Memorial Tuesday for councilman

WASILLA — A black sash draped across the entrance to the council chambers at Wasilla City Hall is a somber testament to the mood felt throughout the building as the community plans to mourn one of its resident leaders.

A public memorial service for Wasilla City Councilman Steve Lovell is at 1 p.m., Tuesday at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center. The service follows the June 30 death of Lovell, who was killed when a piece of heavy equipment he was operating on his property fell, crushing him.

The service also will memorialize Lovell’s son, Shanon, who went missing in October 2012 and whose body was recovered at the end of May in a Palmer-area lake. Since Shanon’s death, Steve Lovell had been raising his grandchildren.

“It has not been a good year in that family,” said mayor Verne Rupright, a longtime friend of Lovell and his family.

As the city deals with the sudden death of a council member, the business of running the city goes on, and to that end, the council will be asked to approve a recommendation from longtime city clerk Kristie Smithers and city attorney Richard Payne to put the remaining two years of Lovell’s city council term on the Oct. 1 general election ballot.

Lovell was elected to Seat A on the council in October 2012, and had a little more than two years left on his term when he died. Because of the timing of his death, Smithers said she and Payne both don’t think appointing someone to fill Lovell’s vacant seat is prudent or necessary.

That’s because the filing period for candidates to begin declaring for the election is in less that two weeks, July 15, and that someone who is appointed may have an advantage over others who may want to apply for the election, Smithers said.

Also, by the time the council solicits applications for the vacant seat, the council couldn’t make the appointment until its Aug. 12 meeting, and by that time there only three scheduled council meetings remain before the election.

“The code currently does not directly address the passing of a council member,” says a memorandum to city council from Smithers and Payne. “However, in this circumstance, we feel that the council does not need to declare a vacancy for council Seat A.”

If the council agrees with the recommendation, Seat A will remain vacant until Oct. 1, which also will see two other seats up for election. Seat E, held by Dianne Woodruff, and Seat F, filled by Brandon Wall, are three-year terms that will be on the ballot.

Woodruff has reached her term limit on the council and cannot run again.

Contact Greg Johnson at 352-2269 or

greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.