstances that resulted in Tuesday’s special election began when former mayor Katricia Meendering submitted her resignation, effective March 6th, to accept a position as General Manager of the Crossroads Pavilion event center.
Shortly thereafter the Sheldon City Council opted to fill the mayor’s position by appointing a new mayor, and asked for “Letters of Interest” from Sheldon citizens who might be interested in being appointed mayor. The City ended up with four residents expressing interest in being appointed mayor. They were Fred Grein, Wayne Barahona, Bob Engels and at-large councilman Greg Geels. At their meeting on April 3rd, the council interviewed each of the four, and ended up appointing Geels on the second round of voting by council members. The first vote had Geels and Barahona tied with two votes each, with Geels winning in the second round of voting by the council with a tally of 3 votes to 1 over Barahona.
On Monday, April 15th, the Sheldon City Council held a special meeting for the purpose of swearing Geels in as mayor of Sheldon. At that meeting Geels resigned his council post to become Mayor. The council had indicated their preference to appoint someone to fill Geels’ vacated council seat, as well.
The very next day, Tuesday, April 16th, the City of Sheldon was presented a petition bearing 37 signatures, 10 more than the required number, forcing a special election for the mayor’s position. At their Wednesday April 17th Regular council meeting it was decided that, since the mayor’s office would need to be put before the voters, they would put the vacant at-large council position on the special election ballot, as well.
The deadline for filing nomination papers for the May 21st special election was set for 5:00 pm April 26th. Two Sheldon residents filed their papers to run for mayor. They are, in alphabetical order: Greg Geels and Fred Grein. Four individuals are on the May 21st ballot for the at-large council seat. In alphabetical order they are: Wayne Barahona, Wayne Burnette, Rick Nordahl and Kerwin Sterler.
Polls will be open for Tuesday’s special election from 7:00 am until 8:00 pm, and voters will cast their ballots in the Sheldon Community Services Center, 3rd Floor, Room B.
The person elected as mayor will serve the remainder of the unexpired term, until January, 2022. The person who wins the council seat will fill out the remainder of that unexpired term which runs until January 1, 2020. The council seat will be on the ballot again in the November general election, since this is the last year of that unexpired term.
KIWA interviewed each of the mayoral and council candidates. We asked each of the candidates the same questions, and allowed each up to about six minutes to answer those questions. Those interviews may be heard by clicking the links below.
Mayor candidates – in alphabetical order:
City Council Candidates – in alphabetical order:
