Boyd, Riphagen win school board seats
Chad Sloan and incumbent Matt Wetrich were the winners in a close race for seats on the Jefferson city council in the Nov. 7 city/school election. Unofficial results show Sloan with 596 votes and Wetrich with 594 votes. Susan K. Bose got 585 votes and Trevor Wishman received 428 votes. Two seats were up for election.
During the weeks leading up to the election the workforce housing project proposed by Kading Construction and spearheaded by Greene County Development Corporation became a voting issue, with Wetrich and Wishman in favor of the project for the economic opportunities it can provide to the city and county, and Sloan and Bose opposed to the project because of the high cost to taxpayers.
There was also an effort to garner write-in votes for incumbent mayor Matt Gordon, a fiscal conservative who opposes the project. Gordon chose not run for re-election but those who oppose the Kading project initiated a write-in campaign.
Former mayor Craig Berry, who lost a bid for re-election to Gordon four years ago, was the only candidate on the ballot for mayor this time. He received 782 votes, 72.41 percent. There were 298 write-in votes. A tally on those votes was not available Tuesday night.
Greene County Community School District voters elected two school board members. Connie Boyd received 1,191 votes (39.41 percent); Timothy Riphagen received 989 votes (32.73 percent); and Dylan McConnell received 823 votes (27.23 percent).
Vote totals are unofficial until the county board of supervisors canvasses the votes Monday, Nov. 13.
