Competitive races highlight the upcoming Pella City Council elections ahead of Thursday’s filing deadline. Don DeWaard and current Ward 3 Councilmember Bruce Scheibout have filed to run for the mayor’s seat, which will be vacated by two-term incumbent Jim Mueller at the end of his term. Tony Bokhoven currently has two challengers for his at-large seat: Chris Meyers and Liz Sporrer. Incumbent Harold Van Stryland will be opposed by Robin Pflazgraf in Ward 2. Nobody has filed papers to run in the city’s fourth ward, which encompasses the area generally south of Franklin Street and west of Broadway Street. The seat is currently being held by Larry Peterson, who intends to finish his term and move on to other projects.

While no formal papers have been submitted for the Pella School Board race, current incumbents Gary Coppock, Tim Tripp, and Annette Smith all intend to run for their seats again as well. Tune into 92.1 KRLS Friday morning for the final list of candidates running in Pella for the upcoming city council and school board elections. KRLS Radio and the PACE Alliance will once again co-host a city council candidate forum on Thursday, October 10th at 6:30 p.m., in which all candidates who file petition papers are welcome to participate. Stay tuned to Let’s Talk Pella in October to hear from the school board and city council candidates running on the election on November 5th.