13 Montgomery County contests await voters in region’s upcoming election

In Montgomery County, there are six school board and seven municipal contests in the general election on Nov. 7 in the region covered by The Mercury.

The contested school board races are in Pottsgrove, Boyertown, Perkiomen Valley, Upper Perkiomen, Spring-Ford and Methacton school districts.

The only contested race in any of the boroughs in The Mercury’s Montgomery County coverage area is in Collegeville.

In the Montgomery County townships covered by The Mercury, there are six contests. They are in Limerick, Lower Frederick, Upper Frederick, Perkiomen, Skippack and Upper Providence.

There is no contest in the Pottstown School Board election in which five incumbents have all won both the Republican and Democratic ballot lines, virtually guaranteeing a victory next month.

Similarly, the three open seats on Pottstown Borough Council have only three candidates seeking them, incumbents Lisa Vanni, Trenita Lindsay and Andrew Monastra.

Next door in the Pottsgrove School District, four incumbents — Ashley Custer, Jim Lapic, Bill Thompson and Patricia Grimm — were unopposed in the primary and won both ballot lines in the primary election. The contest for the fifth open seat, being vacated by school board President Al Leach who is not seeking reelection, will be between Jeanette Clifton, who will appear on the Republican line, and Annique Ruiz-Brown, who will appear on the Democratic line.

There are also no contests for the open township commissioner seats in West Pottsgrove, Lower Pottsgrove or Upper Pottsgrove.

By contrast, five other school board races feature full slates of candidates facing off for five open seats, except for the Methacton School board, which has seven open seats.

Boyertown School Board

Only part of the Boyertown School District is located in Montgomery County and school board representation is divided into regions.

• Region 1 is located entirely in Berks County and includes the boroughs of Bally, and Bechtelsville, Colebrookdale Township, Earl Township and Washington Township and as well as voting precinct 1 in Boyertown Borough. It has one open seat with a four-year term and one open seat with a two-year term. Incumbent Christine Neiman easily won the Republican ballot line for the four-year seat, and will face Krista Elyse Arndt, who won the Democratic line.

For the seat with the two-year term, incumbent Marianne Scott won the Republican line and will face Michelle Sweisfort, who won the Democratic line.

• Boyertown’s Region 2 straddles Montgomery and Berks counties and is comprised of the Borough of Boyertown’s Voting Precinct 2, all of Douglass (Berks) and all of Douglass (Mont.) townships. There are two open seats with four-year terms in the general election.

Incumbent Lisa Hogan and Joseph Piccione won the Democratic ballot lines in the primary, while incumbents Roger Updegrove and James Brophy won the Republican lines.

• Boyertown’s Region 3 is located entirely in Montgomery County and is comprised of the townships of New Hanover and Upper Frederick. It has two open seats, each carrying a four-year term.

In this race, there are no incumbents. Brad Updegrove and Matt Hook will appear on the Democratic side and Wendy Kratz and Jessica Skelton will be on the Republican ballot line.

Methacton School Board

• There are seven seats open on the nine-member Methacton School Board in the general election in November, two of which carry two-year terms, and there are 14 candidates seeking them.

The Republican lines for the seats with four-year terms are Kathy Muscarella, Jim Beam, Deborah McGinley, Sheila Smith and Sissy Hill. John Mack and Ken Voss won the GOP nomination for the seats with the two-year term.

The Democratic ballot lines were won by Kathleen Thiel, Kate Graf, Pooja Chanda, Semira Purdue and Paul Winters. Glenn Mersky and Cathy Cleary won the Democratic nomination for the seats with a two-year term.

Perkiomen Valley School Board

This race pits two teams of five candidates against each other and each team handily won at least one ballot line during the spring primary.

The “Vote 5 for PV” team took the five Republican ballot lines. That team consists of incumbents Matthew Dorr and Kim Mares, joined by Russ Larson, Heidi Brown and Jordan (Jay) Scott Cohen.

The “PV Forward” team took the five Democratic lines. That team consists of incumbent Laura White, Wayde Weston, Treena Sadler, Todd McKinney and Robert Liggett.

Spring-Ford School Board

This school district divides its board representation into three regions across two counties and candidates must live in those regions to run in them.

• Region 1 is comprised of the southern part of Upper Providence Township. Two candidates won the Republican primary for the two open seats. They are Tony Folino and Kathleen Leto. The two candidates winning the Democratic ballot line are Heidi Goldsmith and incumbent Margaret Wright.

• Region 2 has no incumbents running. It consists of the northern portion of Upper Providence and the northern portion of Limerick townships. Two candidates won the Democratic ballot line for the two open seats, Theresa Westwood and Sagar Shama. Winning the two Republican lines were Michael Lebiedzinski and Kathryn Jones.

• Region 3 also has no incumbents running. It includes the boroughs of Spring City and Royersford, as well as the southern portion of Limerick known as Linfield. There is only one seat open in this region and David Lakey won the Democratic nomination and Kathy Morris the Republican line.

Upper Perkiomen School Board

Peg Pennepacker is the only incumbent in this race. She won a Democratic ballot line in the primary and will be joined there on the November ballot by Leah Cianfrani, Karie Ulrich, Christina Brathwaite and Jacqueline Porterfield.

The Republican ticket in November will be comprised of John Gehman, Michael Long, Sarah Bieber, Elizabeth Fluckey and Trina Schaaerschmidt.

Collegeville Borough Council

There are three open seats with four-year terms on the seven-member council and there are three incumbent Democratic candidates running for them. They are Valarie Beckius, Kathy Costello and Craig Farr.

The Republican candidates are Dan Young, John Zvarick and John Stasinski.

There is also a seat with a two-year term up for grabs but only one candidate, Democrat Damien Brewster, is seeking it.

Limerick Township

There is only one seat on the five-member Board of Supervisors up for election on Nov. 7 and it carries a six-year term.

Incumbent Democrat Patrick Morroney is running for reelection and is being challenged by Republican Christopher Haring.

Lower Frederick Township

Four candidates are seeking two open seats on the five-member board of supervisors.

Incumbent Marla Hexter is joined by Noelle Halter on the Democratic ticket. They are opposed by Republicans Katie Lewis and Rob Wisler.

Perkiomen Township

There is one seat open on the five-member board of supervisors. Incumbent Gary Filzen, a Democrat, is opposed by Republican Stephen Dankarich.

Skippack Township

Two incumbent Republicans on the five-member board of supervisors, Chairman Franco D’Angelo and Nick Fountain are seeking reelection on Nov. 7. They will face Democratic challengers Marian Ellis and Justin Glennon.

There is also a seat with only two years remaining on the term. Republican Roberta Bracken and Democrat Karen Lynch will face off for this seat.

Upper Frederick Township

Two seats on the three-member board of supervisors will be decided by the voters on Nov. 7.

For the seat with a six-year term, Republican Chap Fichera will face off against Lisa Fischer, who narrowly lost to him for the Republican ballot line. She is running on the Democratic line in the general election.

A seat with a four-year term will pit incumbent Thomas Trojansky against William Landman Both ran for the Republican ballot line in the primary and Trojansky narrowly won that line. Landman will appear on the Democratic ballot line.

Upper Providence Township

Two seats are open on the five-member board of township supervisors and four candidates are seeking them. None of them are incumbents.

On the Democratic ballot line are Kelly Stevens and A. Marie Jones Sadler. On the Republican line, the candidates are Michael Krasley and Kevin Middaugh.