Decision 2015: Municipal elections in county on horizon

Published 6:52 pm Tuesday, June 2, 2015

In a little more than a month, the filing period for municipal (city, towns and villages) elections in Beaufort County and throughout North Carolina opens.

The filing period begins at 8 a.m. July 6 and ends at noon July 7. Usually, the filing period begins at noon on the first Friday in July, but the Beaufort County Board of Elections will be closed July 3 in observance of the July 4 holiday, according to Anita Bullock Branch, the county’s deputy director of elections.

Voters in the county’s seven municipalities will mark ballots this year. Election Day is Nov. 3. Winners of the general elections in November take office in December.

There is a possibility a statewide referendum on issuing bonds to build new roads, upgrade technology used by the state and local governments and construct education facilities. Gov. Pat McCrory wants pubic to vote on the proposal this fall. The N.C. General Assembly will decide if a referendum on the plan to spend up to $3 billion will be conducted.

Other than the possibility of the Connect NC bond referendum, there are no other referendums or special elections slated for Beaufort County, according to Kellie Harris Hopkins, the county’s elections director.

Washington voters will determine who fills the five seats on the City Council and who will serve as mayor. Council members and the mayor serve two-year terms. Earlier this year, the City Council discussed the possibility of increasing those terms to four years and staggering those four-year terms. The council decided to keep existing format.

Mac Hodges is in his first year as mayor. Council members are Richard Brooks, Larry Beeman, William Pitt, Doug Mercer and Bobby Roberson, who serves as mayor pro tempore. Beeman is in his first year as a council member. The others are council veterans.

In Aurora this year, voters will elect two members to the town’s four-member Board of Commissioners. The four-year terms of commissioners W.C. Boyd Jr. and Alan Kutzing expire this year. Mayor Clif Williams and commissioners Patricia Bragg and Raleigh B. Lee III have two more years to serve on their four-year terms.

This election cycle, Bath voters will choose a mayor and two members of that town’s four-member Board of Commissioners. The four-year terms of Mayor Jimmy Latham and commissioners Keith Tankard and John A. Taylor expire this year. The four-year terms of commissioners Patricia Duffer and Jay Hardin expire in 2017.

In Belhaven, where the mayor serves a two-year term and members of the five-member Board of Aldermen serve staggered, four-year terms, voters will mark ballots for a mayor and three aldermen, two from the east-end district and one from the west-end district. The terms of Mayor Adam O’Neal and aldermen Vic Cox, Julian P. Goff (both from the east-end district) and Robert L. Stanley expire. The terms of aldermen Tony Williams (east-end district) and Greg Satterthwaite expire in 2017.

This year, Chocowinity voters will elect two members of the town’s four-member Board of Commissioners. The four-year terms of commissioners M.L. Dunbar and Arlene D. Jones expire this year. The four-year terms of Mayor Jimmy Mobley and commissioners Billy Albritton and Louise S. Furman expire in 2017.

This year, Pantego voters will elect a mayor and five members of the town’s five-member Board of Commissioners. The mayor and commissioners serve two-year terms. Stuart Ricks is the mayor. Mart Benson, Reid Michael Gelderman, Robert Edwards, Chad Keech and Chuck Williams are the commissioners.

Washington Park voters will elect a mayor and five members of the town’s Board of Commissioners this election cycle. The mayor and commissioners serve two-year terms. Tom Richter is the current mayor. The incumbent commissioners are Lee Bowen, Patrick Nash, Wade Dale, Jeff Peacock and Brian Wood.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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