Independent Renee Turk, Republican John Saunders, and independent Anne Marie Green will take the three open seats on Salem City Council. Jim Wallace received the least votes and will not be serving on the council.
Turk, who is mayor, and Wallace are incumbents, and Saunders previously served on council. Green ran in the November 2022 race for two seats, and finished behind Hunter Holliday and former Mayor Randy Foley.
Wallace, as of late Tuesday night, is 203 votes behind Green. It’s unclear at this time how many provisional ballots need to be counted in Salem.
Turk did not return a phone call Tuesday night.
“I had a great team around me,” Saunders said. “I thought we did really well covering as much of the city as we possibly could.” He wasn’t able to be at the polling locations himself today, as he was recently injured while going door to door during his campaign.
A commercial rezoning of HopeTree Family Services has been heavily on the minds of Salem’s residents this year. In June, Salem City Council voted 3-2 to approve a rezoning that would allow for commercial and residential uses in 32 acres of HopeTree’s land that they’re looking to sell to a developer. This prompted lawsuits from three neighboring households who claimed the process was not completed according to local and state code.
Turk had voted in favor of the rezoning, and remained in favor of the developments, while Wallace voted against. Saunders said he would have opposed the measure if they had been voting. Green has also said she is against the rezoning decision made by council.
A joint public hearing with Salem City Council and the Planning Commission will be held on November 13, after the developer resubmitted the zoning application with minor changes.
Other major issues include infrastructure maintenance, pedestrian safety and transparency within local government — issues that didn’t cause much dissent between candidates.
