Iron County officials submit paperwork for spring election

By ZACHARY MARANO

zmarano@yourdailyglobe.com

On April 5, Iron County residents will elect candidates to the Hurley City Council, Mercer Board of Supervisors and Montreal Common Council, as well as to the Iron County Board of Supervisors and the boards of education for the Hurley and Mercer school districts.

The deadline to file paperwork for the elections was Tuesday.

Hurley Mayor Jay Aijala and alderpersons Steven Lombardo and Joanne Bruneau won’t return to their seats, as they filed non-candidacy papers for the election. Bruneau is running for mayor, though.

All six seats on the council are up for election. Incumbent Hurley alderpersons Robert Lanctoe, Jamey Francis, Thomas Conhartoski and Stephanie Innes are running for re-election. Other candidates on the ballot include Joseph Pinardi and Rita Franzoi.

Mercer town supervisors Mike Lambert and Vic Ouimette will run for re-election unopposed for their seats on the town board.

In Montreal, Mayor Kelly Traczyk and council member Bill Thomas are also running unopposed for re-election. Council member Ken Saari is not running for re-election, and Steve Fiene is the only person on the ballot running for his Saari’s seat on the council.

Only one position on the Iron County Board of Supervisors will be contested. Ward 2 supervisor Opal Roberts will be challenged by Mercer resident Hank Joustra.

Additionally, two incumbents will not run for re-election to the county board: Kathy Byrns of Ward 1 and Ken Saari of Ward 6. Josiah Hewitt is running unopposed for Byrns’s position in Ward 1, but no one took out papers to run in Ward 6.

The Iron County Clerk Mike Saari said that Ken Saari did not submit a declaration of non-candidacy to the clerk’s office, so the deadline to file for candidacy of his position has been extended to 5 p.m. on Friday. The clerk said if no one files for candidacy, it will come down to a write-in candidate.

The Hurley K-12 district administrator Kevin Genisot said that the deadline to file for candidacy on the school board is today at 5 p.m., but only incumbent president Leslie Kolesar and board member Andrew Laurin have filed so far for the two positions available.

The Mercer School District administrator Sheri Kopka told the Daily Globe Tuesday that she couldn’t provide the names of the people running for the school board because their official election paperwork was at the school, which was closed that day due to weather conditions.