Incumbents prevailed in most races in Moody County last Tuesday, but there will be four new faces on boards in the county.

In the Flandreau School Board election, with seven candidates vying for three spots, incumbent Brian “Pedro” Johnson was the top vote getter with 341 ballots cast for him. Newcomers Jamie Hemmer with 320 votes and Kevin Christenson with 228 votes also earned seats on the board, where they will serve for three years.

Board members Matt Lacey and Tricia LeBrun chose not to seek another term.

The remainder of the field and their vote totals were Blake Bergjord with 185, Kevin C. Burshiem with 165, April Eastman with 138 and Amanda Taylor with 45.

A breakdown of votes by precinct showed that Bergjord and Burshiem did better in Flandreau than Christenson did by a handful of votes, but among Trent voters, Christenson did nearly three times as well as the fourth and fifth place candidates.

The school board election drew 575 voters to the polls for a 22.4 percent turnout among total registered voters.

Trent voters approved a 1 percent increase in the local retail sales tax, an issue that was passed by the town board late last year and was referred to voters by citizens who gathered enough signatures to put it on the ballot.

Voters cast 60 ballots in favor of the tax increase and 31 ballots opposing it.

The additional sales tax collection will begin Jan. 1, 2019, said Kim Nelson, Trent finance officer. The board initially passed the tax increase to raise money because the town’s budget was tight.

Voters also elected Jennifer Ahrendt with 33 votes to the three-person town board for a one-year term, a position that was vacated when Bob Dickey resigned from the board in January.

A month later, Rich Nord was chosen by the existing boad members to fill Dickey’s spot until an election could be held. Nord ran to keep that position, finishing second with 24 votes. Todd Olson received 20 votes, and Jami Alberts had 13.

In addition to incumbent Mary Beth Zwart being re-elected to the Colman-Egan School Board with 187 votes, newcomer Kirsten Taggart will serve on the board after finishing second with 149 votes. Incumbent James Hiller received 52 votes.

In the Colman city election for Ward II, incumbent Mitch Clark kept his spot with 45 votes compared to challenger Cody Bowman’s 21 votes.