Sidney voters to decide council seats, ballot question

SIDNEY, Neb. -- Voters in the city of Sidney will decide on four council seats and a sales tax question.

The ballot has voters selecting three four-year seats from a list of five: Tony Jones, Paul Strommen, Brad Sherman, Marva P. Ellwanger and Brandon Bondegard. However, the list was shortened with Tony Jones resigning from the race. His decision to step away occurred when he and his family chose to move from the area after the deadline to drop out of the race, leaving Strommen, Sherman, Ellwanger and Bondegard vying for the three seats. Ellwanger and Sherman are incumbents. Ellwanger was appointed to fill the vacancy of Joe Arterburn's resignation from the council.

In addition, current Mayor Roger Gallaway is the only name on the ballot for the two-year city council seat.

Ron Meyer is on the ballot to retain his seat on the Sidney Airport Authority Board.

The City is also asking voters to consider extending the half-cent sales tax. The question describes the tax as to fund local public infrastructure projects for 10 years. Twenty-five percent of the tax revenue would go toward the aquatic center, 5 percent toward improvements at Hillside Golf Course, 10 percent toward storm water mitigation projects, 10 percent towards Parks infrastructure improvements.