PRESCOTT — As the April 7 election night results flooded in, communities found out who would be the next representatives of their municipality. Well, that list excluded the Prescott mayor position, as candidates Michael Gerke and Bailey Ruona were tied with 397 votes each.

“I was in disbelief,” Gerke said of when he saw the results.

The tie brought the two candidates to City Hall on Thursday afternoon to break the deadlock that could only be broken through a game of chance. Ultimately, that game of chance was a coin toss, with Ruona flipping the coin and Gerke calling its landing.

“You’re always nervous. You don’t know how it’s going to turn out. I asked to call it because I wanted it to be my own destiny, good or bad,” Gerke said.

Gerke said “tails” and the coin was flipped. After what felt like an eternity of rotations through the air, the coin made its landing. Both candidates peered at the result, seeing the tails side up. A sigh of relief was let out for Gerke, becoming the mayor of the city he has spent 67 years in and around.

“I’ve been on Facebook already to thank everybody that voted for me or that showed up to vote,” Gerke said.

Gerke served on the Prescott City Council prior to becoming mayor and graduated from Prescott High School in 1974.

“I know the town is going to grow. We’re in a location that people are coming in from the Cities every day, but we still want to keep the small-town feel,” Gerke said.

Gerke said he wants to take what he has learned from his prior experience of being a councilmember and living in the city and combine it with his own values to be the best mayor he can be.