Voters approve school repair bonds; Gilbert likely winner of mayoral race

Patricia Gilbert is the likely winner in Tuesday’s mayoral election against Terry Courson, leading the in-person vote tally 275-219. With slightly more than 100 absentee and early votes still to count, Courson would have to win those votes by more than a 3-to-1 margin to overtake Gilbert’s 56-vote lead.

Voters approved by a wide margin, 311-to-170, approved borrowing $3.5 million for repairs to all three school buildings, but a proposed $8.5 million bond issue for repairs to the Public Safety Building appears headed to defeat. That ballot proposition was failing 207-275 after Tuesday night’s count; the remaining ballots would need to go 4-to-1 in favor of the bond issue to reverse the outcome.

Wrangell voters cast 497 ballots on election day, significantly ahead of last year’s election day turnout of 402. There were no bond issues on last year’s ballot.

The borough has received 103 absentee ballots and could receive a few more before final vote results are tabulated on Thursday.

In the only other contested race on the ballot, David Powell and Brittani Robbins were elected to the borough assembly with 345 and 320 votes, respectively. The third candidate in the two-seat race, Alex Angerman, received 176 votes. Powell is an incumbent who has spent the past seven years on the assembly; Robbins has one year of experience in public office as a member of the school board.

The third ballot proposition in this year’s municipal election, which would allow the borough to lease or sell the former sawmill property at 6-Mile Zimovia Highway, passed 393-90.

The races for school board and port commission were uncontested. Elizabeth Roundtree and David Wilson will serve three-year terms on the school board. Esther Ashton will serve a one-year term on the school board. Winston Davies and John Yeager will serve three-year terms on the port commission.

The borough canvass board will process absentee ballots at 1 p.m. Thursday at City Hall. Of the absentee ballots, 88 came from early voters and 15 were sent in by mail. As of Tuesday afternoon, the borough had not received five mail-in ballots it had sent out. If the borough receives any of these ballots before 10 a.m. Thursday, they will be counted.