Races In Stevens County Bursting With Candidates
Springdale, population 260, has enough mayoral candidates to field a basketball team.
Throw in the seven candidates for Town Council, and there would be enough for a football team.
Nearby Chewelah, in central Stevens County, also has a bumper crop of three mayoral hopefuls. Incumbent Mayor Gloria Davidson said this is only the second time anyone has run against her in the 22 years she has served on the City Council and as mayor.
Davidson will have to overcome local newspaper columnist Lew Arnold, who also operates an unlicensed radio station, and Safeway checker Ron McCoy if she is to serve a third four-year term as mayor.
McCoy could not be reached for comment, but he said when announcing his candidacy that he wants to make Chewelah a good place to earn a living as well as a good place to live. He and his wife moved from Republic, Wash., about three years ago, and he recently retired from the Navy Reserve.
He ran for a Chewelah City Council position in 1995 and was defeated 338-245 by Lew Valkenaar in the general election.
Arnold, 51, has been a Chewelah resident only since April, although he has lived in the area 26 years. He ran unsuccessfully for Stevens County District Court judge before abandoning his career as an attorney in 1988.
Arnold said he was simply “burned out” with the legal profession. However, Washington State Bar Association documents indicate he was under investigation for at least one complaint in 1988, when his license was suspended for failure to pay association dues.
City Administrator Bill Provost will be fired if Arnold is elected, the candidate said.
“Our present mayor, although she tries to do the right thing, she has a city administrator that I think is way too powerful,” Arnold said. “I think we need a mayor that is stronger and takes a leadership role.”
He believes city officials acted improperly in a recent land-use controversy involving mobile homes, and worries about how coming deregulation will affect the city’s electrical utility department. If elected, Arnold said he would limit his column in the Chewelah Independent to non-municipal issues.
Davidson, 73, said she stands on her record as a consensus builder. “We have to work together. If we all go different directions, nothing gets done.”
She said she has promoted economic development in 18 years of service on the board that administers a revolving loan fund for the Trico Economic Development District. She plans to use her position as chairman of the Tri-county Regional Transportation Planning Organization to address concerns that U.S. Highway 395 eventually may bypass Chewelah.
Davidson said she also wants a third term so she can finish work on a $7 million project to upgrade the city’s sewage treatment plant.
Davidson has lived in the Chewelah area all her life, except while attending Holy Names Academy and Kinman Business College in Spokane. She operated a flower shop for 24 years and now is office manager for the Chewelah Chamber of Commerce.
In Springdale, incumbent Mayor Ernie Gehrke is about the only person who isn’t running for mayor.
Lonnie Anderson, 47, said she would use grant-writing skills she learned in classes at Spokane Falls Community College to get money for a badly needed water system overhaul. She also wants to expand Town Hall hours to make it easier for working people to conduct business.
A former school bus driver, Anderson has lived in the Springdale area for 24 years. She was elected to the Town Council in 1994, but served only half her term before resigning because of frustration with Gehrke’s administration.
Councilman Joseph “Bud” Brown, 64, was voted out of office in a contentious 1995 election that pitted supporters of Gehrke and of former Mayor Ray Turner. Although Brown was aligned with Turner, a council of Gehrke supporters appointed him to a council vacancy this spring.
“I can get along with anybody,” said the retired school district maintenance man and former farmer.
As mayor, Brown said he would continue his tradition in nine years on the council of cutting costs by donating maintenance work.
Councilman Dan Hite, 64, who couldn’t be reached for comment, has been one of the most unrelenting critics of Gehrke. He has been on and off the Town Council for many of the 22 years he has lived in Springdale and is the retired operator of a septic-tank pumping business.
Candidate Floyd Pope, 65, has served about eight years on the Town Council with a gap caused by an unsuccessful run for mayor four years ago. Voters put him back on the council two years ago.
Pope has lived in Springdale for 12 years. He operates the town’s only grocery store, and has been a grocer and accountant most of his life since earning a two-year degree from Kinman Business University.
Pope said he would focus his business and managerial skills on the portion of Springdale’s “very ancient” water system that hasn’t already been rebuilt. He said he wants to mend the town’s political fences “and go on to the future with a positive attitude.”
James Sullivan, 52, a six-year resident and chairman of the town planning commission, believes he is the most qualified mayoral candidate. He holds two bachelor’s degrees, in history and education, which he earned from Eastern Washington University after disability retirement from a 13-year career as a Burlington Northern Railroad machinist.
Sullivan has been chairman of Spokane’s North Hill Neighborhood organization, and ran unsuccessfully for the Spokane City Council in 1981. He would emphasize infrastructure planning, and sees lack of sewage-treatment capacity as Springdale’s biggest problem.
He is suing the town to overturn an 80-acre annexation this spring that he believes violated the state Growth Management Act.
In other contested Springdale races, incumbent Councilman Steve Gluth, 42, who operates an auto garage and drives a school bus, is being challenged by former bartender Evelyn Harms, 68, and John Harris, 47, who is a bartender and chef.
The council position Brown is abandoning to run for mayor is being sought by: Francis Brown, 37, no relation, a forklift operator at Springdale Lumber; Vickie Denman, 38, a dispatcher for Spokane County Fire District 9; and Lowell Peterson, 63, a retired technical illustrator and draftsman.
, DataTimes