Roth, Peters, TerHaar Elected to Saline City Council

Saline voters have elected James Roth, Jim Peters and Linda TerHaar to the Saline City Council.

Roth, a retired schoolteacher, was the leading vote-getter with 925 votes. Incumbents Jim Peters, 775, and Linda TerHaar, 668, were also elected.

John Heller, a retired police dispatcher, finished fourth with 635 votes. Glenn Law, who resigned from the council to take a teaching job in Menominee, finished with 386 votes.

Roth, who ran unsuccessfully in 2010, said he learned from that defeat and worked harder to communicate with voters.

"I'd like to thank the voters who came out to help and support me. I'd like to thank everyone who voted in this election," he said.

Although Peters and TerHaar were incumbents, they had been appointed to council, and this was their first election.

"It's exciting. I'm happy and proud to be elected, and I hope to do a good job for the residents of Saline," said Peters.

TerHaar said she was deeply honored and privileged that voters gave her the opportunity to continue to serve on City Council.

"This morning, I wrote on my Facebook page that we are free to vote today," said TerHaar. "I've been voting all my life. I rarely miss voting in any election. To be on the candidate side of (an election) was pretty awesome and humbling."

Heller, who got into the race because of the police dispatch issue, said he was disappointed by the loss. He said he might have done better with a more focused campaign.

"But in a broader perspective, what I was campaigning on was not what the voters wanted," Heller said. "So I'll take that as a verdict. I gave it my best shot and appreciate the people who did vote for me.

"I think that maybe to win elections, you have to be in a lot of groups, and that's just not something that interests me," he said.

Roth said he was disappointed to see that Law received so many votes.

"That's really the only disappointing thing to me. In that sense, some of the voters weren't very informed," said Roth, who said it was a good, clean campaign. "I thought all four candidates were very friendly and polite."

Roth's term officially starts in January, but he'll likely join the council as soon as the next meeting in November to fill the seat v After a resignation, council has 60 days to appoint a replacement. That deadline is fast approaching, and since Roth was selected by voters Tuesday, the council may move to appoint him to Law's seat before its next meeting.