Colson wins by seven votes for second council seat

Brent Marshall, a city councilman who also is a former volunteer fire department chief, will be Grantsville’s next mayor.

Marshall ended up Tuesday night with 860 votes, or 57 percent, compared to Jill Thomas, his challenger, who tallied up 640 votes, or 42 percent.

“I am very humbled, but excited at the same time,” said Marshall. “I am looking forward to working with the new city council.”

“We campaigned hard and had a good showing,” Thomas said. “I will now support Brent as mayor.”

Two new councilmen will join the city council. James Vera, an analyst for EG&G, won the first seat handily, while local contractor Mike Colson beat Qwest executive Erik Stromberg by seven votes for the second seat. Vera received 1,027 votes, or 35 percent of the total vote. Colson captured 713 votes to 706 for Stromberg, though a final certification of that result won’t come until the official vote canvass when any outstanding absentee and provisional ballots are counted.

In Grantsville, 1,507 voters went to the polls to select their leaders — or 32 percent of the registered voters. That turnout was considerably higher than the county average of 18 percent.

Tim Gillie: tgillie@tooeletranscript.com