New faces are few in Northampton
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, November 5, 2003
In Northampton County, a few challengers claimed unofficial victory in their competition for town commissioner seats in Tuesday’s municipal elections.
Unofficial results yielded preliminary evidence that suggests the towns of Conway, Rich Square, Seaboard and Woodland will take on ‘a new face’ or faces, as the case may be.
Thirty percent of voters came out to the polls in Conway where challengers Lynmore Gay and Alan Harris unseated existing commissioner Johnny Martin in the race for five council seats. Gay took home the leading vote of 116 with George E. Clark taking second place with 108 votes.
William R. &uot;Billy&uot; Joyner came closely behind Clark in third with 107 votes, while 95 votes were attributed to Peggy L. Davis and Alan Harris with 88 votes.
Challenger Carroll Futrell took in 85 votes and incumbent (I) commissioner Martin held out at 80.
Conway Mayor Brian E. Bolton won re-election for another term with 98 votes out of a total of 148 with write-in candidates Keith Britt taking in seven votes while Joe Barrett and Mitch Taylor claimed one vote each.
In Rich Square, (I) Eugene W. Brown, Jr. took the lead with a whopping 229 out of 329 possible votes, followed by (I) Charles M. Eason with 213 votes.
Reginald White maintained 193 votes followed by challenger and former mayor John E. Pellam, Sr. with 189 votes. In fifth place was (I) William &uot;Bill&uot; Parker with 180 votes.
Challenger Doris Risper fell behind the race with 170 votes while (I) Earl Daniels failed to retain his seat with 175 ballots cast in his favor.
A total of 235 votes re-elected (I) Mayor Nannie Ellen Branch with 10 votes going to 10 write-in candidates whose names were not yet available.
The town reported a 48 percent turnout in voters.
Although there was no electing of a mayor in the town of Seaboard, 25 percent of voters showed up to the polls totaling 139 residents.
The election for town commissioner was razor close as challenger William Lee Grant brought in a leading 74 votes with Reid V. Harris, II taking the second town seat, ousting existing council member Woodrow B. Lockhart, Sr. with 71 votes.
Write-in candidate Joe Lewis Mordy took one vote.
The Town of Woodland, the last to report their unofficial results, telephoned in winners of the four commissioner seats.
In first place, (I) Beth B. Phillips took home 95 votes, with challenger David L. Cooper holding second place with 86 votes.
Challenger Les Clark took third place with 84 votes, followed by (I) Thomosena T. Boone with 71 votes.
Challengers Vicki Lane Knapp and Jean T. Barnes lagged behind with 55 votes for Knapp and 46 for Barnes.
Write-in candidate Margaret Barmer received one vote for council seat.
The town’s incumbent Mayor, Margaret Burgwyn, will be serving another term in her position as 90 out of 122 voters marked her for re-election.
Eleven write-in candidates for mayor received remaining votes, but their names are yet unavailable.