Tight race: Steve Winters elected mayor of Cowley

By a narrow margin in Tuesday’s General Election, Stephen Winters edged KJ Blackburn to become mayor of Cowley.

Winters, who filed early and was on the ballot for the August Primary Election, edged Blackburn, who accepted a write-in nomination in the Primary, 153 to 142, unofficially. Winters will succeed the retiring Mayor Joel Peterson in January.

North Big Horn County’s other four incumbent mayors were unopposed on Tuesday: Tom Newman in Lovell, Allan Clark in Byron, Bill Camp in Deaver and Garret Frescoln in Frannie.

Incumbents carried the day in contested races for town council. Bob Mangus topped the ticket in Lovell, receiving 366 votes, unofficially, with Dan Anderson also retaining his seat with 338 votes. Challengers Jason Sumaya and Jeff McCollam received 209 and 166 votes, respectively.

In Cowley, incumbent Scott Crosby received 216 votes, unofficially, and will be joined on the council by Dexter Woodis, who garnered 183. Rose Ames received 97 votes, Bryan Baird 62.

Incumbents Brandon Hessenthaler and Shae Abraham were re-elected in Byron. Hessenthaler received 103 votes, Abraham 101. Challenger Taliesha Beech tallied 46 votes.

All other council candidates in North Big Horn County were unopposed and elected: Shauna Crouch, Kayla James and Kelly Spann (two-year seat) in Deaver and Keara Poole, Guy DeSantis and John Ellis (two-year seat) in Frannie.

Most other races featured unopposed candidates in North Big Horn County, though there were two candidates for the Fire Protection District Five Board of Directors. Kendal Wambeke received 53 votes to 12 for Stephanie Wambeke.

Three seats on the North Big Horn Hospital Board of Trustees were unopposed, with room for one more. Bruce Morrison won re-election to his at large seat on the board, joined by fellow incumbents Brett Crosby (Byron-Cowley seat) and Garret Frescoln (Deaver-Frannie seat).

There were also 311 write-in votes cast for the second at large seat on the hospital board, with the county clerk’s office to determine a winner after reviewing the write-ins.

Tax support

Two special taxes were renewed in North Big Horn County. 

As usual, voters overwhelmingly supported the additional three-mill levy for the North Big Horn Hospital District. Voters approved the levy for another four years with 1,455 votes in favor and 363 against.

Likewise, voters in Lovell approved the 2 percent lodging tax for tourism promotion with 484 votes in favor and 115 against.