Voters have a taste for the new

In local elections Tuesday, Electric City voters demonstrated a preference for change, favoring two newcomers over one current and one former city council member, and giving another current councilman a fairly close race, with two of the three Grand Coulee Police officers who ran for council poised to take office.

Incumbent Councilmember Brian Buche appears to have survived a challenge from Thomas Levi Johnson for council position 3 by a vote of 117 to 89 or 57-43%.

But Matt Gilbert clearly won the race for position 4 seat that former council member Birdie Hensley was also seeking. Gilbert won by nearly 71 percent of the vote, 145-58.

Blake Martin took the majority in the position 5 race with 60 percent of the vote, 119-78.

In Grand Coulee, Mike Eylar will be the next mayor, selected by 86% of voters 91-14 over Chuck Crowe, who didn’t acknowledge phone and email queries seeking comment after filing for the office.

The new mayor is married to Anita Eylar, who also just won election to her current seat on the city council. Her only challenge was a write-in candidate with two votes to her 83.

Also elected were current council members Gary Carriere and Ruth Dalton, plus newcomer Mark Nash.

Grant County election officials will pick up the count again today, Nov. 8 at 5 p.m. At 8:06 Tuesday night, here were an estimated 467 ballots left to count in the county’s 81 precincts.