OSAKIS – Judy Dvorsak says she is ready for the challenge. Dvorsak defeated incumbent Osakis Mayor Dan Wessel, 512-403, on Tuesday.

“I know I’m going to have challenges and I know I’m not going to keep everyone happy all the time,” Dvorsak tells Echo Press, “but I really want to make it more open so that the residents of Osakis feel that we are working for them. And I “There is a lot of work ahead in terms of teaching myself and learning about all the different aspects of this job, but I am ready for the challenge.”

In the Osakis City Council race, incumbent Tim Thornbloom garnered 507 votes, former Councilman Randy Anderson garnered 499 votes and incumbent Al Larson lost his council seat by 403 votes.

Randy Anderson is back on the Osakis City Council after serving about 15 years, starting in 2008, and hopes to address some of the communication issues he believes have plagued the council. “I just think there’s a lot of miscommunication. Communication is very difficult. We are all busy and different groups communicate in different ways. I hope to come up with a process that can improve it, so there will be less confusion and less animosity. I hope, I mean, I don’t have a magic solution for any of this.

“Transparency of communication means different things to different people,” Anderson continued. “The more transparent you are, the more people see, but there’s also more information that can be taken out of context because you haven’t looked at everything.”

City Councilman Tim Thornbloom was re-elected to his council seat and is already trying to resolve some ongoing issues. “I’m the municipal liquor store liaison, so we’re working on getting a new manager, and that’s something important that we’ll address right away. There will be some changes and things like that with the new manager and we need to make that place make money for the city. End at the water plant. There are some valves on hold, so they are on hold right now. “To finish and complete that project would be huge.”