FEW ISSUES DRAW FEW PERRY COUNTY VOTERS

PERRYVILLE -- Voters in Perry County apparently weren't very excited about the elections there Tuesday.

With only one countywide contested race -- that for Perry County Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees -- and only one local contested race -- that in Longtown -- only 586 people bothered to vote. That's not quite 5.62 percent of the 10,436 registered voters in Perry County.

Those who did vote put the three incumbent trustees in office for additional terms. Todd Petzoldt polled 455 votes, Carol Ochs 440, William Wingerter 438, and Carol Riney 263.

Riney, Ochs' sister-in-law, raised some questions about a proposal to turn over operations of the county hospital to a not-for-profit corporation.

In Longtown, the lone challenger knocked an incumbent out of a two-year term on the village board of trustees. Brian Stueve polled eight votes while incumbent Wilbert Hacker only had four. Voters had to choose three candidates out of four. The other two incumbents, Dave Geringer and Keith Trapp, were named on all 12 ballots.

Those 12 voters represented 16.5 percent of the 73 registered voters, three times the percentage of the whole county.

In every other race in Perry County the number of candidates matched the number of positions open.

Incumbents Dennis Martin and Carol Laws won three-year terms on the Perry County Board of Education while incumbents Mary Hunt and Gary Sachs did the same in Altenburg School District.

Perryville Aldermen Paul Dunlap in Ward 1, Randy Leible in Ward 2 and Gary L. Schumer in Ward 3 all won new terms in office.

In Altenberg, no one ran against Thomas Meyr for mayor, Russ Meisner for alderman in Ward 1, or Michael Hughey in Ward 2.

In Frohna, Stanly R. Petzoldt in Ward 1 and Timothy A. Bohnert in Ward 2 ran without opposition for the Board of Alderman. No one ran against Kenneth L. Buchheit or Timothy Peters for the two positions as village trustees.

Elvin Sikes coasted to a six-year term as a trustee of Mineral Area College without an opponent on the ballot.