When the Chesterton
Town Council meets at 7 p.m. Monday in the town hall, the three incumbents
who ran unopposed in the municipal election will vote for the man whom they
want to serve with in 2016, when they endeavor to break the 401-401 tie in
the race for the open 4th District seat.
Also voting to
break the tie, of course, will be the two incumbents who opted not to run
for re-election.
At the end of the
night on Nov. 3, Republican Nate Cobbs had edged out Democrat Scot McCord by
a single vote: 399-398.
But that result
didn’t include four provisional ballots--cast by voters who didn’t have
proper identification on Election Day and had to go to Voter Registration
with a driver’s license sometime before the Nov. 13 deadline in order for
those ballots to count--as well as a single military ballot cast by e-mail.
Those five votes broke McCord’s way: three went to him, two to Cobbs.
So the final final
result: 401-401.
The incumbents: Jim
Ton, R-1st; Lloyd Kittredge, R-2nd; Nick Walding, R-3rd; Sharon Darnell,
D-4th, and Emerson DeLaney, R-5th.
Ton, Kittredge, and
DeLaney ran unopposed for re-election. Darnell and Walding did not run for
re-election.
Dane Lafata,
meanwhile, a Democrat, ran unopposed for Walding’s 3rd District seat in the
general election after the Republican who ran unopposed in the primary,
Aaron Adcock, withdrew his candidacy in October.
Should the council
members, for their part, somehow manage a tie vote once again--2-2, which
would happen if one of the five recuses him- or herself or is unable to
attend Monday’s meeting--then Clerk-Treasurer Stephanie Kuziela will cast
the final final tie-breaking vote.
2016 Salary
Ordinance
In other business,
members are scheduled to consider the 2016 Salary Ordinance.
There are two items
of interest in regard to the ordinance this time around.
First, it will
include a 4-percent raise for all municipal employees (but not council
members).
Second, the members
of the Stormwater Management Board have asked the council to include in the
ordinance a $1,500 annual stipend in compensation for their service.
Currently, a seat on the Stormwater Management Board is a non-remunerative
position.
Redevelopment
Commission
Earlier in the
evening, at 6:30 p.m., the Redevelopment Commission will hold its monthly
meeting.
Member Jim Ton is
scheduled to report on the latest from the Northwestern Indiana Regional
Planning Commission.