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Riverdale Park and North Brentwood residents elected new members to their respective town councils in uncontested races during Monday's municipal election.

More than 200 votes were cast in Riverdale Park, where there are 2,468 registered voters. Newcomer Alan K. Thompson replaced Katherine Sharpe in Ward 2 with 47 votes and newcomer Raymond Rivas replaced Timothy Kimbrough in Ward 5 with 19 votes.

Thompson has been active with the town government for about 15 years but this was his first run for office.

"It was an interesting process to go around and knock on doors and talk to people to find out what's going on, even in my ward," Thompson said. "We got a better turnout than I was expecting, given the rainy weather and that all the elections were uncontested."

Incumbent Riverdale Park Mayor Vernon Archer retained his seat with 183 votes, as did Councilwoman Alice Ewen Walker (Ward 1) with 61 votes, Councilman David J. Lingua (Ward 3) with 43 votes, Councilman Christopher Henry Sr. (Ward 4) with 38 votes and Councilwoman Keelah Allen-Smith (Ward 6) with 4 votes.

Archer said one of the most pressing issues the new council will face is finding a permanent replacement for current town administrator Patrick Prangley when he retires in October.

"That is the most critical position in government. We want to make sure we do a good job of that," Archer said.

In North Brentwood, 31 votes were cast. There are about 260 registered voters in the town.

The mayoral and Ward 1 seat were up for election in North Brentwood and incumbent Mayor Petrella Robinson retained her seat with 30 votes.

This is Robinson's second term. She said during this term, she wants to make the new municipal center energy efficient and increase residents' understanding of town codes and ordinances.

"We've made a lot of progress, but we still have some things on my agenda that need my attention, so I'm looking forward to doing that," she said.

Former Ward 1 councilwoman Shirley Jones dropped out of the race, citing health problems in her family, but threw her support behind write-in candidate Aaron Baynes, 46.

Baynes won his write-in campaign bid with 20 votes. He ran unsuccessfully for the Ward 1 council seat two years ago. Baynes said he wants to work on beautifying the town through volunteer efforts.

"Just letting people know it's easy for us to clean up in the town than getting someone else to do it for us," he said of his goals. "Just looking out for each other and looking out for the town, as you notice not much money is being passed around."

E-mail Elahe Izadi at eizadi@gazette.net.