Story Published: Dec 8, 2008 at 7:39 PM PST

Story Updated: Dec 8, 2008 at 7:39 PM PST

DUNES CITY, Ore. (AP) — The shifting sands of politics have left Dunes City closely divided in a debate over development and city water.

After the votes were counted from the Nov. 4 election, there was a tie in the City Council race.

It took a ping pong ball drawing from a bag to settle the race in this town of 1,345 people at the tip of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area on the Oregon coast.

As a result, the election gave two seats each to the factions in the debate, one that billed itself as the clean water ticket and the other that was frustrated with the work of the current council.

After the initial count, Richard Koehler and Fred Hilden had 399 votes each. Then a recount put them at 403 each.

Lane County elections officials decided to pull names out of a halt, and Hilden got the nod.

But Dune City officials said the job of drawing lots was theirs, not the county's. The county agreed.

City officials decided on ping pong balls as the method of chance, since all are uniformly round and there's no way to try to draw any particular ball. Each candidate's name was written on an equal number of balls.

At a special meeting last week, the balls were dropped into a bag, and each of the sitting council members drew one.

The first name: Hilden. The second: Koehler. The third: Hilden. The fourth: Koehler. Another tie, with one more determining ball.

This time, it went Koehler's way.

"I thought it went pretty well," said Mayor Eric Hauptman. "It was fair, and nobody could complain there was any kind of monkey business."

A year ago, four council members narrowly survived recall votes, following the city's move to ban fertilizers and dishwashers detergents with too much phosphorus, blamed for algae blooms in lake water used for city supplies.