Voters shake up the scene in Marion, Old Fort

On Tuesday, voters in Marion selected Steve Little to be the next mayor of Marion. Juanita Doggett became the first woman elected to the Marion City Council. Outgoing Mayor Everette Clark will return to his old council seat, and longtime incumbent Councilman Mike Edwards was defeated in his bid for another term.

In Old Fort, voters gave Mayor Garland Norton another term and elected Sue Gibbs as an alderwoman. Incumbent Alderman Pete Matthews was defeated in his bid for re-election. The outcome is uncertain regarding the alderman race between Wayne Stafford and Charles Pyles.

Those are just some of the highlights from the 2009 municipal elections.

MARION:
In Tuesday's election, Marion voters chose Little, who's already been the city's mayor pro tem, to take over as the next mayor. Little, who is a Marion attorney, won the mayoral race with 307 votes.

"I appreciate the confidence of the voters," said Little. "I think there's a lot right with Marion. We still have a lot to accomplish in business recruitment for the downtown and the outlying areas. As a city government, we need to improve our communication with the public so as to always reinforce that our job is to serve the needs of the people of Marion."

Businessman Cliff McLarty lost Marion's mayoral race to Little. McLarty got 251 votes.

On Election Night, McLarty said he would focus his attention on other business ventures and has no plans at this time to run again.

"It was a good race," he said. "Steve and I are still friends."

Real estate broker Randy Williams came in third in the mayoral race with 122 votes. Williams, who is also on the School Board, could not be reached for comment as of late Wednesday afternoon.

In the race for the three seats on the City Council, Doggett, who is the director of industry training at McDowell Technical Community College, earned the highest number of votes with 371. She became the first woman elected to council.

City Manager Bob Boyette said he and his staff are not aware of any other woman who has held a council seat in the past.

"I am elated and thrilled," said Doggett. "I am excited. I think I can do a good job. I am anxious to do a good job for the citizens."

Clark, who has been the city's mayor since 1985, will return to the council. He came in second with 359 votes. He was a councilman from 1972 until 1985. He is the owner of a real estate business.

"First of all, I appreciate the voters and their confidence in me," he said. "I will strive to do my best on City Council."

Incumbent Lloyd Cuthbertson was elected to another term as a councilman. He came in third with 327. He is the safe and drug free schools coordinator and dropout prevention coordinator for the McDowell County Schools.

"It was a close election," said Cuthbertson. "The people spoke and I feel they made an informed decision on who they wanted on council."

Gary Walker came in fourth with 306 votes but it was not enough for him to get elected. He is an insurance agent.

"This is the first time I have ever done this, and this was a good and fun experience," he said. "I think it has been a growing experience for me. I feel like I got a good number of votes. That tells me there a lot of people who support my ideas. It has been an eye-opening and fun experience."

Although he was not elected to council, Walker said he would still be able to serve through his work on the city's Planning Board. He added he might run again.

"I am not throwing my signs away," he added.

Councilman Mike Edwards lost in his bid for another term. He placed fifth with 304 votes. Edwards, a Marion attorney, has been a member of City Council for the past 16 years.

"I would like to say that I am happy I was able to serve for 16 years," he said. "I think the voters know what they were doing. I am happy with the board. I am tickled we finally have a woman for the first time on the City Council. It should have happened a long time ago. I am happy the voters let me serve for 16 years."

Mark Revis came in last place in the council race with just 136 votes. He is an unemployed maintenance technician. Revis could not be reached for comment on Wednesday afternoon.

Marion had an 18 percent voter turnout in the 2009 election. Marion has 3,941 registered voters.

"That's more than it was a couple of years ago," said Elections Director Kim Welborn. "Any increase is good."

OLD FORT:
Old Fort had an even bigger turnout with 28 percent. The town has 661 registered voters.

Returning to serve another term as mayor of Old Fort, Garland Norton said his primary focus will be ensuring that residents can afford the services the town provides.

"We're going to try to make Old Fort a better place to live," he said, adding that he believed both taxes and water rates could be cut back.

"People are really struggling right now," Norton added, "and I believe we owe it to the people to do all we can to save them some money."

Norton awaited the news at home Tuesday evening, unlike his challenger, Phillip Steppe, who spent most of the day at the town's library branch, shaking hands and discussing the issues.

Steppe, pastor of New Covenant Community Church, has a background in industrial engineering he felt would make him useful to the town. He said he feared issues would emerge with the municipal water system and that he was well qualified to deal with that.

These sorts of infrastructure issues, he admitted, ran contrary to Norton's promised tax cuts.

"I didn't run on a tax cut platform," he stated. "I ran on the issue of honoring our past and embracing the future."

Norton, however, said he wasn't aware of any pressing infrastructure issues. The issue of peoples' day-to-day expenses was more pressing. He intends to relieve that burden as much as the town government can.

New to the town's Board of Aldermen, Sue Crawford Gibbs won by far the most votes in the four-way race for two open seats. She said this was her first political campaign and she is excited about the prospects.

"I believe we have a wonderful mayor in Garland," she said. "He has a good head on his shoulders and he is the nicest man you'd ever want to meet. He has some good ideas and I hope the new board will be receptive and we'll all be able to agree."

She hoped the board would be able to form a good working relationship with the County Commission and that the two bodies would be able to meet face to face on a regular basis.

She said she was frustrated by the fact that Black Mountain, a mere 8 miles away, had such a strong tourism and leisure economy. She felt Old Fort would be able to share in more of those dollars, but that will mean finishing the many projects and attractions underway, such as Davidson's Fort and the proposed greenway.

"I don't care a thing about (Old Fort) getting bigger," she said, "but we are maybe 98th of 100 counties in poverty. There's no real money here," and goals must realistically reflect that reality.

Thus, she agreed with Norton that tax and water rates need to be reduced.

The other seat will go to either Wayne Stafford or to Charles Pyles. As of Tuesday night's count, Stafford leads by a mere seven votes, but there are 12 provisional ballots yet to be judged and counted.

Attempts to reach Stafford Wednesday were not successful.

Pyles said he felt that both taxes and water rates in Old Fort were entirely too high.

"We have a higher tax rate than Biltmore Forest," he said, "and our water rates are some of the highest in the United States, for reasons I cannot fathom."

He has been in Old Fort for six years, and operates Old Fort Woodworking by day. He said he has every intention of seeking the office again if he does not win this vote.

"I love Old Fort," he stated, "and Old Fort will survive with or without me on the board."

Longtime incumbent Pete Matthews was defeated in his bid for re-election. He received 86 votes. Attempts to reach Matthews were not successful.

The unofficial numbers for the votes in this story include those that were cast on Election Day, the absentee ballots and the early, one-stop voting period. The McDowell County Board of Elections will make the results official with the canvass when the provisionals will be counted.