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AN a November 8, 2007 LOCAL The Kings Mountain Herald Page 3 Rick Moore unseats Keith Miller in Ward 5 5 #58 eweaver@kingsmountainherald.com ® EMILY WEAVER Kings Mountain's City Council will show all familiar faces when the new board is sworn in next month, although one has been absent for two years. Former At-Large Councilman Rick Moore defeated incumbent Keith Miller 251-201 in the two- man race for the Ward 5 seat in Tuesday's election. Moore's 50-vote victory mar- gin is unofficial until the canvass next week. “I am very humbled to the people in my ward that supported me,” he said. He is also thankful for his fam- ily. His granddaughter Sarah Drennan, 7, made a sign for him after school on Tuesday and she proudly held it up after the results came in. “It’s just an honor to be back to serve the people of Kings Mountain,” Moore said. “It’s always nice to win. It’s always hard to lose.” Mayor Rick Murphrey with no “filed” opposition won with 1,287 votes, with write-ins receiving 113. “I feel good. It’s just an honor to serve the citizens of Kings Mountain. I've served them for many years and I'm just very thankful that we all work as a team down here at the city,” he said. “The citizens have voted and given me another four years and I appreciate that. I'm excited about that.” Murphrey’s main focus after "the election is to continue with current projects: marketing and developing the city, working on the second water line for the town, expanding the Senior Center, and economic develop- ment, among other things. In Ward 1, Incumbent Howard Shipp with no “filed” opposition received his fifth term on the city council with 175 votes (about 98 percent). “I feel good. I'm glad that I've got another term and I hope to try to continue to do things that will better our city,” he said. “First thing I'd like to do is to continue to work on the water line project and get that completed and continue to work on revitalizing our downtown.” Incumbent for Ward 2, Mike Butler garnered 140 votes (about 56 percent). “I feel great. I'm glad the people thought enough of me to vote for me,” he said. Brenda Ross had 69 votes and Danny McAbee 39. One of the things that may have made a difference in his campaign, he said, is that he and his wife went door-to-door talk- ing to citizens in their ward. One lady told him that over the years she has lived there no one had ever come to her door to ask for a vote, until he came. Butler said that he would ‘like to focus on getting better pay for city employees. In Ward 3, Jerry Mullinax won with 121 votes (about 50 per- cent). The write-in candidates Wayne Worcester and Tommy Hawkins, together, received 120 votes. Mullinax will serve a two-year term. “I feel pretty good because there was a sneak attack,” he said, referring to the recent write-in campaign of Tommy Hawkins. “You don’t have any way to rebuttal.” Mullinax said that his main focus the next two years is to continue with business as usual. “I'll continue to do what I've been doing the last eight years. I'll vote for no increase in rates no matter what,” he said. Incumbent for Ward 4 Rodney Gordon returned to office with 261 votes to 172 for challenger Kay Hambright. “I'm elated that they're put- ting their trust in me again. I look forward to serving these next four years,” he said, exhausted from a long day at the polls. “I'm glad that they put their faith in me and wanted me back.” Gordon said that he did the same thing this campaign as he did the last one: knocking on doors and talking to constituents face-to-face. He added that the city has a lot of things in the works and he wants to see them come to reality. The two At-Large seats will be filled by incumbents Houston Corn and Dean Spears. Corn gar- nered the highest number of votes among the five candidates with 907, followed by Spears with 869, Curtis Pressley 451, Ric Francis 432 and James Carroll 126. “I'm tickled. I'm glad it turned out like it did,” Corn said. His plans for the next four years, he said, are “just to get right back where we we're at and keep moving forward.” He also wants to work towards acquiring a second lake in the city and water line. Corn said that he will continue to work with the Chamber of Commerce in efforts to bring more businesses to Kings Mountain. Lou Ballew, Johnnie Bunch at Mauney Memorial Library polling site. left, talks to When asked how he felt about being reelected, Spears said, “Great, great, great.” His campaign this year was a little different from his past run- ning. “I worked harder. I put more hours into the campaign than I ever have and it paid off,” he said. His top focus for his suc- ceeding term is to continue working on projects the city council has already started. *Vote totals are unofficial until the canvass. KMW’s Miller and Savell win seats on Board of Education EMILY WEAVER eweaver@kingsmountainherald.com In Cleveland County School Board’s game of musical chairs, six seats were up for grabs in Tuesday’s election. When the music stopped those who found a seat were Shearra Miller, Connie Phifer Savell, Tommy Greene, Jack Hamrick, Richard Hooker, Jr, and Kenneth Ledford. Connie Phifer Savell, a retired Kings Mountain teacher, won the 6th term on the Board of Education by a slight margin of 15 votes (a total of 3,378 votes). “I'm just thrilled that I have been elected,” she said. “Kings Mountain ‘has just overwhelm- ingly supported my running for office.” She said that when she saw the numbers come in from the Shelby polls, she thought to her- self, “Okay, it’s just not going to happen this time.” But when other figures starting rolling in from the other precincts like Kings Mountain and Grover, Savell’s hope returned. “I'm very humbled by Kings Mountain. They really did turn out,” she said. During the campaign, Savell made a diligent effort to circulate through the county, talking to cit- izens, listening to their concerns and vying for their support. Those efforts seemed to pay off when she went to the Grover polling site on Tuesday. “When I was down in Grover the mayor told me that there were some people that came up to him this morning and he told them that he was voting for me ‘Because you were the only one that came to our (Fall) Festival.” Savell received the second highest number of votes from Grover and garnered some of the highest numbers of votes from Kings Mountain. “My big thing is that this is - something I've wanted to do for 25 years. When you teach, every- thing’s political and I've been ° interested my entire career and you can’t serve on the board while you're. working (as a teacher for the schools). But now I can,” she said, adding that she plans to use her position to help the school district heal from the merger. “Everybody needs to be represented. The children are more important to me than any- thing else.” Garnering the sixth highest number of votes and in an effort to stagger school board terms, she will serve on the board for two years. In 2009 her position will be up for election again, join- ing the other three candidates in a race for four year terms. Incumbent Shearra Miller of Kings Mountain received the third highest number of votes (3,820 total) among the 10 candi- dates running for election. When asked how she felt after she found out that she would be returning for a four-year term on the school board, she said, “relieved and excited. I'm very appreciative to everyone who supported me and I'm looking forward to another four years.” The last time Miller ran for reelection to the school board, she was running for a seat on the Kings Mountain School District Board of Education. “It was harder this time, more territory to cover, more people to meet and talk to. It was very different than the previous election when it was just Kings Mountain,” she said. “In a lot of ways, it’s back to work as normal and getting on with business again.” Miller gave a big thank you to everyone for their continued support over the years and for helping out again for this election. “It’s such -a good feeling to have people who appreciate my service to the school board,” she said. Tommy Greene received the highest number of overall votes (4,083); Jack Hamrick, Jr., gar- nered the second highest number of votes (4,004). Others elected were Richard Hooker, Jr. with 3,505 votes and Kenneth Ledford with 3,436. Incumbent Terry McClain of Kings Mountain lost his seat, running eighth with 3,302 votes. Others falling short were Dale Oliver (3,363), Bob Scoggins (2,927) and Burney Drake (2,437). www.ladyb Hours: Tues orium.com 11am-5pm, WEIR jo... Lr T 5
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