by John Dowd
On March 13, Isaiah Nelson resigned from the Stevensville Town Council, nearly a year before the end of his term. According to Stevensville Mayor Bob Michalson, Nelson is moving to Missoula. With his seat now open, the Town is accepting applications to temporarily fill the role.
The Town posted the opening on its website and on the door of the town hall the day following Nelson’s notice. According to Town rules, the open seat will be advertised for 10-day periods until any applications that qualify are received. After starting the first run on March 14, no applications were received. Another 10-day period started on March 27, and will run until April 13.
Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and a resident of Stevensville for at least 60 days. The seat is for Ward 2, which covers the area of south of 5th Street, south of Central Avenue and includes Twin Creeks subdivision, encompassing most of the south half of the town.
Interested parties can come to Stevensville Town Hall to pick up a written application form, or the form can be found and printed from the Town website. There is also a town map, divided into wards, on the town website for those seeking more detailed boundaries of the ward.
Applications will be reviewed by the town clerk and then presented to the council at the following regularly scheduled town council meeting. These applications will then be reviewed by the council, and one of them appointed to the seat. The applicant appointed to the position will finish out Nelson’s term, which ends this December. Should the appointee wish to retain the seat, they will need to run for election in November.
Nelson’s term will not be the only one up at that time for election. The seats of the mayor, and council members Cindy Brown and Stacey Barker will also be up for election at the end of this year.