Five seats for Lincoln City Council to be filled by four new aldermen come May 1st
No candidate for Ward 4

 

[December 20, 2018] 

LINCOLN 

This week the deadlines for filing under the republican, democrat, or independent ticket have passed in the city of Lincoln.

On Tuesday morning City Clerk Peggy Bateman shared that in the Lincoln City Council five seats are up for election and four of the sitting aldermen of those seats will not seek office in 2019.

Seats up for election include one seat in Ward 1 held by Tracy Welch. Welch is the sole aldermen who has chosen to run for office in 2019.

In Ward 2, both seats are up for election. The seat held by Ron Fleshman for a two-year term is up. Fleshman has chosen not to run again and the candidate for that seat for a two-year term beginning May 1, 2019 is Republican Ryan Gleason.

Ron Fleshman was appointed to the Ward 2 seat in February of 2018 after the resignation of alderwoman Kathy Horn. Since coming to the council Fleshman has shown particular interest in working with the city on the Long Term Control Plan for the Waste Treatment facility and worked with Crawford, Murphy and Tilly on helping to establish the new sewerage rates for the city.

Also in Ward 2, the four-year position held by Michelle Bauer is up for grabs. Filing as the sole candidate for that seat is Democrat Sam Downs.

Bauer has served on the council since January 2014 and was appointed by former Mayor Keith Snyder. Bauer replaced Bruce Carmitchel, who resigned from the council after approximately one year of service.

Bauer has been actively involved in many of the city issues and has worked with the Logan County Tourism Bureau and the Tropics sign committee to assist in getting the iconic Route 66 sign restored and placed at its current location on the city’s west side, just feet from its original home.

In Ward 3, Heidi Browne has chosen not to run for re-election. The 2019 candidate for Ward 3 is Republican Kevin Bateman.

Browne was appointed to the aldermanic position by Mayor Seth Goodman after the resignation of alderman Todd Mourning in 2017. Mourning had announced his resignation immediately following the 2017 mayoral election. Outgoing Mayor Martha Neitzel chose not to fill the seat, making Browne, Goodman’s first appointment to the council.

Browne was actively involved in the creation of the trash recycling and collection agreements with Area Disposal and has been a vocal participant in many of the other issues to come before the council in the last almost two years.

In Ward 4 Alderman Dayne Dalpoas has chosen not to run for election and there is currently no candidate for that seat.

According to City Clerk Peggy Bateman there is still time for a candidate to go on the ballot as a “write in.” Anyone wishing to learn more about this should contact the city clerk’s office.

Dalpoas has served on the council since July of this year. He has been vocal on many of the issues brought before the council.

The most unusual circumstance in the upcoming election will be the election of two aldermen for the Ward 2 seats. The council structure had been designed so that at each election there is the potential for one new alderman per ward to come to the council, but not two. The election structure was designed so that there would be no time when a ward was not represented by an experienced alderman. However the large turnover in the city council over the last few years have made more two-year elections necessary. Therefore there will be two new, inexperienced aldermen take their seats in 2019 representing Ward 2.

Because there are no contested seats, it is not expected at this time that there will be need for a primary election for the city officials. LDN anticipates it will have more coverage of the candidates closer to election time.

[Nila Smith]