Sheldon, Iowa — The Sheldon City Council has approved a special election for the Second Ward council seat formerly held by Shawn Broesder. It’ll be Tuesday, June 8th.
Broesder resigned from the council last month, leaving his seat vacant. The council had opted to appoint a Second Ward resident to replace Broesder, but last Thursday afternoon a petition was submitted in order to force a special election to fill Boesder’s unexpired term, which runs through the end of this year. On Friday morning, O’Brien County Commissioner of Elections, County Auditor Barb Rohwer issued an opinion that the petition was valid and should be accepted. Rohwer said there was a period of five business days in which the petition could be objected to. That five-day period concludes this Thursday, April 22nd, the day AFTER the council meeting. She says if the petition is objected to, and is invalidated, there would be a second opportunity to submit a new petition for a special election. But, unless there are objections, the council has now set June 8th as the day for the election.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. and voting will be at the Crossroads Pavilion. Those wishing to run must be from the Second Ward, and only Second Ward residents may vote. City Administrator Sam Kooiker says nomination papers are due with the City Clerk by Friday, May 14 at 5 p.m. He says petition circulation could begin this Thursday, April 22. Absentee voting will start 20 days before the election. Kooiker says in the event there are multiple candidates, a candidate only needs to receive the most votes and not necessarily a majority.
The council also approved engineering services for what Kooiker calls a “much-needed traffic signal and turn lanes” at Hwy 18 and Runger/34th Avenue near Sheldon Crossing on Sheldon’s east side. The fees for this project are $106,100, but they will be part of the $2.5 million in Urban Renewal essential corporate purpose bonding the City is planning for FY21-22.
In addition, the council set a hearing for May 19th for the authorization of a loan agreement and issuance of $1.1 million in general obligation capital loan notes for phase II of the Crossroads North project.
