By Kathryn Reed      

Term limits guaranteed the lake would have new representation on the Douglas County School District board. Voters had the choice of three men; now it’s down to two in November.

CPA Keith Byer of Glenbrook and retired teacher Michael Kiger of Stateline were the top vote getters June 14, with businessman Nicholas Shepack of Zephyr Cove taking third.

Byer (46.67 percent) and Kiger (30.34 percent) learned of the results when Lake Tahoe News called Tuesday night. Byer, a Republican, was woken up as he is in Portugal on vacation and deferred comment until later. Kiger, a Democrat, said, “It’s all about our students and that is the most important thing.”

Kiger came to the district about 35 years, having retired from Whittell High School as a math teacher about 12 years ago.

“One of the things I would like to stand for is I would like to have more communication from the board to the people in the community and to the parents because it is their school district,” Kiger told Lake Tahoe News.

School board members cannot serve more than 12 years. Cindy Trigg had been representing the area for three terms.

Teri Jamin was also forced out because of term limits. In many ways she was like a second rep for the lake because she knew the area so well based on the number of years she worked for the city of South Lake Tahoe’s planning department.

Running for her seat were Linda Gilkerson and Larry Lippmann. Lippman lost to Jamin in 2012. “That race will actually be on the November ballot, because it more than one candidate but less than twice the number of open positions,” Douglas County Clerk-Treasurer Kathy Lewis told Lake Tahoe News.

It was eight years ago that Greg Lynn and Dave Nelson faced each other in the June primary for District 1 commission seat. Lynn prevailed in 2008. This time Nelson came out on top, with 56.1 percent of the vote. He lost by 354 votes eight years ago and won by about 800 this time.

Nelson told Lake Tahoe News the budget would be his primary concern when he takes office in January.

As for the debacle going on with the Stateline sewer district and the county, he said someone should have been watching the situation closer so the problems didn’t exist today.

District 3 Commissioner Doug Johnson did on seek re-election. Vying for his seat were Carson Valley residents Larry Walsh and Frank Godecke. Walsh prevailed with 58.41 percent.

Douglas County received 4,695 ballots by mail before election day. There are 26,138 registered voters. Turnout was 34.5 percent Tuesday in the county, whereas primary election turnout in Nevada is usually about 20 percent.

A law passed in 2015 says if a race has candidates from only one party, the primary winner will be on the general election ballot, but only needs one vote to win. Where there is a candidate from two or more parties, there will be runoff in November.

The law also says that in nonpartisan races a candidate who receives more than 50 percent wins outright with no need to proceed to the general election.

In all, there were 32 positions up in Douglas County on Tuesday. Many were for water and sewer districts, or seats in the valley.

In other races affecting Lake Tahoe:

·      Kathy Lewis—unopposed for clerk-treasurer, incumbent.

·      Barry Penzel – unopposed District 5 supervisor, incumbent.

·      Karen Chessell – unopposed District 1 school board, incumbent

·      Neal Freitas – unopposed District 4 school board, incumbent.