Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Rosann Finco, right, of Wakefield checks in Tuesday at the Wakefield Municipal building in order to vote in the general election. From left are poll workers Marsha Jurakovich and Bev Ahonen.
WAKEFIELD - There will be some new faces on the Wakefield City Council following Tuesday's election.
A total of six candidates ran for the five council seats, with incumbent councilman Dale White receiving the most votes with 270. Scott Heikkila - who city clerk Susan Ahonen told the Daily Globe had chosen not to seek election - took second with 236 votes.
Incumbents James S. Anderson, Amy Tarro and Kay Witta round out the council with 211 votes, 199 votes and 182 votes, respectively.
Current mayor John Granato appears to be the odd man out, coming in last with 168 votes.
Along with choosing the city's council, voters also decided four ballot measures - with all four passing.
Proposal 1, which eliminates the civil service method for selecting non-union, non-office city employees, passed 180 votes to 160 votes.
Proposal 2, which provides staggered four-year terms for the council elections so not all five members are on the ballot at once, passed 195 to 148.
Three members of the council will be up for election in a single race, with the two remaining seats up for grabs in the next biennial election.
Proposal 3, which consolidates the city's board of review meetings into a single session passed 256 to 85. Prior to the ballot measure, two meetings were held two weeks apart.
The fourth ballot measure, a millage renewal for the Wakefield Public Library, passed 269 to 78.
The millage asked for 1 mill to be renewed for five years. One mill translates to $1 per $1,000 of taxable value.
The city's election saw 25.3% of its 1,415 registered voters cast their ballots, according to information from the Gogebic County Clerk's office.
