Candidates forum planned for Sandpoint, Ponderay, school district races

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

Election Day is right around the corner. On Tuesday, Nov. 5, voters will decide on Sandpoint mayoral and council candidates, Ponderay mayoral and council candidates, as well as Zone 4 trustees and a permanent levy decision for Lake Pend Oreille School District No. 84.

The forum will take place Tuesday, Oct. 29 from 5:30-8 p.m. at the Sandpoint Community Hall, 204 S. First Ave. Candidates from Sandpoint, Ponderay and LPOSD races have been invited to attend. This forum is a joint effort presented by Sandpoint Online, Sandpoint Reader, KRFY 88.5 FM Panhandle Community Radio and the Selkirk Association of Realtors.

To help streamline the evening, the program has been separated into sections for each race. The night will start off with the LPOSD portion of the evening from 5:30-6:10 p.m., followed by Ponderay candidates from 6:15-6:55 p.m. Sandpoint candidates will finish the evening from 7-8:00 p.m. There will be a five-minute break between races to allow for bathroom breaks. The forum will end promptly at 8 p.m.

The following candidates have been invited to attend:

— LPOSD Zone 4 trustees Geraldine Lewis (incumbent) and Tara Tribbett.

— Ponderay mayoral candidates Steve Geiger (incumbent) and Tara Tribbett, as well as city council candidates Gary Kunzeman (incumbent), Brad Mitton and Brenda Thompson (incumbent).

— Sandpoint mayoral candidates Ken Lawrence, Shelby Rognstad (incumbent) and Shannon Williamson, as well as city council candidates Andy Groat, Jacque Guinan, Kate McAlister, Shannon Mitchell and Deborah Ruehle (incumbent).

The forum is free to attend and open to all. Candidates will give an opening statement, then field questions from the audience. The audience will be encouraged to write questions for candidates on notecards, which will then be handed to moderators, who will cull through questions to eliminate any redundant or inappropriate questions.

For more information about the Nov. 5 election, visit Election Central on sandpointonline.com.

While we have you ...

... if you appreciate that access to the news, opinion, humor, entertainment and cultural reporting in the Sandpoint Reader is freely available in our print newspaper as well as here on our website, we have a favor to ask. The Reader is locally owned and free of the large corporate, big-money influence that affects so much of the media today. We're supported entirely by our valued advertisers and readers. We're committed to continued free access to our paper and our website here with NO PAYWALL - period. But of course, it does cost money to produce the Reader. If you're a reader who appreciates the value of an independent, local news source, we hope you'll consider a voluntary contribution. You can help support the Reader for as little as $1.

You can contribute at either Paypal or Patreon.

Contribute at Patreon Contribute at Paypal

You may also like...

Close [x]

Want to support independent local journalism?

The Sandpoint Reader is our town's local, independent weekly newspaper. "Independent" means that the Reader is locally owned, in a partnership between Publisher Ben Olson and Keokee Co. Publishing, the media company owned by Chris Bessler that also publishes Sandpoint Magazine and Sandpoint Online. Sandpoint Reader LLC is a completely independent business unit; no big newspaper group or corporate conglomerate or billionaire owner dictates our editorial policy. And we want the news, opinion and lifestyle stories we report to be freely available to all interested readers - so unlike many other newspapers and media websites, we have NO PAYWALL on our website. The Reader relies wholly on the support of our valued advertisers, as well as readers who voluntarily contribute. Want to ensure that local, independent journalism survives in our town? You can help support the Reader for as little as $1.