Town Councilors, Fire District Commissioners win elections Petrich over Short by wide margin

Citizens re-elected MaryLee Chamberlain, John Leaver and Bill Stokes to the La Conner Town Council Nov. 7. Chamberlain topped the vote count with 226. Fire District 13 Commissioners Bruce Shellhamer and Larry Kibbee, also unopposed, won election, Shellhamer for the first time. Similarly, Doug Peterson won his first race, unopposed, as a commissioner for Fire District 12.

Michael Madlung won, again unopposed, in Fire District 2 as did Steven Omdal for Port of Skagit Commissioner 2.

Jon Petrich will be District 2’s commissioner for the Port of Anacortes, winning convincingly against incumbent Commissioner Bill Short. Petrich is ahead by some 1,800 votes and almost 24 percentage points with 1,400 ballots remaining to be counted countywide by the County’s Auditor’s Office as of Nov. 14.

Petrich expressed surprise at the margin and said his win “was a very, very humbling experience.” He is committed to climbing the learning curve to become proficient as a commissioner. His focus will include “making the Port a top destination for cutting edge water dependent industries” and considering a solar farm adjacent to the airport.

Skagit County citizens overwhelmingly voted to repeal the three state legislature house bills on the ballot up for non-binding advisory votes, by margins of 31 to 38 percent. These are House Bill 1597, House Bill 2163 and House Bill 2242.

Statewide, the advisory votes all favored repeal. The repeal totals ranged from 54.6 percent for Bill 1597 to 62.53 percent for Bill 2163.

In Skagit County, turnout was 34.89 percent: 27,100 people voted. There are 73,710 registered voters in the county.