Incumbent Jimmy Crouch is trailing challenger Kerry Fossler for the Place 4 seat on the Bastrop City Council following early voting results Saturday.

Fossler had 333 votes, or 56.4%, to Crouch’s 258 votes.

Council Member Cynthia Sanders Meyer is running unopposed for a second term in the Place 2 seat.

In the race for the Place 1 seat on the Bastrop school board, Carol A. Armstrong was leading incumbent Rick Rivera. Armstrong had 865 votes, or 58.9%, to Rivera’s 603 votes.

Kellye Seekatz is running unopposed to reclaim her Place 2 seat on the school board.

Bastrop City Council race

Crouch, 64, has served on the City Council since 2021 after winning by only two votes. Outside of his work with the council, Crouch said he works as a self-employed construction consultant.

Crouch said the biggest issues facing Bastrop are growth, development and access to recreation. Crouch said that in his first term he focused on reforming the city’s building and development code and hopes to continue that.

“Our building code is hard to read, hard to understand (and) hard to implement,” Crouch said in an interview.

He said he also wants to continue the council’s work on developing a multisport recreation facility with the Bastrop Economic Development Corp.

Fossler, 47, a real estate agent, said she’s a community member “first and foremost” and has served on multiple advisory panels, including the Parks & Recreation board and the Visit Bastrop board of directors.

She said growth, development and community morale are the most significant issues in this election. Fossler also wants to focus on the “highest and best use” of the city’s hotel occupancy taxes. Fossler said she’s running because she wants to amplify the voices of residents, many of whom feel left out of the city’s decision-making.

“The entire reason why I’m running is to make sure local voices are louder than those who have outside interests,” Fossler said. “We know development is coming. It’s already here. We want to make sure that we’re at the table when designing these (developments).”

Bastrop school board races

Rivera, a 25-year resident of Bastrop, established Victory Tickets, a nationwide event ticket company specializing in sporting events, concerts and theater in downtown Bastrop. His daughter Nicole was the inspiration behind the school district’s HopeStrong campaign that supported St. Jude’s Research Hospital during childhood cancer awareness month.

Along with being on the school board for the past three years, Rivera also served on the Citizens Advisory Task Force that was instrumental in pushing for the first successful school bond in 13 years. He also serves on the Bastrop Parks and Recreation Board.

Rivera said he will continue to stand by the school district’s administration and to ensure it upholds the highest standards of education, safety and discipline for students and staff.

Armstrong has lived in Bastrop County since 1995. She graduated from Southwest Texas State University and taught high school before going back to school to get her accounting degree, later becoming a CPA. She worked as an internal auditor for the University of Texas and was a state auditor of other agencies.

She said she would bring her conservative values and beliefs to the school board and strive to ensure fiscal transparency and accountability and make certain parents remain the ultimate authority over their children.

Smithville races

In the race for mayor of the city of Smithville, incumbent Sharon Seidel Foerster was leading challenger Tom Etheredge by 276-232.

Place 4 City Council Member Mitchell Jameson was leading challenger Dane Garrison with 258 votes to Garrison’s 241.

In the Place 5 race on the Smithville City Council, Cathy Meek had 295 votes to Brandon Dunham’s 187.

In the race for the Place 3 seat on the Smithville school board, Bryan Jones had 412 votes to Casey Hanchey’s 354.

Chelsa Vinklarek ran unopposed for the Place 4 seat on the school board.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Who won seat on Bastrop City Council? The latest election results