CHIMACUM — Candidates for the Chimacum School Board and Jefferson Healthcare hospital commission will answer questions from the community at an open forum tonight.
Hosted by the Jefferson County League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women, the forum will be held at the Tri-Area Community Center, 10 West Valley Road, at 6:30 p.m.
Forum moderator Scott Wilson will take questions from community members in attendance. Written questions also will be accepted.
Each candidate will be given time for an open statement and, after answering the questions submitted by the community, a closing statement.
The evening will be divided into two parts.
Part one will feature the three candidates for a Jefferson Healthcare commission seat: Cheri Van Hoover, Bruce McComas and Bernie Donanberg.
Both Van Hoover and Donanberg have worked in health care.
Van Hoover of Port Hadlock has worked as a mid-wife and a clinician at the now closed Sequim Planned Parenthood. Donanberg served as a child therapist and the director of what is now Discovery Behavioral Health.
McComas is the former general manager of Port Townsend Paper Corp. and has served on the board of a number of organizations including Habitat for Humanity and Jefferson County Community Foundation.
Part two of the evening will feature the three candidates that filed for Position 5 on the Chimacum School Board: Jack McKay and Jared Shepherd of Port Ludlow and Wilma Hackman of Port Hadlock.
All three candidates filed during the extended filing period in May after the position was left without a candidate during the first round of filing.
With three candidates filed for each of these two positions, an Aug. 1 primary will narrow the field down to two candidates for the Nov. 7 general election.
All six candidates are new to these positions.
Neither current hospital Commissioner Tony DeLeo nor Chimacum School Board member Kevin Miller filed for re-election.
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Cydney McFarland can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 55052, or at cmcfarland@peninsuladailynews.com.