Halfway through the municipal election nomination period, here is the lay of the land, based on media reports and official filings recorded at election2014.civicinfo.bc.ca.
In addition to a three-way race for Nelson mayor between incumbent John Dooley, incumbent councillor Deb Kozak, and retired police sergeant Pat Severyn, there are at least nine candidates for the six city council seats, up modestly from eight in 2011, and seven in 2008. But it’s a far cry from the 15 who ran in 2005 or the 19 in 2002.
The incumbents are Bob Adams and Robin Cherbo. The others are Michael Dailly, Charles Jeanes, John Paolozzi, Jason Peil, Anna Purcell, Brian Shields, and Valerie Warmington. (Watch for a profile of Shields in the Star later this week.) Among them, only Jeanes has run before.
In Salmo, Dennis McLean is running for mayor and Kenneth Anderson and Reginald Mullaly for council. In Kaslo, incumbent mayor Greg Lay is running for re-election and Louise De Pape is running for council. I have also spoken to another man who intends to run for mayor but has not yet made it public.
In New Denver, only mayor Ann Bunka has so far submitted nomination papers. In Slocan, six nomination packages have gone out but none have yet been returned. In Silverton, incumbent councillors Jason Clarke, Leah Main, and Arlene Yofonoff are all seeking re-election.
In the Regional District of Central Kootenay, all but three incumbent rural directors are running again. So far there are only four races: Rick Marken takes on incumbent Ramona Faust in Area E (Rural Nelson); Kevin LePape and Tom Newell are running in Area F (Rural Nelson) to fill the seat being vacated by the retiring Ron Mickel; Rick Smith will run against incumbent Gord Zaitsoff in Area J (Lower Arrow-Columbia) and longtime director Hans Cunningham faces Werner Kraus in Area G (Rural Salmo). Cunningham defeated Kraus in 2011.
Also running for re-election: Garry Jackman in Area A (East Shore), Larry Binks in Area C (Rural Creston), Walter Popoff in Area H (Slocan Valley), Andy Davidoff in Area I (Rural Castlegar), and Paul Peterson in Area K (Arrow Lakes). Aimee Watson is running in Area D (Rural Kaslo) to replace Andy Shadrack, who is retiring.
Although board chair and Area B (Rural Creston) director John Kettle has been coy about his future, he is almost certainly not running again based on the fact his alternate, Tanya Wall, is seeking to replace him.
In the Kootenay Lake school district, six candidates have so far filed or announced their candidacy: Bob Abrahams, Curtis Bendig and incumbent Bill Maslechko for Nelson/Bealby Point; Reanne Gow for the East Shore and North Shore; Sharon Nazaroff for Slocan Valley/Bonnington; Cody Beebe for Rural Creston; and former trustee Verna Mayers-McKenzie for Creston.
We’ll bring you the complete list of candidates soon after nominations close Friday at 4 p.m. Voting day is November 15.