 Voters cast their ballot in Independence in June. Residents of Inyo County will be voting for candidates for a number of local school boards, Northern and Southern Inyo hospital districts, local and state ballot measures and, of course, president, in November. Photo by Mike Gervais By Mike Gervais
Register Staff 8-19-2008
Inyo County’s ballot for the November General Election is now set in stone.
The extended candidacy deadlines came to a close last week, and the races have been put in motion for seats on a number of local school and healthcare district boards.
Candidates for the Bishop Union Elementary School District, Death Valley Union School District, Lone Pine Unified School District, Southern Inyo Healthcare District and Trona Joint Unified School District will appear on the ballot alongside those for Inyo County Superior Court Judge candidates, presidential nominees and various state and federal ballot measures, said Inyo County Elections Supervisor Mary Roper.
Residents will also be voting on Bishop Union Elementary School District Measure A, which will allow the school district to issue $3 million worth of bonds to provide funds for improvements to the campus.
According to the school district, the $3 million worth of bonds will be used “to acquire, construct and improve Bishop elementary school facilities, including providing renewable energy improvements and funding major repairs so more money can be used in the classroom.”
If voters do authorize the school district to issue the bonds, the interest rate will not exceed 12 percent and a citizens’ oversight committee will be appointed to review and oversee management and spending of the bond money.
Also, a stipulation in the bond provides that no money collected from the bonds will be used for administrative salaries.
In the same school district, there are four candidates vying for three seats on the Bishop Elementary School board – incumbents Taema Weiss and Linda Arnold and challengers Trina Orrill and Larry Clark. All three positions on the elementary school board are four-year terms.
Down in Death Valley, there will be two candidates, Crystal Aldrich and Cheryl Zellhoefer, on the ballot competing for one four-year term on the school district’s Board of Trustees.
There are also two more district board vacancies available in Death Valley, but no one came forward and filed papers to fill those positions.
The race for two, four-year terms on the Lone Pine Unified School District Board of Trustees includes incumbents Sandy Langley and Cathy George and challenger Matt Kingsley.
In Trona, there are three school board candidates hoping to win the votes of the district residents there. Bob Wilatlm, Gary Hess and Daniel Foster will be vying for votes and the two available seats.
An election is also in order for the two-year seat that is up for grabs in Southern Inyo Healthcare District Zone II. The other areas in the health care district were also up for grabs, but appointments are in order there.
In Zone II, LeRoy Kritz and Judith Fowler have both filed candidacy papers and will meet head-to-head on the November ballot. Zone I incumbent Mary Kemp will be re-appointed to her seat, and incumbent Laurence Kraus will continue to serve Zone V.
No one has filed papers to run in the health care district’s Zone III, and that position remains open.
In addition to the competition for the various school board seats, Roper said, there are several residents who will be appointed to governing board seats, as no challengers filed candidacy papers to run for those available positions.
All three incumbents on the Bishop Joint Union High School Board of Trustees have filed their candidacy paperwork. Stuart Hiroyasu and Lynne Greer are seeking retention of their four-year terms, while Dr. Asao Kamei is running for another two-year term on the board.
The Owens Valley Unified School District had two, four-year terms and three, two-year terms on its board opening up in November, but incumbents Barbara Southey and Aldene Felton were the only applicants, and will be re-appointed to their posts.
In the Big Pine Unified School District, incumbents Marilyn Mann and Sandra Lund will both be reappointed to the Board of Trustees – Mann to another four-year term and Lund another two-year term.
The Round Valley Joint Elementary School District Board will be appointing incumbent Dan Egle to its board this November, as he was the only individual to file for the position.
In all, three, four-year terms and two, two-year terms are open in the district, which leaves three vacant seats on the board that have yet to be filled.
In the Northern Inyo Hospital District, incumbents Dr. John Ungersma (Zone I), M.C. Hubbard (Zone V) and Dr. Michael Phillips (Zone II) will all be re-appointed to their posts. Ungersma and Phillips will serve four-year terms; Hubbard, two years.
Dr. Scott Clarke, who resigned from his post serving Zone IV in the district in July, was also the only person to file candidacy papers for the November ballot for that position and will be re-appointed in November. The hospital district is currently seeking applicants to replace him in the interim.
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