There are soon to be two vacancies on the Powell City Council — one in Ward 1 and another in Ward 2 — and councilmembers are seeking candidates to fill the seats.

Ward 2 Councilor Scott Mangold won the Republican primary election for Park County commissioner in August and is unopposed in the general election. That means Mangold will almost certainly join the commission in January, and vacate his Ward 2 seat on the city council at the end of the year.

The council is already accepting letters of interest for the Ward 2 position from now through Oct. 19. Councilors will then appoint someone to serve out Mangold’s term, which ends in November 2022.

The vacant Ward 1 position is more complicated.

The seat had been occupied by Councilor Jim Hillberry, who passed away in July. However, Hillberry was not seeking reelection, so a race for the seat is already underway between Geoff Hovivian and James Andrews. Hovivian won the primary election with 53% of the vote, but come Nov. 3, the two will square off again in the general election.

At its regular meeting on Aug. 17, the council began considering whether or not to appoint someone to the empty Ward 1 position. Mayor John Wetzel asked the other councilors if they should seek applicants and find someone to appoint or just wait until after the election.

If the council picks Andrews or Hovivian, they signal their support for one of the candidates and “that could bias the election,” Wetzel said in an interview.

Councilors could try to find someone else who’s interested and appoint that person to serve until November’s election. But even if they found another person interested in serving and went through the process to appoint that person, he or she might come to a single council meeting before voters pick another councilor.

“Common sense says we wouldn’t put anyone in there for a couple weeks,” Wetzel said.

The council agreed it would be best to wait.

However, City Attorney Sandra Kitchen pointed out that the Wyoming statute regarding vacancies states that the local governing board shall appoint someone to serve out the remainder of the term. The operative word, Kitchen stressed, is “shall” as opposed to “may.”

That means that to be compliant with state statute, the Powell City Council must be working toward filling the vacant Ward 1 seat. The statute doesn’t have a timeline, though, meaning the process can take as long as needed.

“It says you need to be in the process of it,” Kitchen explained to the council. “I don’t think you can take the position you’re going to wait. I think you have to come up with a plan of how you’re going to” appoint someone.

So, councilors are in the process of filling the vacant position. They are accepting letters of interest and have formed a committee composed of Councilor Steve Lensegrav, Councilor Floyd Young, and Wetzel, to review any applicants who express interest in the position.

As of last week, the city had not received any letters for Ward 1.

Anyone interested in either of the two vacant positions on the council should drop off a letter of interest at the city clerk’s office.

(Editor's note: This version of the story has been corrected to reflect that people interested in filling the two open council seats should submit letters of interest, not an application.)