Republic To Vote On Mayor, Renewing Hospital Levy Cromwell Or Koontz Must Steer City With Less Revenue

Republic voters must decide Nov. 2 whether incumbent Mayor Brett Cromwell, a business education teacher, or retired fire battalion chief Elbert Koontz is better qualified to keep the city running with decreasing revenue.

In other Ferry County ballot issues, residents of Public Hospital District 1 are asked to renew a five-year property tax levy of 75 cents per $1,000 of assessed value to keep Ferry County Memorial Hospital in operation.

Initiative 695, which would eliminate the motor vehicle excise tax and require votes on all tax increases, looms large in the two Republic mayoral candidates’ low-key campaigns.

Cromwell said the Association of Washington Cities estimates the initiative would cost the city $11,632 next year and $16,491 in 2001. That’s substantial in terms of this year’s $256,037 general fund budget, but the initiative also could affect about $1.5 million in grants the city has been awarded to pave three streets.

Calling street paving a high priority, Cromwell said, “Our streets are in pretty bad repair.”

As Koontz puts it, “The city is losing money every year and, if 695 passes, it’s really going to lose. You just have to deal with it as it comes.”

Cromwell, 39, had been a city councilman for 3-1/2 years when he was appointed in June to replace Mayor William “Skeeter” Burnett, who resigned.

Koontz, 52, ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 1990, losing by 54 votes. He also was unsuccessful in a race for county commissioner last year. An independent logger now, he was an officer for most of 16 years in several Western Washington fire departments. In his last job, as battalion chief and acting assistant chief for the Poulsbo Fire Department, Koontz said he supervised 54 people and helped write a $1.5 million budget.

He left the department after suffering a knee injury and came to Republic 11 years ago. In addition to logging with his father, Koontz works as an announcer at the local stock-car race track. He has four children from a previous marriage and three with his current “partner.”

Koontz grew up in Spokane, graduated from Wallace (Idaho) High School and attended Lewiston Normal School (now Lewis-Clark State College), before signing up for a four-year hitch in the Air Force.

Cromwell graduated from Republic High School and held a variety of blue-collar jobs, mostly in the automotive field. He was parts manager for Republic’s now-defunct Chevrolet dealership and worked for a local tire shop that also is now out of business before opening his own auto repair shop. He said he closed the business after a couple of years and moved to Spokane so his young son could receive advanced treatment for severe asthma.

He and his wife now have three teenage children.

While in Spokane, Cromwell attended Spokane Community College for two years. When his son’s asthma improved, he returned to Republic to be a heavy-equipment operator for Echo Bay Mines. But he was laid off in the early ‘90s and earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Eastern Washington University. Cromwell began teaching business education part-time at Republic High School two years ago, and now is a full-time teacher.