Updates came in through the radio Tuesday night, and an anxious crowd of DeKalb residents eagerly waited for the announcement.

The River Heights Golf Course, 1100 S. Annie Glidden Road, boomed with joyous applause as Kris Povlsen was announced as DeKalb’s mayor-elect.

Povlsen, who has been serving as acting mayor since late Mayor Frank Van Buer’s death last July, won with 54.53 percent of the votes.

“We got a challenging four years, and I’m extremely excited about stepping into this position,” Povlsen said. “I’m truly humbled by it, and it’s my goal to work very, very closely with the citizens for us to continue on, moving forward within this community.”

Although these were happy times for the mayor-elect, he also noted the obstacles ahead.

“We have some real challenges ahead of us as all communities do, but we have worked well with the city council and the staff and the commissions to get over some of these challenges,” Povlsen said. “And as we move into the next year, we are going to continue to have some financial challenges, but I think because of the great minds in this community and the great minds on the council and our staff, we will continue to see this community grow and move forward.”

Povlsen’s daughters, Karissa and Joi, who were both in attendance, expressed how proud they were of their father keeping a positive campaign.

“I’m so proud of how he handled himself throughout the whole campaign,” said Joi Dundas.

His wife, Jenine, who said campaigning was hard on the family, echoed her daughters’ happy sentiments.

“Kris is a man of integrity, and I am so happy for him,” Jenine said. “Public service is really his life commitment.”

Paul “Dome” Kallembach spent the night with his family and friends at VFW, 421 Oak St., where he found out he came second to Povlsen.

“My team did an excellent job and did everything that we could do,” he said. “We couldn’t have done anything differently than we did.”

Kallembach was disappointed about the overall voter turnout.

“There were about 1,500 less votes than past elections for mayor with only about 4,700 people voting,” he said. “A lot of citizens were distraught, but unfortunately not enough came out to vote.”

Kallembach is determined to do what is best for the DeKalb community.

“I’m going to continue to help the citizens of DeKalb in any way I can,” he said.

Surrounded by friends and family, mayoral candidate Lynn Fazekas heard on the radio that she lost to Povlsen at Twin Tavern 1028 S. Fourth St. Fazekas said she was obviously disappointed but that she ran a good campaign.

“This was an adventure of a lifetime,” Fazekas said after hearing the results. “I met so many wonderful people through the process, but we did get a lot of the issues out there.”

Fazekas said she ran a “grassroots” campaign, and it will take her some time to know if she could have done anything differently.

“This is the first time I’ve done anything like this,” she said. “So I will have to process this over the next few months on what I could’ve done better.”

Fazekas said she is not sure if she’ll run again saying, “ask me again in four years.”