Umatilla voters elected a familiar face to serve as the town’s mayor.
Former Mayor Dave Trott defeated Lyle Smith in Tuesday’s election. Trott received 276 votes (45.77), while Smith garnered 209 votes (34.66). Umatilla resident Jeff Wheeler staged a write-in campaign. There were 118 write-in votes (19.57 percent).
Trott said he acknowledged his opponent on social media last night.
“I posted a note in Facebook before heading to bed to also thank Lyle Smith for his running and offering the people of Umatilla a choice; and to thank him for his volunteer service to the community, which I hope continues,” said Trott.
The new mayor said he hopes to see more citizen involvement in shaping Umatilla’s future.
“If we want to make substantive changes and improvements to Umatilla we are going to have to engage many more of our citizens,” he said.
Trott succeeds Pat Lafferty, who died earlier this year.
City council incumbents Mary Dedrick and Melvin Ray were re-elected. Both ran unopposed, as did David Lougee, who joins the council.
Umatilla voters rejected a ballot measure on Tuesday that would have provided funding for capital improvement projects. There were 602 votes against the measure (59.96 percent), with 402 voting for the measure (40.04 percent).
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