Ferraro becomes first elected mayor

Jace Radke

Wednesday, June 9, 1999 | 12:05 p.m.

Robert Ferraro became the first mayor in Boulder City to be elected by the people, but challenger Robert Kenneston made it a close race.

Ferraro spent nearly $38,000 on his campaign and captured 2,569 votes, while Kenneston spent about $14,500 and received 2,233 votes.

"We knew from the get go that it would be closer than people thought," said Kenneston, who scraped by in the primary, beating out Councilman Bill Smith by 38 votes to force a runoff with Ferraro. "We gained ground every hour every day. We just needed more time to campaign."

Ferraro, 63, was only about a percentage point from winning the election outright in the May 4 primary, but Kenneston made the general election a race, taking 46.5 percent of the votes to Ferraro's 53.5 percent.

"It was closer than I thought it would be and perhaps it was because my opponent did more walking in the final days of the campaign," Ferraro said.

Ferraro has been appointed mayor by the council four times but wanted to be the first to be elected by the people to a four-year term.

"I have a real affinity for people and I like to be able to help them, so I'm ecstatic to continue doing this job," Ferraro said. "The difference between this mayor term and the others is that I can say I was truly elected by the people."

Ferrero says this will be his last term in office, but before he leaves he wants to work on the city's most pressing problem.

"Boulder City's in a position where we need to prop up the city's general funds," Ferraro said. "The leases from the golf courses and power plants help, but the city needs to continue to look at more possibilities, and I'm going to be a part of it."

Councilman Bryan Nix will be joining Ferraro on the council for the next four years after he retained his seat by taking 60 percent of the vote to local businessman Tom Whelan's 40 percent.

Whelan, 37, said he felt his campaign had picked up ground in the last few days leading up to the election, but he took only 1,941 votes compared to Nix's 2,856.

"We got our clocks cleaned, but we did everything we could think of and I think we woke some people up," Whelan said.

Nix, 45, said his campaign was designed to pick up speed from the primary to the general election.

Dr. Joe Hardy, 49, won the city's other open council seat outright with more than 50 percent of the votes in the April primary.