In a narrow race, Erin Zalinski won the at-large seat for Glenwood Springs City Council in Tuesday’s election by 43 votes.

She secured 939 votes, and Tony Hershey came close behind with 897 votes. 

“Congratulations to Erin, I wish her luck,” he said. “It was very close. I hope there will still be a variety of voices on council.”

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The total number of ballots cast was 1,848.

“This is going to be a lot of learning and a lot of becoming comfortable and becoming familiar, more listening and observing and participating than executing any master plan,” Zalinski said when the PI asked her if she had any big plans.

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She said that she wants to represent the day-to-day living side of Glenwood Springs. 

“I feel like that’s an important voice,” she said. “I want to be accessible. I want people to feel like they have somebody that can speak for them and bring things in front of Council.”

With such a low turnout of voters across the city, she hopes that it will encourage more participation. 

She said she is humbled by the amount of support she received in both votes and campaign contributions, which grew quite a bit since the last financial report.

Moving forward, she said she is also excited to work with the wealth of knowledge on Council and respects all of the work Hershey has put in.

“I am very grateful for the work that Tony has done,” she said. “He’s a formidable opponent because he’s well-regarded, and there’s shoes to fill there.”

She hopes he will be open to sharing his knowledge and input if comfortable. 

Schachter takes Ward 3 seat

Sumner Schachter took the seat for City Council Ward 3 with 236 votes to incumbent Charlie Willman’s 167, with only 403 votes cast in the ward.

Mayor Jonathan Godes commented on how the turnout was abnormally, if not historically low. The city of Glenwood Springs has 5,963 registered voters. The city sent out an estimated 2,584 at-large ballots to places that had uncontested races, 988 ballots sent to Ward 1, 1,251 sent to Ward 3 and 1,170 sent to Ward 4.

“I’m proud and honored to have served the city, and I do wish my opponent well,” Willman said. 

He added that he’s dedicated years to the city, and he is proud of the work he has done. He said he plans to continue serving the city where he can. 

“I am happy, of course,” Schachter said of the win, “but I think I’m happiest for Glenwood Springs. The voice was pretty clear, and so hopefully, we can continue making this city better and better, and we have a good team going forward.”

He added, “What happens depends on how the seven of us work together and come together for Glenwood.”

Both candidates were equally disappointed by the low turnout in voters for Ward 3, which takes in the east side of Grand Avenue in the downtown area.

Councilor Marco Dehm won 184 votes in the uncontested election in Ward 1, and Mitchell Weimer gathered 250 votes uncontested in Ward 4.