FORKS — Incumbent Bruce Guckenberg and political newcomer John Hillcar were leading their opponents for the Forks City Council by hefty margins on Tuesday night.
Guckenberg was leading the race for Position 3 with 68.7 percent, or 338 votes, to challenger Randy McAvoy’s 31.3 percent, or 154 votes.
“Hopefully, the City Council can work together to keep the city afloat,” Guckenberg said.
“We need to work really hard to get the city financially better.”
Hillcar was leading by a similar margin for Position 2 on the council with 69.04 percent, or 339 votes, compared to fellow newcomer Tom Scott’s 30.96 percent, or 152 votes.
They seek the position being vacated by Mayor Pro Tem Patricia Mansfield, who did not run for re-election.
Hillcar echoed Guckenberg’s concerns over finances, saying, “We’ve really got to bring the budget back in.
“My philosophy is that we’ve got to bring expenditures down instead of trying to search for more revenues.”
The five Forks City Council positions are at large and unpaid.
The ballots tallied from Forks on Tuesday included approximately 510, or 36 percent, of the 1,414 ballots that were mailed.
Throughout Clallam County, approximately 4,500 ballots arrived since 10:30 a.m. Monday and will be counted on Friday, county Election Supervisor Shoona Radon said Tuesday afternoon.
Another 4,000 ballots are expected to arrive today, Auditor Patty Rosand said.
There is no way of knowing where in Clallam County the uncounted ballots are from, Rosand said.
About 46 percent of ballots have been returned from among 45,737 mailed to voters on Oct. 14, and the expected ballots would result in a 55 percent voter turnout.
Guckenberg, 57, who is the manager of Sully’s Drive-In, has been on the City Council for about five years. He was appointed for a partial term for one year and served for four years after he was elected.
His challenger McAvoy, 56, the retired owner of McAvoy Construction Inc., did not return calls for comment on Tuesday night.
Hillcar, 35, a rock crusher operator and truck driver, also said he hoped to work on reducing the animosity between government and citizens.
A rift was created when Mayor Nedra Reed fired three Forks police employees last year.
The rift began with investigations prompted by department employees’ allegations of misconduct by Forks Police Chief Mike Powell — of which he was cleared — and the subsequent process of terminating the complainants in February 2008.
Communications officer Deanna Dematteis, Sgt. JoElle Munger and Sgt. Tom Scott were terminated after making the allegations in early 2007.
That was followed by an unsuccessful attempt by Scott and Dematteis to bring a proposed recall of Reed to a vote.
“I really want to get the citizens of Forks involved and hopefully we can build a great trust,” Hillcar said.s
“We need to cure this relationship because right now we have a real standoff attitude going on.”
Scott, 54, who owns Scott’s Appliance Repair and Olympic Paragliding, said he would support Hillcar.
“I would like to say congratulations to John,” Scott said.
“I know he’ll do a great job, and I’ll be there along the way to back him up and support him through it all.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.
