Firestone residents elect new town trustees
Apr. 3—Resident Lorna Morton, definitely, and resident Ray Byrd, more than likely, will be sworn in as the newest members of the Firestone Board of Trustees on April 24.
Who will claim the third available seat on the board remains up in the air as just two votes currently separate the third and fourth place candidates, Linda J. Haney and Bobby Matthews.
As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, the final unofficial election results showed Morton in first place with 905 votes followed by Byrd who had 781 votes; Haney had 766 votes and Matthews had 764 votes.
There were nine candidates in the race.
Town officials will not know if a mandatory recount is necessary until April 12, once all of the military and overseas ballots are in and those who need to verify their signatures have had the opportunity to do so, a town spokesperson said in an email Wednesday. They will not announce any further results until April 12 and if a mandatory recount is necessary it must be completed by April 17, the spokesperson said.
A recount is mandatory when the difference between the candidate with the higher number of votes and the candidate receiving the next highest number of votes is less than, or equal, to half of 1% of the total votes cast for the candidate with the higher number of votes.
Morton, who never pursued public office prior to Tuesday's election, said that she was "very surprised" by the results and as a trustee hoped to get the ball rolling on the development of Central Park south of Sable Avenue and east of Colorado Boulevard around the area of the current town hall.
Firestone officials have worked to develop the 252-acre Central Park since acquiring the land in 2005, according to the town's website. However, such a project has yet to come to fruition.
"It is time now for Firestone to consider all possible options to develop Central Park to provide an area that our community can gather in, where we can have events," Morton said.
Byrd, who also never pursued public office prior to Tuesday's election, said a lot of work went into his campaign, calling it a team effort.
Similar to Morton, Byrd wanted to see more momentum on the development of Central Park, and responsible growth altogether.
"I am a big proponent of ensuring that we have the right infrastructure in place that's going to accommodate the growth that is coming to Firestone," Byrd said.
Haney was not available for comment Wednesday.
Now that Trustee Don Conyac won the town's mayoral race Tuesday, the newly elected Board of Trustees will need to appoint someone to complete the remaining two years left on his trustee term. Information about how and when residents can apply for the vacancy was not immediately available Wednesday.
