STURGIS – The slate of candidates has been set for the City of Sturgis special election on Jan. 7.

Thursday was the deadline to file petitions to run for mayor, Ward 1 Council and Ward 3 Council seats.

Only Kevin Forrester filed petitions to run for mayor.

Forrester is currently the Acting Mayor after Angela Wilkerson resigned in October. Under South Dakota law, when a mayor resigns, the city council president steps into the role of mayor. In this case, it was Forrester. He will now serve until a new mayor is seated in May.  

Candidates for the Ward 1 seat, which was vacated when Mike Bachand resigned in October, are Alex Usera and Ryan Klima.

Candidates for the Ward 3 council seat, which was vacated when Don Lanpher resigned in October, include David Murtha, Mark Chaplin, Richelle Bruch and Jennessa Dempsey.

When then mayor Mark Carstensen resigned in February of 2024, the city did not have an ordinance that provided for a special election to fill the mayor’s post. Their only option was to have people apply for the position of mayor and then have the council choose one of those individuals.

But since then, the council has passed an ordinance which allows them to set a special election given a vacancy in the office of mayor. But since there was only one candidate for mayor that race will not be on the ballot, only the council positions.

The unexpired terms for these mayor and council positions will be only approximately four months. Normal terms are three years.  All three of the positions will be on the ballot at the April 8 regular municipal election.