In the Nov. 7 elections, incumbents in the Lakeland Joint School District 272 have been successful in holding their board positions for the upcoming term while the city of Rathdrum gained new faces on the board and mayoral seat.
In all of Kootenai County elections, there was a voter turnout of 31.5 percent, with 33,311 ballots cast and 105,589 registered voters in the county.
Despite efforts, all three zones will continue to be represented by the same elected officials as before.
Lakeland Joint School District zone 1 board member
Zone 1 incumbent, Randi Bain will continue to serve out as the trustee for the next four years.
Bain has been in her current position for the past two and a hlf years.
With 69.66 percent of the votes, Bain received 806 votes in her favor, while Kyle Olmstead, challenger, received 30.34 percent of the votes with 351 people in favor.
Lakeland Joint School District zone 2 board member
Zone 2 will continue to be represented by Ramona Grissom, incumbent of the position. Having held the position for the past four years, Ramona held 63.38 percent of the votes, whereas her opponent held 37.62 percent of the votes.
In total, 1409 votes were cast, with 879 in favor of Grissom, and 530 in favor of her opponent, Cherish Hansen.
Lakeland Joint School District zone 3 board member
Similar to Zone 1 and 2, Zone 3 will continue to be represented under the same board member, Michelle Thompson.
Having previously held this position for one term, Thompson will continue to do so after the results from the Nov. 7 elections.
Thompson had 795 votes in her favor, holding 63.05 percent of the votes. Her opponent, Sheila Holfeltz had 466 voted in her favor, with about 36.95 percent of the votes.
Mayor of Rathdrum
The city of Rathdrum appointed a new mayor after the Nov. 7 elections.
Mike Hill was voted in against his opponents, John Lamb and Anthony Turrentine, with about 57.67 percent of the votes in his favor. There were 1,034 votes for Hill.
Lamb received 23.15 percent of the votes with 415 in his favor. Turrentine received 19.19 percent of the votes, with 344 in his favor.
Brent Hill, son of Mike Hill and senior at Lakeland High School, is extremely proud of his father’s accomplishments.
The win for his father came by no surprise, and Brent Hill is excited to see everything his father has planned for the city.
“It was kind of awesome and, to hear by how much is even more surprising,” Brent Hill said. “I’m excited for my dad. He’s got lots of plans for the city. My dad can handle anything, he is the jack of all trades.”
Rathdrum city council member Seat 2
Larry Sanders was voted into Rathdrum City Council Member Seat 2. He won the election with 957 votes, 55.13% of total votes for the position.
Sanders campaigned against two opponents, with Steven Adams receiving 22.18 percent of the votes in his favor, which was 385 votes, and Molly Bauer, who had 22.7 percent of the votes in her favor, with 385 votes.
Rathdrum city councils member Seat 4
John Hatcher ran unopposed for the position of Rathdrum City Council Member Seat Four. He is excited about the new opportunities that will be presented with this position.
“I look forward to working with the new council members to see what positive changes we can bring to the city,” said Hatcher.
This political position is new to Hatcher, but he is looking forward to learning more about being involved with these leadership roles. Nobody ran against him because they were confident that he would do a good job representing the people.
“I represent the people and what the people want,” Hatcher said.
Kootenai county open space bond
The bond conserving open land within the county did not pass, with 52.95 person of votes cast against and 47.05 percent in favor of the bond.16,135 voted against the bond, with 14,335 voted in favor.
If it had passed, the bond would have preserved prairie land within Rathdrum against new housing developments. In order to pass, the bond needed a two-thirds approval vote, which was unsuccessful.
