Tuesday, June 15, 2010 • DeBoer, McDonald win vacant seats on City Council

Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, June 15, 2010 edition of the Lassen County Times.

In a race where one can win by as few as three votes, two have finally emerged as the top vote-getting candidates for the vacancies on the Susanville City Council.

With the dust now settled, Cheryl McDonald and Rod DeBoer will be sworn in at noon, today, June 15, as councilmembers. McDonald received the most overall votes in the election, while DeBoer received the second most votes. His second-place finish garnered him a return trip to the council.

Phil Bertanzoni, Nicholas McBride, Ronald Wood, Allen Barger and Craig Padelford followed DeBoer in vote tallies. McDonald took more than 18 percent of the overall vote while DeBoer received more than 16 percent.

The popular vote
As for the highest vote getter in the election, with 627 out of 3,363 votes Cheryl McDonald said she was very happy with the results of the election, and was looking forward to getting involved with the current issues facing the city.

“I just want to give a big thank you to everyone who cast their votes for me,” McDonald said. “I look forward to addressing many of the local issues that were raised when I campaigned door-to-door.”

McDonald said she had walked up to more than 240 houses during her campaign, asking constituents to identify some of the problems currently facing the community.

At the top of the priority list, she said people were interested in paying lower rates on the city’s natural gas utility. Second on the list of issues was the need for a swimming pool, a popular issue for years now.

“That was a really big second on the list,” McDonald said. “For a lot of people, using a swimming pool is one of the only forms of exercise that some people can participate in, and they really want it.”

One of the big issues McDonald said she was personally going to pursue was the traffic in Susanville, specifically when it comes to speeding on Main Street. She said something should be done to curtail the speeding in areas that are designed to be slower, such as the school-crossing zone in front of Lassen High School.

“I’ve seen people going through there way too fast,” McDonald said. “There needs to be something done that discourages people from going too fast. Seeing a patrol car dedicated to watching for speeders on a regular basis will reinforce the message for people to think twice and slow down.”

McDonald has lived in Susanville for 48 years. She retired from the Lassen County Office of Education/Lassen Child and Family Resources after two 10-year employment terms. At one time, her position encompassed working as the Children’s Fair chairperson for six years.

McDonald currently is working as the coordinator for the Susanville Community Blood Drive. She is a member of the Soaring Eagle Blue Star Mothers group and a volunteer in the Nu 2 U Thrift Store in Uptown Susanville.

While McDonald will be starting her first term, DeBoer already had 11 previous years of experience serving on the city council, including mayor. He has served on the Lassen County Grand Jury. He has served more than 36 years in law enforcement, retiring with the Lassen County Sheriff’s Office in May 2008.

“I just want to say thank you to everyone who voted for me, and I’m looking forward to doing everything I can to serve this community,” DeBoer said.