Little, Spencer, Quigley keep council seats
Published on Tue, Nov 15, 2011 by BY PAM STEVENS | MANAGING EDITORRead More Local News
The elections are finally over and some winners came out far ahead while others numbers were much closer.
In the heated mayor’s race, Mayor Vern Little kept his seat with a 72 percent lead over Arnold Clark. Clark received 27 percent of the vote.
“I’m truly humbled by the support during this campaign. The support with the votes of the citizens I believe show we are on the right path to grow and maintain this city long term,” Little said. “I cannot express enough thanks to those that helped with this campaign and especially my wife for her support for the last eight years on the council and being your Mayor. I am looking forward to working with the dedicated staff and the wonderful citizens of this community. We can do this together.”
Keeping the city financially healthy, growing our economy and protecting the environment are all top priorities for Little in the coming years.
“First and foremost my goal is to maintain a healthy budget and reserve without any special tax increases. Finish our Economic Development plans for 20th Street SE and the Lake Stevens Center (Frontier Village area) and the framework plan for down- town. Finish the planned environment impact statement for those areas so when the economy turns for the better and businesses are ready to expand and or move into the area we are ready for their development,” he said.
“Continuing to pursue our connectivity plan of building sidewalks, walking lanes, bike lanes as the funds allow. Maintain a healthy lake for our residents and visitors. Improving our roads and circulation issues, working with WSDOT, the County, the state legislature and the federal government to secure funds to make these things happen. Many other things can happen when we expand our sales tax base with our plans. Our plan will be complete by June of 2012. I am looking forward to working with all the citizens to make this happen.”
John Spencer was running uncontested and received 98 percent of the vote. It is interesting to note that write-ins received 1.29 percent of the vote.
Economic development within the city is a top priority for Spencer and he has ideas in place to ensure our city continues to move forward.
“Over the next four years we need to do what we can to stimulate economic development/business growth in the Lake Stevens area. It is the financial engine that allows us to make Lake Stevens a place where we want to live,” Spencer said. “With a strong and growing economy my priorities are: (1) Make sure we protect the quality of our Lake and the entire Lake Stevens area. That’s what makes Lake Stevens a great place to live. (2) Improve our transportation system to support strong economic growth and make Lake Stevens a community with safe, excellent access. (3) Support families (young and old) with quality recreation and live safe programs.”
Spencer hopes to continue moving forward on many fronts; particularly transportation and pedestrian improvements, completion of sub-area plans and revision of zoning code to reduce the time and cost of development.
“In the long-run; I expect we will have many opportunities for public-private partnerships to advance plans for each of the Lake Steven sub-areas (older downtown area, 20th Street Corridor, Market Street and Frontier Village),” he said.
Suzanne Quigley kept her council seat for another four years taking 65 percent of the vote compared to Craig Suhadolnik’s 34 percent.
Quigley is excited to be able to continue in the work the council has been doing over the past few years and hopes to hear more from the community in the years to come.
“I welcome continued participation and input from all community members as we navigate a way to make Lake Stevens the best place to live, work, play and raise a family,” Quigley said.
Todd Welch and Tony Morea were both vying for Mark Somers council seat. This was the closest race in Lake Stevens with Welch coming out on top with 51.56 percent of the votes. Morea received 47.59 percent of the votes only trailing Welch by 169 total votes.
Welch is ready to get to work and would like to see roads less congested and ensure Lake Stevens is attractive to business.
“I will work with the state and county to create and implement a better plan for Lake Steven’s road system. Improvements can be made to efficiently move people and goods around the area. We also need to review our zoning, especially after the recent annexation, to ensure we are using the area effectively,” Welch said. “We need to market our city to potential employers, as the recession ends we will need to have positioned ourselves to be an attractive location for businesses to locate to. Once we have a proper plan for our roads, we will become more attractive to business and industries wanting to locate in the Pacific Northwest. I want to thank Councilman Mark Somers for his service to our great city, I wish Mark the best in all of his future endeavors.”
In the heavily debated Snohomish County Executive race, Executive Aaron Reardon was able to keep his job receiving 69,872 votes compared to Mike Hope’s 53,841 votes.
Even after allegations came to surface against Reardon regarding travel expenditures in the last days of the race, Reardon earned himself over 56 percent of the votes.
