Eighty-five-year-old Russell Nelson won the Silver Creek Township supervisor election the hard way.
Nelson and opponent Carl Hill tied with 57 votes each in the March 13 voting.
But Nelson prevailed 3-2 when board members drew the candidates’ names from a bowl to break the stalemate.
“I said it’s a hard way to win an election,” Nelson said.
Deciding the outcome by a draw was a first for the township, he said.
In other supervisor elections, Marty Ferguson defeated Jim Hart in Southside Township; Bruce Sobotta edged Fred Mische in Clearwater Township, and Anne Ackerman won over Wally Engle in Lynden Township.
Nelson was to be sworn in at an organizational meeting of the Silver Creek board on Tuesday, March 20.
He served as a supervisor from 1990 to 1998.
“I think it was a fair way to decide the election,” Nelson said. “The people spoke and then it had to be resolved, and I think it was a fair way.”
Nelson farms northwest of Monticello with the help of one of his sons. Hill, 66, is a retired airplane mechanic.
John Lauzon received 92 votes to win a second supervisor seat without opposition.
The annual meeting after the election approved a special tax levy to raise $30,000 a year to put asphalt on township roads, Nelson said.
In Southside, Ferguson collected 69 votes to 46 for Hart in a race that brought out the most voters there in years.
Township clerk Carmen Merrill said 117 residents voted compared to 55 in last year’s election, and she attributed the turnout to the supervisor race.
It’s never been that high in her six years with the township, she said.
Ferguson, 42, will be sworn in at an organizational meeting on Thursday, April 5.
He is a director and past president of the Clearwater Lake Property Owners.
Ferguson is sales manager for TVC Communications, which supplies materials to telephone and cable companies.
Hart, 64, farms and owns a small manufacturing company in Minneapolis.
Southside residents also voted 98 to 19 to approve combining the clerk and treasurer positions and make it appointed.
Merrill received five write-in votes for the treasurer post and Don Daniels received three. There were no candidates after 46-year treasurer Ken Rudolph decided to retire.
Merrill said she hopes to be appointed to the clerk-treasurer job.
The board at a retirement celebration presented Rudolph the black leather chair he used at meetings.
Merrill said the annual meeting raised the road and bridge levy by $18,000 to a total of $138,000 to cover anticipated road work in 2002.
In Clearwater Township, Sobotta collected 34 votes to 31 for Mische.
Sobotta will be sworn in at an organizational meeting today.
Treasurer Nancy Pierskalla received 64 votes; she was unopposed.
In Lynden Township, Ackerman received 51 votes to 39 for Wally Engel.
Ackerman, 37, will take office at the township board’s Tuesday, April 2, meeting.
Ackerman has been a member of the township Planning and Zoning Board since last year.
Treasurer Julie Duncan was unopposed and received 79 votes.
In Albion Township, board chairman John Uecker was re-elected supervisor with 87 votes.
Uecker was unopposed, but Harvey Engleman received 52 write-in votes.
Treasurer Douglas Triplett was re-elected with 120 votes.
Clerk Jean Neumann said turnout was good compared to last year’s 29 votes.
The annual meeting decided the township will install rural address signs this summer, Neumann said.
In Corinna Township, Bill Lieb ran unopposed and was re-elected with 21 votes.
Fair Haven Township supervisor Leroy Rose ran unopposed and was re-elected with 34 votes.
Treasurer Leslie Rose won another term with 36 votes. He was also unopposed.
French Lake Township supervisor Paul Erickson won his second term with 20 votes.
Treasurer Alice Erickson was re-elected with 20 votes. Both were unopposed.
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