New Heber City Councilmembers Aaron Cheatwood and Sid Ostergaard said they’re honored to have seats on the city council. They join Mike Johnston, who was re-elected to the council.
Cheatwood said he’s glad to know ordinary citizens can successfully run for office based on their involvement in the community.
“There are a lot of emotions this morning,” he said. “I’m excited and looking forward to supporting Heber City and continuing to make this a wonderful place to live.”
Ostergaard said he’s honored to have been voted onto the city council, praising his fellow candidates for running for office.
“That says a lot about Heber,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who care about the valley and the direction it’s going.”
In all, 11 candidates ran for the three seats on the council.
Commenting on the ranked-choice voting system, Cheatwood said he is committed to serving everyone in Heber City, including those who didn’t rank him high on their ballots.
“There is something to be said for uniting the city and proving that I’m ready and willing to do the job, and [I’ll] listen to them and make them feel heard – even though I wasn’t their first choice,” he said.
He said the election workers oversaw an honest process, and he thanked them for putting in long hours on Election Day. Heber City’s results were published at around 4 a.m. Wednesday.
While in office, Ostergaard said one of his priorities is contributing to a collaborative city council.
“Definitely there’s division right now in the council,” he said. “We need to cultivate good trust and respect of each other and cultivate good management of the city and good development.”
Cheatwood, for his part, said he wants to focus on communication between the council and the public.
“My top priority is to make sure that communication is more clear and more open with the public – that the public knows when things are important… and how to best contact [the council] and make their voice heard,” he said.
Incumbent Mike Johnston, who was re-elected for a second term, could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to city clerk Trina Cooke, just under 2,900 ballots have been counted in Heber City. A few more mail-in and absentee ballots could still be added to those totals. Final election results will be certified Dec. 5.
