Wrangell’s Borough Assembly certified this year’s municipal election results Thursday after the canvass board approved the ballots. They counted 99 absentee ballots, which included early in-person, electronic and by mail. They kept all of the unofficial results.
Incumbent Mayor Patty Gilbert (352) will continue serving another two-year term. She ran against Vice-Mayor David Powell (187), winning by 165 votes.
Incumbent assembly members Bob Dalrymple with 394 total votes, and Jim DeBord with 443 ran uncontested and will both sit on the assembly for another three-year term.
Both newcomer Eric L. Yancey and incumbent Chris Buness outdid the other candidates for Port Commission. Yancey received 371 votes and Buness 275. Their opponents, Antonio Silva (217) and Tony Guggenbickler (134) straggled behind by at least 58 votes.
The school board gained one new member, Dan Powers, who earned 378 votes. Incumbent Angela Allen also kept her seat at 388 votes. They ran against Brittani Robbins (204), who trailed behind with at least 174 votes.
As for the ballot propositions, voters turned down Proposition 1 by 36 votes. Since this was a ‘no,’ assembly members will not be able to get compensated for attending borough assembly meetings. It was a close call, though, with 285 ‘no’ votes and 249 voting ‘yes.’
On the contrary, the community passed Proposition 2 by a large margin.
This will allow the borough to obtain a $3 million loan to help fix structural repairs of the Public Safety Building. There were 402 votes approving the proposition and 135 against.
A total of 445 election ballots were cast in-person on election day. That’s a 43% increase from last year’s municipal election.
Nearing the end of the special meeting to certify the election, Mayor Gilbert honored John Martin for serving 11 years on the Port Commission. She also honored Brittani Robbins for serving three years on the School Board.
Gilbert, DeBord and Dalrymple then took an oath to serve their next terms as mayor and assembly members. Other candidate-elects will take their oaths anytime since the assembly certified the election. The new terms of office begin Monday for the school board, Tuesday for the borough assembly and Nov. 7 for the port commission.
