Howard F. Stoddard, a retired Clearfield postmaster who has spent nearly 12 years on the City Council, will be West Point's first new mayor in 20 years when he takes office in January.
He garnered 553 votes and will replace Mayor Loy F. Blake, who has been mayor since 1970 when West Point - a town since 1935 - became a third-class city. Blake didn't seek re-election.Winners of four-year-terms on the City Council are Dennis J. Montgomery, a Planning Commission member for more than three years, who had 601 votes, and Clint B. Techmeyer, credit manager for an Ogden building materials supply firm, who won a squeaker by seven votes with a tally
of 558.
A total of 1,010 turned out to vote in the election - the largest number of voters in the city's history, according to Diane Moss, who has been West Point's city recorder for the past 35 years.
Mayoral losers were Merrill H. Roberts, a former city councilman and the city's building inspector, who captured 226 votes; Mark L. Sessions, a former Utah Highway patrolman, who had 173 votes; and Larry P. Sawyer, a production worker at an Ogden firm and a part-time student, who had 51 votes.
The lone loser in the race for City Council was incumbent G. Clark Johnston, who had 551 votes. He was appointed to the council in January when Roberts left the council to become building inspector. Results are complete but unofficial.
Stoddard, who collected 553 votes on election day, was first elected to the City Council in 1969, retired for a few years after his term ended in 1973 and was elected again in 1981 and 1985.
He has also served on the City Planning Commission and, as a councilman, has been chairman of the city's emergency services. In his campaign, Stoddard said the city needs a new integrated water system and improvements in the city's storm drain system.
Montgomery, who works in the Davis County School District warehouse at Freeport Center, campaigned for a more unified culinary water system. Techmeyer, who has served on several state and national credit union committees, said in his campaign that West Point has several dangerous intersections that should be remedied.