Filing period next week for hospital, port, fire district positions

EPHRATA — Washington has a wide array of publicly-administered districts that manage all kinds of things, from hospitals to airports. Grant County has its share of them, and the filing period for the seats in those districts opens May 15 and will be open through May 19.

Some of the positions have filing fees, which are due at the time of filing. Some districts have specific director districts, which means candidates for those seats must live in that director district. Others have some at-large seats, which means candidates can live anywhere in the district. More information on qualifications is available from the Grant County Auditor’s Office.

Grant County port districts mostly are involved in economic development, and there are open seats in 10 of them.

The Port of Moses Lake has one open seat. Stroud Kunkle, District 2, is the incumbent. The Port of Ephrata has two open seats. Shelly Rivard Detrick, District 2, and Nick Moore, District 3. are the incumbents.

The Port of Quincy has one open seat; Patric Connelly, District 2, is the incumbent. The Port of Mattawa also has one open seat. Lauri Dayton, District 2, is the incumbent. There’s one open seat at the Port of Royal Slope, where Alan Schrom, District 2, is the incumbent.

Dale Pomeroy, District 3, is the incumbent in the open seat on the Port of Warden, and Pat Hochstatter, District 3, is the incumbent for the open seat at the Port of Wilson Creek. There’s one open seat at the Port of Grand Coulee, incumbent Leonard Sanders III, District 3; one seat at the Port of Coulee City, incumbent Travis Leining, District 3; and one at the Port of Hartline, incumbent Wesley Sieg, District 3.

Three seats are open on the Mattawa Airport District commission. The incumbents are Karl Reese, Kenneth Broda and Robert Trantina. The airport district is not contested in the primary.

Seven of the county’s hospital districts will have open seats.

The Samaritan Healthcare commission (Moses Lake) has two open positions, one representing a director district and the other an at-large seat. Katherine Christian is the incumbent for position in Director District 1; Dale Paris is the incumbent in the at-large position. One seat is open on the Quincy Valley Medical Center commission. Michele Talley is the incumbent, representing District 5.

Two seats are open on the Columbia Basin Hospital (Ephrata) commission. The incumbents are Catherine Snyder, District 3, and Amanda Green, District 5. Three seats will be up for election on the McKay Healthcare and Rehabilitation (Soap Lake) commission. The incumbents are Cindi Rang, District 2; Jean Dillenberg, District 4 and Barbara Carlson, District 5.

The Mattawa Community Medical Clinic also has two open seats; the incumbents are Tiffany Coulson, District 2, and Barb Davis, District 3. There will be two seats open on the Coulee Medical Center (Grand Coulee) commission. Geary Oliver, District 4, and Jerry Kennedy, District 3 are the incumbents.

Royal City doesn’t have a hospital but it has a hospital district, and two seats will be open in the November election. The incumbents are Patti Klefbeck, District 4, and Debra Murphy, District 5.

Not all of the fire districts in Grant County have open seats in 2023, but 15 of them do.

There’s one seat open on the Fire District 5 commission (Moses Lake); K.L. (Buck) Naff, Director District 2, is the incumbent. There’s also one seat in Fire District 3 (Quincy), where Keven Child is the incumbent, representing District 2. Mel Lotz, District 2, is the incumbent in Fire District 13 (Ephrata). Fire District 4 (Warden) also has an open seat. The incumbent is Dave Whitney, District 2.

Two seats will be open in Fire District 8 (Mattawa). Debra Crain, District 4, and Scott Nesbit, District 2, are the incumbents. Fire District 10 (Royal Slope) also has two open seats. The incumbents are Bonnie Valentine, District 3, and Tim Freeman, District 5.

The incumbents in Fire District 7 (Soap Lake) are Joshua Chambers, District 1, and Ron Renken, District 3.

One seat is open on the Fire District 6 (Hartline) commission, and William Higginbotham, District 2, is the incumbent. Mark Kane, District 2, is the incumbent in the one seat open in Fire District 12 (Wilson Creek).

There’s also one seat up for election in Fire District 15 (rural Moses Lake); Richard Wentworth, District 1, is the incumbent. Tom Walters, District 2, is the incumbent in Fire District 14 (North Banks Lake).

Three cemetery districts will have open seats. They include Warden, no incumbent; Royal City, Wayne Brown, District 1, incumbent; and Hartline, Marvin Thomas, District 3, incumbent.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.