Runoff possible for city council election

Jerry Snow was elected city council member for Ward 1, Position 1, with 53.75% of the vote, while council member Doug Fowler won reelection for Ward 3, Position 1, with 59.96% of the vote and council member Jim Wozniak appears to have won Ward 2, Position 1, though a recount is possible as late ballots arrive.

Benton County Election Commission election supervisor Kim Dennison said that military ballots have until Friday to arrive and be counted and could affect the totals in Bella Vista, though it’s hard to say how many of those ballots include votes for the Bella Vista race.

For municipal races, a candidate can win outright if they have 40% of the vote and beat the next-highest candidate by 20% or more, but if that gap is smaller, the election could go to the Dec. 1 runoff election, she explained.

Currently, Wozniak has 43.89% of the vote, or 7,271 votes, trailed by John Nuttall, who has 3,820 votes, or 23.06%.

Wozniak said he was surprised by the news and he’d already thrown out his campaign signs.

“Anything is possible and I’ve still got the 40%, but they’re not going to make the determination until Friday,” he said. “I’m just sitting here waiting.”

While waiting like this isn’t entirely pleasant, Wozniak said he’s still fairly confident in his lead.

“It’d have to be quite a few to flip them,” he said.

Snow said he was pleased to win the election against the current council member Linda Lloyd and he believes he ran a good campaign despite the circumstances. “I was glad, very glad,” he said. Snow said he hopes to be able to host meetings in person by the time he officially joins the city council next year.

As a council member, he said, he’s eager to explore several topics, including truckload limits to minimize road wear, preventing high-density residential development, preventing wildfires and ensuring homes built on steep lots are built safely.

The city has a lot of potential for positive growth and needs to be proactive, he said.

“We’ve got a lot of things in front of us. A lot of opportunities, a lot of challenges,” he said.

Fowler said he was glad to win reelection and glad to have the election wrapped up, in part because campaigning is a very time-consuming activity.

Because of covid-19 concerns, it was relatively tough to run a campaign without community forums and other typical campaigning options, he said.

This meant relying largely on signs and social media, both of which are difficult to measure the efficacy, he explained.

The city has a lot of work ahead, he explained, citing a need to start working to realize the city’s freshly-adopted comprehensive plan and working ahead while continuing to manage day-to-day responsibilities like police, fire and infrastructure.

“Where we need to be is planning, you know, how we’re going to manage our infrastructure moving forward and try to get ahead of the game,” he said. “We don’t want to lose our charm, our way of life out here because we didn’t plan effectively.”