Schmidt wins Clear Lake at-large council race

CLEAR LAKE — Five months after resigning as the city’s finance director, Creighton Schmidt will once again serve the city of Clear Lake as he won an at-large seat on the City Council on Tuesday.

Schmidt had 53% of the vote to beat challenger Christopher Hogg, 503-443. Schmidt says he’s happy to be able to be involved in city government once again.  “I’m beyond honored for this opportunity. I was very excited when Mike Callanan approached me about serving in this capacity, and very thankful for everyone who supported me and beyond excited for the opportunity.”

Schmidt says there’s so many positive things going on in Clear Lake and that’s why he wanted to serve on the City Council.  “We have big housing projects that already have the ball rolling on them. Three big ones that I can think of that will be coming soon, and that’s really key to a lot of the things that we’re doing well in the city. The one thing that we need to continue to improve on is the housing, so it’s nice to see it moving in that direction and all the nice amenities that we continue to offer in Clear Lake are things I’m excited for.”

Schmidt says one of the big projects coming up during his term is the continued work on the Surf District project.  “There’s some big decision still to be made on that project, but we put together a great project that we submitted for that Destination Iowa grant. It was a project that I was very thankful to be a part of from the beginning, and so we’re moving already in the direction with the Music Enrichment Center and the streetscape. A lot of decisions that have already been made and some that are yet to come. Of course we have a budget for that project, so we will keep that in mind as we continue down the road. Then the hotel project is one that still has a lot of decisions to be made on it.”

The other two Clear Lake City Council races were uncontested Tuesday as Mark Ebeling won re-election to his First Ward seat while Beth Ann Schumacher will be on the council for the first time after being unopposed for the Third Ward seat.