Six advance at Southwest Public Schools

The top six vote-getters, led in Red Willow County by Crinda McConville and Duane Teter, will advance to the fall election to determine who fills the three available seats on the new Southwest Public Schools board of election.

In Red Willow County, McConville got 388 votes, followed closely by Teter with 381. Bringing up the next four are: Steve Daffer, 229; Brad Randel, 224; Brian Holtze, 188; and Dennis Wasson, 177.

The remaining candidates are: John O'Dea, 164; Kenneth Kelley, 163; and Eddie D. Park, 45.

In Furnas County, the voters cast these ballots: Brian Holtze, 36; Brad Randel, 30; Dennis Wasson, 22; Steve Daffer, 20; Duane Teter, 15; Kenneth Kelley, 10; Crinda McConville and John O'Dea, 3 each; and Eddie D. Park, 2.

Frontier County voters added these figures to the total: Crinda McConville and Brad Randel, 15 each; Duane Teter, 14; Dennis Wasson and Brian Holtze, 12 each; John O'Dea 10; Kenneth Kelley, 7; Steve Daffer, 4; and Eddie D. Park, 2.

The Red Willow County canvassing board, meets Thursday at 10 a.m. to verify election results.

This board will total the votes from each county and determine officially the top six candidates to be placed on the general election ballot.

Southwest Public Schools resulted from a 2003 vote to merge Republican Valley and Twin Valley high schools and construct a new junior-senior high school in Bartley. The vote, however, has been the subject of three lawsuits, one of which has gone to the Nebraska Supreme Court.

Other primary election ballots in Southwest Nebraska counties offered voters very few local races or issues.

Benkelman voters said yes to permanent tax support for the library and McCook's school bond issue leaked over to a dozen voters in Hitchcock County.

Chris Middagh won the North Ward seat on the Arapahoe City Council, defeating Douglas Snyder 88 to 68 votes.

Frontier County's commissioner race ended with J. R. Houser in the lead of the Republican pack with 96 votes. Other Republicans were George Wolfe, 62 votes, and Marvin Arnold, 29 votes.

Democrat Robert Jack was unopposed, and got 60 votes.

Thirty-five percent of registered voters cast ballots in Frontier County.

In Furnas County, voters determined representations to two Lower Republican Natural Resource Districts subdistricts:

Subdistrict 2: Toby tenBensel, 591 votes; John Burkholder, 146; and Steve Godeken, 86.

Subdistrict 4: Jay Ziegler, 293 votes; Robin Hinrichs, 267; and Eric Boudreau, 113.

In Dundy County, the race was close for District 3 commissioner: LeRoy Durbin, 12; Michael David, 11; and Royce Stute, 8.

Dundy County voters cast these ballots for Subdistrict 1 of the Upper Republican Natural Resources District: Kenneth Frasier, 286; Levi Whipps, 121; and Michael Strand, 82.

Chase County voters cast these ballots for the same NRD position: Michael Strand, 502; Kenneth Frasier, 194; and Levi Whipps, 89.

Also in Chase County, Republican Joseph Johnston got 92 votes, to oust Bill Greeley with 67 votes and Robert Hohl with 52, in a race for District 1 county commissioner.

Hayes County election results were not available before press time.