{"id":2452982,"date":"2020-01-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=318769"},"modified":"2020-01-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T07:00:00","slug":"the-bills-are-in-for-basalt-mayor-race-bill-infante-and-bill-kane-throw-hats-in-ring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/the-bills-are-in-for-basalt-mayor-race-bill-infante-and-bill-kane-throw-hats-in-ring\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018Bills\u2019 are in for Basalt mayor race \u2014 Bill Infante and Bill Kane throw hats in ring"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"576\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/01\/mayorrace-atd-120619-1-576x1024.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/01\/mayorrace-atd-120619-1-576x1024.jpg 576w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/01\/mayorrace-atd-120619-1-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/01\/mayorrace-atd-120619-1-768x1366.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/01\/mayorrace-atd-120619-1-864x1536.jpg 864w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/01\/mayorrace-atd-120619-1.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\"><figcaption><strong>Bill Kane<\/strong><br \/><em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">It took no time at all for a mayor\u2019s race to materialize in Basalt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Two potential candidates \u2014 Bill Kane and Bill Infante \u2014 picked up nomination petitions for the race Tuesday, the first day the petitions were available.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Kane, a former Basalt town manager, announced Dec. 6 he would seek the seat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Infante, who has been a Town Council member since April 2018, also picked up a petition and reversed his direction from earlier this fall. He told The Aspen Times on Nov. 15 he didn\u2019t think his work with a family business would allow him to devote the time necessary as mayor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cAt this juncture,\u201d Infante said Nov. 15, \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s anything I\u2019d consider.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Infante said Tuesday that the current council has made good progress on issues and has developed a strong strategic plan. He came to realize since Nov. 15 that he wants to plan a key role in implementing that vision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe need to develop a cogent plan is something that I wanted to spend a little bit of time on,\u201d Infante said. \u201cAnd so, over the past few months, we have further cemented the trajectory and momentum that we were on. That itself was a compelling argument and reason to seek to remain engaged in a way that perhaps can deliver meaningful change, thoughtful change for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Current Mayor Jacque Whitsitt cannot seek re-election due to term limits. She is completing a second four-year term.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Also Tuesday, two potential candidates picked up petitions for the race for three council seats. Incumbent Jennifer Riffle picked up a petition for a possible re-election bid. Tiffany Haddad also picked up a petition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The town election April 7 is for three council seats and the mayor\u2019s position. Incumbent Councilman Auden Schendler said he will not seek another term. Incumbent Councilwoman Katie Schwoerer hasn\u2019t announced her intention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The council election is at-large, so all candidates run in one race and the top three vote getters will take seats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Entering the election doesn\u2019t take much effort. Candidates must meet a residency requirement of living in the town for 12 months immediately prior to the date of the election. The nomination petitions must be signed by 25 qualified electors from the town of Basalt. The petitions must be submitted to the town clerk\u2019s office by the end of the day Jan. 27, so the field won\u2019t be set for almost three weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Kane welcomed the competition in the mayor\u2019s race. \u201cI think it\u2019s good for Basalt,\u201d he said. \u201cThere should be multiple candidates or it would be a hollow process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Kane, 74, said he would campaign on his experience, years in the valley and \u201csensitivity to the issues.\u201d He wants to focus on protecting the environment, educating kids and taking actions that round out the community and lead to \u201cfeeling good about where we live.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Among his experience, he served as Basalt town manager from 2009 to 2012. He moved to the Roaring Fork Valley 45 years ago and moved to Basalt from Aspen 10 years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Infante, 58, said he believes he has skills to help Basalt \u201cachieve some incredible things\u201d in 2020, many of which were laid out by council in the strategic plan. That\u2019s what spurred him to run for mayor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe looked at the trajectory of opportunity and the kind of projects that I launched this spring, notably those related to the promotion of regionalism \u2014 developing regional connections between us in Basalt and towns and communities up and down the valley, our counties, our state \u2014 to deliver on the sense of issues that are most important to our communities, these would include, of course, energy responsibility, climate action, affordable housing, child care, broadband ,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is so much opportunity now that has begun to gain momentum that I am very committed to seeing that through.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:scondon@aspentimes.com\">scondon@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/local\/the-bills-are-in-for-basalt-mayor-race-bill-infante-and-bill-kane-throw-hats-in-ring\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bill Kane It took no time at all for a mayor\u2019s race to materialize in Basalt. Two potential candidates \u2014 Bill Kane and Bill Infante \u2014 picked up nomination petitions for the race Tuesday, the first day the petitions were available. Kane, a former Basalt town manager, announced Dec. 6 he would seek the seat. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 22:00:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}