Elections are today in local municipalities
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
Today is election day for voters living within the town limits of three Garfield County municipalities: Carbondale, New Castle and Silt.
Contests for mayor seats in Silt and Carbondale will be decided, while Silt voters will also decide among six candidates for three town board of trustees seats.
Meanwhile, New Castle voters will decide on two ballot questions, although the election for three trustee seats and the mayor are uncontested.
The town of Parachute also had only as many candidates as it had open seats on the town board, prompting the cancellation of its regularly scheduled municipal election.
Following is a run-down of the candidates, questions, polling places and other election day information.
Two current members of the Carbondale town board, Ed Cortez and Stacey Patch Bernot, are running for the open mayor’s seat that is being vacated by Michael Hassig, who is term-limited and cannot run again.
Three trustee seats are uncontested, however. Incumbents John Foulkrod and Frosty Merriott and candidate Elizabeth Murphy are running unopposed.
Carbondale will have a polling place election, except for those voters who requested absentee ballots or who are registered as mail-only voters. Mail ballots must be returned to Carbondale Town Hall, 511 Colorado Ave., no later than 7 p.m.
Polling places will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. at the following locations:
Precinct 1 – Carbondale Firehouse, 300 Meadowood Drive
Precinct 2 – River Valley Ranch Sales Barn, 333 River Valley Ranch Drive
Precinct 3 – Carbondale Town Hall, 511 Colorado Ave.
New Castle’s election is by mail ballot only, with no polling places. Although the mayor and three trustee seats are uncontested, the names of the incumbents, mayor Frank Breslin and trustees Bruce Leland, Art Riddle and Greg Russi, still appear on the ballot.
New Castle voters will, however, decide on two ballot questions. One asks to authorize the town to publish its official documents on the town website, rather than “in a local newspaper of general circulation,” as is done currently. The other ballot question would authorize the town to impose a 2 percent use tax on motor vehicle registrations, and to use the revenues to pay for street repairs, maintenance and improvements.
Ballots must be received at New Castle Town Hall by 7 p.m. today.
The most hotly contested town board election is in Silt, where incumbent mayor David Moore, part of a slate of candidates going by the name “Save Our Silt” (SOS), is being challenged by incumbent trustee Meredith Robinson for mayor.
Six candidates, including incumbent Bobby Hays, along with Mark Rinehart, Bob Shivley, Paul Taylor, Bryan Fleming and Rick Aluise, are running to fill three trustee seats.
Taylor, Fleming and Aluise round out the SOS slate, while Hays, Rinehart, Shivley and Robinson have informally teamed up as the Sensible Solutions for Silt slate.
Silt’s election is also a mail ballot-only election, and ballots must be returned to Town Hall no later than 7 p.m.

Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism
Readers around Glenwood Springs and Garfield County make the Post Independent’s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.
Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.
Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.