COURT HOUSE – Four county municipalities held fire district elections Feb. 18. In these elections, eligible voters from the district are asked to vote on candidates for seats on the five-member district commission. The voters are also presented with the district budget for approval.
Voting in fire district elections is almost always light. In this year’s elections, Lower Township Fire District No. 2, Town Bank, had the largest turnout, with 270 individuals casting ballots. The lowest turnout was in Upper Township Fire District No. 1, Strathmere, with just 16 individuals from the district voting in the election, with 10 of those by mail.
In all cases where incumbents sought reelection, they were successful. All budgets were approved across the total of 14 districts holding elections. The closest that a budget came to being rejected by the voters was in Lower Township Fire District No. 1, Villas, and Lower Township Fire District No. 3, Erma, where 43% of the public voting gave a thumbs down to the proposed budget.
Votes were still listed as unofficial on the county website, as of this writing, because the “Deadline for Receipt of Timely Mailed Postmarked Mail-In Ballots to County Boards of Election” is Feb. 24, per the 2023 February Fire District Election Timeline.
Dennis Township
All budgets were approved. All seats up for election were for full, three-year terms.
Fire District No. 1, Ocean View, saw Robert Clayton reelected.
Fire District No. 2, Dennisville, had Clifford Lockwood and Bruce Knoll Jr. reelected.
Fire District No. 3, Belleplain, had voters reelect Milton Kern and Oliver Twist III.
Lower Township
All budgets were approved. All seats were for a full, three-year term.
Fire District No. 1, Villas, saw the reelection of Joseph Wareham and William Howard.
Fire District No. 2, Town Bank, voters gave R. Scott Brown and Charles J. Prendergast Jr. another term.
Fire District No. 3, Erma, saw incumbents Robert Sweeten and Steven Douglass reelected.
Middle Township
All budgets were approved. All seats were for a full, three-year term.
Fire District No. 1, Court House and Swainton, had Michael McNulty reelected.
Fire District No. 2, Rio Grande, saw Robert Zimmerman and Conrad Johnson Jr. reelected. Also on the ballot was Kirby Stiltner Jr., who finished third.
Fire District No. 3, Green Creek, had incumbent David A. Zeiss returned to the board for another term.
Fire District No. 4, North Goshen, saw Cynthia Gorman return to the board.
Upper Township
All four districts had budgets approved. All seats were for three-year terms, except one.
Fire District No. 1, Strathmere, had Scott Oliver gain a seat on the board, with 13 of 16 votes cast.
Fire District No. 2, Tuckahoe, had one seat up for election, which was won by Justin Hope.
Fire District No. 3, Marmora, reelected Douglass Snyder Jr. and Paul Edwin Hoster. Sean William Whelan won a one-year term after being appointed to an unexpired term, beating challenger Joshua Matthew Kooker.
Fire District No. 4, Seaville, had Donald Fancher reelected for another three-year term.