County Assessor Cindy Portman beat newcomer Chris Vallo with more than double the amount of votes in that race.
In the heated mayor’s race, Mayor Vern Little kept his seat with a 72 percent lead over Arnold Clark. Clark received 27 percent of the vote.
“I’m truly humbled by the support during this campaign. The support with the votes of the citizens I believe show we are on the right path to grow and maintain this city long term,” Little said. “I cannot express enough thanks to those that helped with this campaign and especially my wife for her support for the last eight years on the council and being your Mayor. I am looking forward to working with the dedicated staff and the wonderful citizens of this community. We can do this together.”
Keeping the city financially healthy, growing our economy and protecting the environment are all top priorities for Little in the coming years.
“First and foremost my goal is to maintain a healthy budget and reserve without any special tax increases. Finish our Economic Development plans for 20th Street SE and the Lake Stevens Center (Frontier Village area) and the framework plan for down- town. Finish the planned environment impact statement for those areas so when the economy turns for the better and businesses are ready to expand and or move into the area we are ready for their development,” he said.
“Continuing to pursue our connectivity plan of building sidewalks, walking lanes, bike lanes as the funds allow. Maintain a healthy lake for our residents and visitors. Improving our roads and circulation issues, working with WSDOT, the County, the state legislature and the federal government to secure funds to make these things happen. Many other things can happen when we expand our sales tax base with our plans. Our plan will be complete by June of 2012. I am looking forward to working with all the citizens to make this happen.”
John Spencer was running uncontested and received 98 percent of the vote. It is interesting to note that write-ins received 1.29 percent of the vote.
Economic development within the city is a top priority for Spencer and he has ideas in place to ensure our city continues to move forward.
“Over the next four years we need to do what we can to stimulate economic development/business growth in the Lake Stevens area. It is the financial engine that allows us to make Lake Stevens a place where we want to live,” Spencer said. “With a strong and growing economy my priorities are: (1) Make sure we protect the quality of our Lake and the entire Lake Stevens area. That’s what makes Lake Stevens a great place to live. (2) Improve our transportation system to support strong economic growth and make Lake Stevens a community with safe, excellent access. (3) Support families (young and old) with quality recreation and live safe programs.”
Spencer hopes to continue moving forward on many fronts; particularly transportation and pedestrian improvements, completion of sub-area plans and revision of zoning code to reduce the time and cost of development.
“In the long-run; I expect we will have many opportunities for public-private partnerships to advance plans for each of the Lake Steven sub-areas (older downtown area, 20th Street Corridor, Market Street and Frontier Village),” he said.
Suzanne Quigley kept her council seat for another four years taking 65 percent of the vote compared to Craig Suhadolnik’s 34 percent.
Quigley is excited to be able to continue in the work the council has been doing over the past few years and hopes to hear more from the community in the years to come.
“I welcome continued participation and input from all community members as we navigate a way to make Lake Stevens the best place to live, work, play and raise a family,” Quigley said.
Todd Welch and Tony Morea were both vying for Mark Somers council seat. This was the closest race in Lake Stevens with Welch coming out on top with 51.56 percent of the votes. Morea received 47.59 percent of the votes only trailing Welch by 169 total votes.
Welch is ready to get to work and would like to see roads less congested and ensure Lake Stevens is attractive to business.
“I will work with the state and county to create and implement a better plan for Lake Steven’s road system. Improvements can be made to efficiently move people and goods around the area. We also need to review our zoning, especially after the recent annexation, to ensure we are using the area effectively,” Welch said. “We need to market our city to potential employers, as the recession ends we will need to have positioned ourselves to be an attractive location for businesses to locate to. Once we have a proper plan for our roads, we will become more attractive to business and industries wanting to locate in the Pacific Northwest. I want to thank Councilman Mark Somers for his service to our great city, I wish Mark the best in all of his future endeavors.”
In the heavily debated Snohomish County Executive race, Executive Aaron Reardon was able to keep his job receiving 69,872 votes compared to Mike Hope’s 53,841 votes.
Even after allegations came to surface against Reardon regarding travel expenditures in the last days of the race, Reardon earned himself over 56 percent of the votes.
County Assessor Cindy Portman beat newcomer Chris Vallo with more than double the amount of votes in that race.
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