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S . suntan... _ o When the Township of Whitchurch and the Village of Stouffville became one. the lead council position changed from reeve to mayor. This position was then held by Ken Laushway. Gordon Ratcliff. Eldred King. Tom Wood. Fran Sainsbury. Sue Sherban and Wayne Emmerson. twice. incearrivinginStouffville bgck in 1951, we've attended l4 municipal elections involving six for reeves: Henry Ogden. Elmer Daniels. Gar Leh- man. Ken Wagg, Win Timbers and Ken Laushway. During the past 63 years there have been many tightly-run races for the chief magistrate’s job. but none so astoundineg close as Monday night when. with five polls to report. Justin Altmann came from behind to defeat rival Phil Bannon by 357 votes. The unofficial count was 4.363 for Altmann to 4.006 for Bannon or 33.64 percent for Altmann to 30.62 percent for Bannon. Rich- ard Bartley. a current council- lor was third with 3,464 votes; Election of Justin Altmann was one for the ages Arnold Neufeldt-Fast fourth with 1.047 and Willie Reodica fifth with 205. .fih Turnout at the polls was 59.02 percent, a major improvement over 2010. although that percent- age will drop when unregistered voters are factored in. TWO of six councillors were returned. Ken Ferdinands in Ward 1 and Rob Hargrave in Ward 6. Newcomers include Maurice Smith. Ward 2; Hugo Kroon. Ward 3; Rick Upton. Ward 4; and lain Lovatt. Ward 5. Roaming Around with Iim Thomas The two incumbent school trustees were returned. Lauralea Carruthers (public) and Eliza- beth Crowe (Catholic). With nine polls to report. A]!- mann was trailing Bannon by 79 votes. That's when a member of his town hall cheering section yelled “c'mon Justin. you can do it." Mth five polls to go. he did. climbing into a lead he never relinquished. “It was all about communi- ty.” the mayor-elect said later. “Everyone came.” “I owe it all to you.” was flashed on a screen inside the jam-packed Sgt. Pepper Bar and Grill where Altmann was besieged by hugs and handshakes. The 32-year-old farm market owner along with other members of council will be sworn into office The election aftermath was a two-fold gala in that Tanis Alt- mann. Justin's mother. was cel- ebrating a birthday. Tears flowed between cheers. Two large cakes wete shared. “Never for a minute did I doubt the result." Ms Altmann said. While the contest for mayor was a genuine nail-biter. such was not the case for the six wards where councillor Ferdinands eas- ily defeated Elizabeth Johnston. 1,884 to 293 in Ward 1; Maurice Smith won over Adam Schicke- danz 1.884 to 182 in Ward 2; Hugo Kroon defeated Jim Mac- Donald 438 to 229 in Ward 3; Rick Upton won over his closest comâ€" petitor Oliver Belo. 879 to 549 in Ward 4; Iain Lovatt defeated Mike Humphreys 1.142 to 952 in Ward 5 and councillor Rob Hargrave won over loanne lannuzzi 1.457 to 813 in Ward 6. For town clerk Michele Ken- nedy, it was the last of many elections. “I'll be retiring before the next one,” she said. As for taking a well-earned vacation. she said any off-time would have to wait until the Dec. 2 inaugural. “ Not until the fat lady sings.” she joked. She was ably assisted in monitoring the vote count by her husband, Michael Kennedy. Althdugh the council cham- bers was set up to accommodate As defeated Ward 5 candidate Tom Mnters appropriately put it: “It‘s all over but the crying." "Accusations at both the mayor and councillor levels were unwarranted.” he said. “and unbelievable." fimflxxnasisaStheresflemwho haswrittenforaveanewspmersformorethan Lemonville’s Dave Probert. a council watchdog for decades. described the 2014 election as “one of the messiest l've expe- rienced in my 35 years' living here." 48 onlookers. less than half that many showed up. chief magistrate’s job, but none so astoundineg close... During the past 63 years there have been many tightly-run races for the