Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
MERCER, Wis. — Mercer has a new town chairman after John Sendra defeated long-time incumbent Jim Kichak in Tuesday’s town election.
Sendra received 311 votes to Kichak’s 298 for the win.
Tom Thompson will join incumbent Jeff Stenberg on the town board, as the pair were the top two vote-getters in the town supervisor race.
Stenberg received 367 votes, while Thompson received 338 votes. James Schmidt came in third with 297 votes.
Mercer Clerk Christan Brandt received 548 votes and Treasurer Lin Miller received 536 votes in their respective uncontested re-election bids.
Bill Brundage received 43 votes in his successful write-in campaign to fill the Mercer Sanitary Commissioner seat, as no-one filled papers to appear on the ballot.
The other towns in Iron County had candidates running unopposed in various races. These results were as follows:
In Anderson; Edward Brandis received 19 votes to be elected the new town chairman, while Patrick Hanson and Jerry Rice received 18 and 14 votes respectively to win re-election as town supervisors.
Carey voters returned Robert Walesewicz to another term as town chairman with 21 votes, while Tom Bainbridge and Diane Schmidtke received 20 and 19 votes in their respective bids for another term as town supervisors.
Tom Innes won another term as Gurney town chairman with 24 votes, while Rick LaFortune and Kyle Thompson became the town supervisors with 23 votes each. Clerk Denys Vargovich and Treasurer Jessie Bender were re-elected with 27 votes and 25 votes each.
Daniel Soine earned another term as chairman of the town of Knight with 32 votes. Incumbent town supervisors Owen Garro and Kendall Koski received 32 and 30 votes respectively.
Oma Town Chair Steve Finco received 87 votes, defeating Rick Christianson’s write-in campaign, which garnered 39 votes. Incumbent Larry Erickson received 108 votes and incumbent Robert Matz received 87 votes and in the town chairman races. Treasurer Linda Kuduk received 124 votes and 120 votes went to Clerk Denise Schmitz-Enking.
In Pence; Michael Paternoster received 23 votes as town chairman, with Joe Olson and James Maffesanti receiving 25 and 26 votes respectively.
In Saxon, incumbent Andrew Rowe received 48 votes. Supervisors Kelly Thurow and Karl Krall received 47 votes and 40 votes in their re-election bids. Clerk Kathy Brauer earned another term with votes 48, while Stevie LaFortune’s write-in campaign for town treasurer received 31 votes. As no one filed papers to appear on the ballot in the treasurer’s race, all write-in votes were accepted. In addition to LaFortune’s successful bid; Faye LaJoice received 6 votes, while Sue Briar and Deb Massolia each received 1 write-in vote.
In Sherman; Gerald Luke won re-election as town chairman with 77 votes, as did Town Supervisor Gerald Mikula with 64 votes. The other town supervisor seat — currently being held by Robert Lepper — went to Gary Kessler, with a write-in campaign garnering 96 votes. Other write-in candidates with votes were: Peter Hatch with 21, Brad Matson with 3 and Nick Sprangas with 2. Clerk Amy Slone and Treasurer Gerard Murrin received 91 votes and 93 votes each.
