compiled by
WJ Staff
HUERFANO, LAS ANIMAS– Tuesday night’s election in Trinidad and Las Animas County had a great turnout, some surprises and a county tax proposition that failed.
In probably the biggest contested seat in the two counties, Phil Rico beat out incumbent Joe Reorda and Carol Bolton to win the mayorship of Trinidad. The unofficial results were:
• Phil Rico 1,025
• Joe Reorda 711
• Carol Bolton 462
On Wednesday, Rico was happy. “I want to thank the citizens of Trinidad for getting out to vote and be part of the political process. I would like to thank all those who ran, thank you for caring about our community. Moving forward I want to develop a good relationship with council, city staff and our citizens.”
In the city council election, Joe Bonato and Michelle Miles held on to their council seats for another term, and Carlos López was elected for the first time. Bonato, who is called the lone wolf of the council added, “I am ready to go and excited. We need to keep moving our little town forward, give local business work, keep our city employees on the job and do what is right for Trinidad. Thanks to my family, friends, and to the voters for having faith in me once again.”
López was thankful for the opportunity to serve, “I will do my very best to move Trinidad forward. Thank you to my mom, family and all of my supporters.”
Miles edged past Jennie Garduno in the race for the third council seat.
For Trinidad City Council, voting results are:
• Carlos López 1,193
• Joe Bonato 1,009
• Michelle Miles 990
• Jennie Garduno 915
• Howard Lackey 819
• E.R.A. McCarthey 548
• Louis Fineberg 524
Projected winners are Carlos López, Joe Bonato and Michelle Miles.
Las Animas election results show voter turnout was 53.57%, with 4,146 voters casting ballots out of 7,740 total registered voters.
Trinidad came out in force for this year’s school board election, the numbers tell the story.
For Trinidad School District 1, the vote was:
• Paul Montera 1,320
• Patrick Sandoval 1,313
• Deb Hartman 1,319
• Dan Ruscetti 1,282
• Mary Iverson Bruce 1,149
• Joseph Cordova 746
Sandoval was encouraged by the election and he is excited about the future of the Trinidad School District. “I thankful that the voters have given me another term. I hope our board can work together to follow district policy, work on educating our kids and we just need to do the right thing make the right decisions for our district.” Hartman Wednesday was ready to get to work, “I am excited and ready for this challenge. Running for this was a great learning experience for me. Thank you to all who supported me, thank you to current board for their hard work. I look forward to working with our administration, staff, teachers and students.”
Huerfano County
Results
For Huerfano County, the two contested Walsenburg seats went to Greg Daniels, who beat out Troy Reeves in Ward 1, and John Salazar, who beat incumbant Don Lewis for the Ward 3 seat. Dennis Hoyt ran unopposed for the open Ward 2 seat.
Results are as follows:
• Greg Daniels 153
• Troy Reeves 97
Dennis Hoyt
(unopposed) 180
• John Salazar, II 174
•Don Lewis 84
Walsenburg Mayor James Eccher ran unopposed for a second term, garnering 667 votes. Walsenburg City Clerk Wanda Britt, also running unopposed, netted 683 votes. Walsenburg City Treasurer James Moore, running unopposed, got 667 votes.
For the La Veta RE-2 school board the vote went this way:
• Matt Dobbs 323
• John Albright 314
• Clay McKisson 290
Dobbs and Albright will be seated on the board, while McKisson, who was an appointee to fill an empty board seat, lost his position.
On the Huerfano ballot, voters were asked if the county can re-establish its right to provide any or all services currently restricted by Title 29, Article 27, Part 1 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. These services include any new bandwidth services and utilizing community-owned infrastructure (such as the existing fiber-optic network). The vote was as follows:
• Yes 1480
• No 580
On Question 2A, voters were asked if term limits for the city clerk can be eliminated beginning Jan. 1, 2016. The answer was no:
• Yes 389
• No 412
