Three candidates, plus a write-in, vie for Lexington City Council seats 

Lexington voters will choose three members of city council in Tuesday’s general election, with candidates offering different approaches to managing municipal costs, maintaining infrastructure and addressing the needs of residents.  

The election will fill the seats of David Sigler, Nicolas Betts and Chuck Smith, whose terms will expire this year. David Sigler, Amber Ansted and Meghan Ferguson have qualified for the ballot, while Will Kirchner is waging a write-in campaign.

The three winners will each serve four-year terms. Sigler is also running in a special election for mayor following the death of former Mayor Frank Friedman in July. Sigler, who has been serving as interim mayor since Friedman’s death, has said he would serve as mayor if he wins both races.  

The candidates have highlighted issues that include balancing the city’s budget, maintaining aging infrastructure and preserving Lexington’s historic downtown. At a Sept. 22 candidate forum hosted by the nonprofit group 50 Ways Rockbridge, Sigler and Ferguson discussed those issues; Ansted did not attend. Kirchner was present but did not participate because the forum was limited to candidates whose names appear on the ballot.  

Sigler, 47, who is Lexington’s interim mayor and a financial analyst at the Virginia Military Institute, is seeking a fourth term. He was first elected to city council in 2014 and has also served on the Rockbridge Area Recreation Organization board and the boards of Main Street Lexington and the Regional Tourism Board.  

Sigler identified affordability as one of the city’s biggest challenges, pointing to rising construction costs and the expense of maintaining municipal services. 

“Lexington’s water and sewer rates have increased a good bit in the past eight or nine years,” he said in an interview. “And they are projected to continue to increase as we have to accomplish more and more projects.”  

Sigler also addressed city communication, saying the city has several ways to distribute information but does not always reach every resident. 

Ansted, 37, who has helped manage a short-term rental property in Lexington and an event venue in Rockbridge County, is seeking her first term on city council. She supports increasing the city’s lodging tax from 8% to 10% and considering fees for private events that require street closures or additional city staff. 

Ansted says that she is running to support small businesses in Lexington because of how crucial they are to the local economy. She said she wants to help all downtown businesses, including ones owned and operated by non-residents. 

“I wanted to make sure that they’re taken care of because if they’re doing well, we’re all doing well,” she said.  

Ferguson, 40, a coordinator for academic support services at the Virginia Military Institute, is seeking her first term on city council after running for city school board in 2024. At the September forum, she said she wanted to help the city manage competing priorities, citing aging infrastructure, competitive wages for city and school employees, and the need to keep taxes manageable as costs rise.  

Kirchner, 46, who owns 18 West Gallery on Washington Street, is running as a write-in candidate. He said he sees opportunities to address housing affordability by converting vacant upper floors of downtown buildings into long-term rentals. 

“I see great potential, especially in the downtown area, for facilitating an increase in long-term rentals in the vacant dwelling spaces in the second and third stories of our downtown buildings,” he said. 

The council race comes as Lexington voters also consider a proposed 1% local sales tax increase that would go toward funding school construction projects. 

Sigler, Ferguson, Ansted, and Kirchner have all expressed public support for the measure, which would generate an estimated $1.3 million annually for the next five years. The proposed tax would help fund projects at Rockbridge County High School and Lylburn Downing Middle School, as well as a proposed recreation center.