Thompson Falls election in full swing

Danielle Switalski

The Thompson Falls election results for mayor are in and Luis LaRock and Carla Parks are moving on to the General Election.

The Thompson Falls election for mayor is different in more ways than one this year. First, there are is a primary election for mayor which hasn’t happened in Thompson Falls as far back as 1981, said Clerk and recorder Jennine Robbins. There are also the new mail-in ballots being used for the primary election for mayor and council members, which have produced an even better turnout than expected, with 454 ballots returned out of the 704 as of Tuesday afternoon.

“Normally we have the polls, we just have a way higher turnout already,” said Robbins.

The mail-in ballots, which were sent out to Thompson Falls residents August 25 and had to be returned yesterday, Tuesday, September 16 to be hand counted. There were five people on the ballot for mayor, current Thompson Falls mayor Luis LaRock, Justin Harris, Dennis Newman, Carla Parks and Bruce Knerr and one write-in candidate Orlin Olson. When more than four candidates run for an elected position, there must be a primary election.

The Valley Press contacted each candidate up for the mayor seat in the primary election and took note of a theme among the majority of candidates and that was their desire for change.

“It’s just time for a change, I hope we have someone new in there (in office) that respects the town and wants to see it grow,” said Knerr.

Although Knerr said he has not been intensely campaigning, his main hope is that the new mayor will see that the town can not expand “if it is not annexed and I hope the new mayor will see that and help Thompson Falls grow.”

Harris has developed BREAD as part of his campaign trail, which stands for beatification, recreation and economic activity development. Harris plans to accomplish these three tasks by mainly using grant stimulus and recovery funding which, he says, is a way to help the town rather than raising taxes.

“I think the time is right, it’s a climate of change and I think I’m the guy for the job,” said Harris who hopes for change that will benefit the community as a whole regardless of who is elected.

Dennis Newman’s campaign’s main focus has been to get the community involved, especially when it comes to where the government spends taxpayers’ money.

“It’s kind of intimidating for people to go to the government up here (Thompson Falls) and try to get something changed, I don’t think people need to fear that, I would like to involve the citizens here with open arms,” said Newman who stressed his openness to the community and desire to get rid of current wasteful government spending.

When asked what he hopes will come out of this election Newman said “I hope someone will stand up, someone has to start change with the local government and go up. It needs to start locally.”

Carla Parks said her campaign has been two-fold, effective and efficient government of today and planning progress of tomorrow, meaning she wants a city that runs as efficiently as possible.

“I believe that there are areas in the city that we could improve as far as the community runs,” said Parks who hopes to be a leader of Thompson Falls in order to make the town a better place.

Parks said she specifically wants to see improvements on the roads, getting in some walkways where possible and linking together a trail system that is currently under consideration for the area.

As far as the primary election is concerned Parks said “I think it’s great there are six of us running, and I hope that foretells the future that we will have the continued interest in this position (for mayor) I really appreciate all of the people I have met and talked to through this process and its been a nice growth experience for me,” said Parks.

Write-in candidate Orin Olson has been focusing his campaign on bringing back tradition to Thompson Falls including “bringing back the things that have been lost” such as the train, heritage day, the parade and vendors.

“We need the tourism, all these little towns are sprouting up and we are sitting here doing nothing,” said Olson who has been really stressing the need to make Thompson Falls more of a tourist location throughout his campaign. For example, he would like to redo Main Street back into the old Western style.

Luis LaRock refused to comment on the election.

Primary election results are in today Wednesday, September 16 and two of the six candidates will move on into the general election. Please check www.vp-mi.com for more details on the election.

Ballots for the general election for mayor of Plains, Thompson Falls and Hot Springs will be mailed out on October 14 and need to be returned by November 3. Up for mayor of Plains is current mayor Michael Brinson and Ron Robinson and the candidates for Hot Springs are current mayor Randal Woods and Lori Anne Hancock.