Stanley native Ben Wald was approved to a seat on the City Council last Tuesday evening at the January 2nd Stanley City Council meeting. Wald will be holding the position of First and Eight Wards Alderperson until the spring election in 2025 after it was vacated by Joe Davison in October of 2023.  Wald, who graduated from Stanley-Boyd in 2007, works at Bush Brothers & Co. in Augusta and currently resides in Stanley with his son, Rowdy, and wife, Angie, who is employed at Citizens State Bank in Stanley. Wald is looking forward to meeting the current Stanley City Council members, settling in and getting to work. He adds that he wants to continue to work on bringing business and entertainment endeavors to the area.

When asked why he chose to apply for the open Stanley Council seat, Wald replied, “I’ve always thought it was something I wanted to do at some point. I didn’t necessarily know it was anything that was going to happen right now.” He admitted that when the vacancy occurred, he thought it was a good opportunity and decided to go for it.

Wald, who studied organizational leadership in college, enjoys the new business and recreational opportunities that the Stanley community presents to its residents.

He is looking forward to “getting to work and working to facilitate an environment where we can have things like the rodeo and bringing business to town to provide good jobs for folks and making Stanley a place where people want to be whether it’s work or living or entertainment.”

The next Stanley City Council election will take place in April of this year. Mayor Al Haas and Alderperson Holly Kitchell in the Fourth through Seventh Wards and Ninth Ward have both filed no candidacy papers. With no one filing nomination papers for the open seats in the First Ward, Second Ward and Third Ward, as of the deadline on Friday, the next election is gearing up to be an interesting one!