Nine candidates file for four open Eagle Town Council seats
Seven newcomers join two incumbents in the race
A total of nine candidates have filed successful petitions to run for four open seats on the Eagle Town Council, giving voters ample options in determining the majority makeup of the seven-member council.
Eagle Town Manager Brandy Reitter said she was glad to see the healthy turnout after a slow start to the application process. The window to pull candidate petitions ended Monday.
“As a voter, having options is always good,” Reitter said. “If you have multiple candidates, at least you can have other perspectives, other platforms, that might be of interest to the voter.”
It’s not quite as enthusiastic a response as when the town had 19 applicants for two seats left open following the deaths of Adam Palmer and Andy Jessen earlier this year, but those were appointments, Reitter said. Participating in a local election can be a bit more time-consuming.
“That was in the wake of a tragedy and I have never seen, in my career, 19 people ever throw their names in a hat for an appointment,” Reitter said. “That was unprecedented, you just don’t ever see that, in a small community especially.”
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The Town Council has three open seats with two-year terms attached to them as well as one open four-year term seat, Reitter said. Candidates were asked to choose which term length they wished to run for when they submitted their applications.
Vying for the three two-year seats up this election are Shawn Bruckman, Sarah Parrish, Judson Haims, Jamie Woodworth Foral, Weston Arbogast, Nick Sunday and sole incumbent Janet Bartnik, who was appointed to the town council in March of this year.
The race for the Town Council’s sole four-year term will be a showdown between incumbent Geoff Grimmer and newcomer Weston Gleiss.
Gleiss is a social studies teacher at Eagle Valley High School.
Grimmer also works in education as the co-founder and executive director of Zealous Schools. He too was appointed to his seat in March.
Reitter said she hopes to hold a “candidate orientation” in the coming weeks to get them up to speed on the functions and priorities of town hall. This will be especially important this election given that new candidates could make up more than half of the Town Council when all is said and done.
“They can get to know folks and town issues ahead of time so that whoever gets elected can hit the ground running on day one because literally that’s what happens,” Reitter said.
Email Kelli Duncan at kduncan@vaildaily.com