By Kelly Young

kyoung@jacksonvilleprogress.com

Jacksonville residents must be fairly content with their leadership during the last few years because the incumbents for all three positions up for re-election in May filed their candidacy early and no citizens felt the need to file their opposition prior to Monday afternoon’s deadline.

As a result, the city will be able to cancel its May 9 election, and Mayor Robert Haberle and councilmen Hubert Robinson (District 1) and Kenneth Melvin (District 3) are granted another two years in office.

The mayor said he is glad he will have the chance to bring to conclusion some of the efforts he helped put into motion during the past four years. Under city ordinance, this will be Haberle’s final term as mayor.

“I think we have some loose ends to tie up and some projects already in the pipeline to complete, and this will give the council that started all those things the opportunity to do that,” Haberle said. “I asked for this job; I asked the citizens to renew my contract by re-electing me, and while it didn’t even get to that point, I’m very glad that I will be able to continue serving this community.”

As a major driving force behind the plans to construct a new city hall building, Haberle said he is particularly pleased to be the mayor who will get to see that project come to fruition.

“I’m thrilled to now be able to continue on and complete some of the things we started that are in process, but I am also looking forward to setting goals for improvements to this city that I won’t ever see in my term — but hopefully future councils and future mayors will,” he said.

City Secretary Betty Thompson said canceling the election will save the city about $4,000. She said it has been six years since Jacksonville did not need to hold municipal elections.

“This saves us on a number of expenses. By canceling the election I don’t have to pay for election supplies, don’t have to rent the election machines from the county, don’t have to pay to have the machines programmed and don’t have to pay Creative Graphics to print out the ballots,” Thompson said. “We also won’t have to pay to put the advertisements in the newspaper that we are obligated by law to do, and we won’t have to pay the election judges and clerks on Election Day.”

Other local entities were not so lucky, as last-minute filings made it necessary for Jacksonville ISD, the city of Rusk, Rusk ISD and the city of New Summerfield to all hold May elections. Filing information for the New Summerfield school district was not available Tuesday.

Incumbent trustees Dale Jamerson and Joe Casey won another term on the Jacksonville school board as the filing deadline passed with them running unopposed; however, JISD will still need to hold an election because two candidates have filed for Seat 6 — the spot being vacated by Dr. Larry Folden. Todd Travis and Belinda Simms are each seeking to take Folden’s seat on the board.

Rusk City Council members Kris Morgan and Walter Session will retain their seats due to a lack of opposition, but two people filed opposite Angela Raiborn in the final days of the filing window for a chance to be mayor of Rusk. Gary Epperson and Jefferson Wayne Jackson are both seeking to ensure Raiborn is a one-term mayor.

The Cherokee County Commissioners Court took action Monday to order a wet/dry special election for the city of Rusk, and now that Rusk must hold an election of its own, that item will appear on the city’s ballot.

“Because these two also filed for mayor, it looks like the wet/dry election is going to be on our ballot, but we haven’t worked out a contract with the county yet,” said Fran Wendeborn, Rusk’s city secretary. “We were going to have to reimburse the county for the expense of them holding the election for us, but it is still going to cost us a little extra to do it all ourselves.”

RISD will need to hold an election as three candidates have filed for two at-large seats on the school board. Rodney Hugghins and Britt Patterson, both current trustees, will share the ballot with Tracy Session for the right to represent the school district.

The city of New Summerfield, which had no candidates of any kind as of last week, experienced a flurry of activity as the filing deadline neared. With three at-large city council seats available, Donna Cameron, Mildred Garrow, Graham Tennison and Don Williams all announced their candidacy at the last-second. Williams is the only incumbent seeking a spot on the council.

The current mayor of New Summerfield, Dan Stallings, submitted his application for another term, and Jane Barrow has also come forward as a candidate for mayor.