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Four candidates file for Benson council

Four people have filed for the three years remaining in the Benson City Council seat from which Jonathon Pogge-Weaver resigned last month. A special election for the seat is set for Tuesday, Jan. 10.
Mike Fugleberg, Brad Johnson, Larry D. Smith and Lucas Olson filed for the council.
Pogge-Weaver was elected to a four-year term last November, but resigned from the council in October when his partner, Swift County Administrator Mike Pogge-Weaver, was hired by the City of Carroll, Iowa, as its new city manager.
The person elected to the seat will serve through Jan. 5, 2020, when a council member elected Nov. 5, 2019, will take office.
After accepting Pogge-Weaver’s resignation in October, the council named former City Council Member Sue Fitz to fill the seat until the Jan. 10 election. Fitz served on the council from 1995 to 2015 before retiring.
Fugleberg served on the Benson council from January 2012 to December 2015, but lost his re-election bid for a second term in the November 2015 election. He finished third in a six-way race for two seats on the council. Council Member Terri Collins placed first with Pogge-Weaver finishing second.
Fugleberg first ran for the council in 2007 seeking to complete the two years remaining in the four-year term of then Council Member Lee Westrum.  Westrum had resigned his seat after being named the District 777 superintendent. At the time, he was the senior high school principal.
Fugleberg lost to Anne Johnson 225 to 207 in that November 2007 general election. She filled out the two years remaining in Westrum’s term, but then did not file for re-election in 2009 when the term ended.  Fugleberg ran again in November 2011 and won a seat on the council.
Also running for the council in the 2015 race was Smith, who finished fifth. He was also on the Nov. 8 District 777 Board of Education ballot finishing seventh among the seven candidates. The top four in vote totals were elected to the school board.
Olson, who works at Swift Machine and Fab, LLC, in Benson, is making his first run for local public office.
Johnson, Benson Public Schools’ elementary principal, is also making his first run for elected office locally.
Benson’s City Council meets the first and third Tuesday of the month at 5:30 p.m. Members of the council also serve on a variety of boards and commissions for the city.
Prior to the Jan. 10 election, the Swift County Monitor-News will be doing a candidate profile along with seeking their answers how they would address issues facing the community....
 
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