David Prytherch And Edna Southard Top Oxford City Council Race

Patch will update this report with candidate comments.

BY MAGGIE CALLAHAN, ELISABETH DODD, MOLLY NICHOLAS, DUNCAN STEWART & SCOTT SUTTON

Miami University journalism students

Oxford City Council will welcome two new members and the Talawanda School Board will bring on one.

Local voters elected them Tuesday, along with two incumbents on City Council and one for the school board, according to results from the Butler County Board of Elections.

As of 11 p.m. on Election Day, with 100 percent of the votes in Oxford’s 13 precincts counted, results showed the biggest developments of the night:

• Austin Worrell, the first Miami University student to seek a City Council seat in recent memory, was last among nine Council candidates.
• David Prythrech, an associate professor of geography at Miami with deep community involvement, attracted the most votes for Council, with incumbent Edna Southard, a retired museum curator, coming in second. Securing the other two seats in the race were newcomer Chantel Raghu, a veterinarian, and incumbent Mike Smith, an interior decorator for Miami’s planning, architecture and engineering department.

• Patrick Meade, a newcomer who teaches for Butler County Technology and Career Development Schools, and Mary Jane Roberts, an incumbent who teaches at Miami and Concordia University, won the two seats on the Talawanda School District Board of Education.

The newly elected City Council members will take their seats Nov. 27, serving four-year terms at $4,800 a year. They will join Glenn Ellerbee and Steve Dana, along with Oxford Mayor Kate Rousmaniere, whose terms end in 2019.

The new members of the school board will also serve four-year terms, starting on Jan. 1 and earning $125 a meeting. They will join Mark Butterfield, Mike Crowder and Chris Otto, whose terms end in 2019.

Nearly 25 percent of voters registered in Butler County -- or more than 62,000 out of 250,000 voters -- participated in Tuesday's elections.

For full results of all 85 political races in Butler County, visit the Butler County Board of Elections.

Top photo: David Prytherch was the top vote-getter in Tuesday’s Oxford City Council race. -- Contributed photo