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Canton winners say they’ll work together BY CAITLIN BOWLING STAFF WRITER Canton has four new aldermen. In a close race, Carole Edwards, Ralph Hamlett, Gail Mull and Zeb Smathers won. Of course, the town board was always going to have four new members after all the incumbents announced they were not running for re-election. Still, town residents now have a better idea of what direction the town will move in.
Canton Mayor Mike Ray
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Canton Town Board
Oct. 30-Nov. 5, 2013
(four seats available) Carole Edwards Zeb Smathers Gail Mull Ralph Hamlett Phillip Smathers Roy Taylor
365 362 359 316 284 269
All four new board members took a stance that the town board needs to foster downtown development as well as support the existing businesses in Canton. The board will do “everything we can to make sure they have the resources they need to grow,” said Smathers. The first and perhaps greatest challenge the newly elected aldermen will face, however, is hiring a new town manager. The current town manager, Al Matthews, is retiring at the end of the year. The new board will have to decide whether to pick up the search
Eveland, Price and Banks win in Maggie Valley
BY CAITLIN BOWLING STAFF WRITER andidates for Maggie Valley aldermen stood outside the polls on Election Day — one side staying toward the right and the other standing toward the left, both with signs exclaiming “Let’s Move Maggie Forward.” Tuesday was the day voters would decide which forward direction they wanted the town to move in. In the end, voters choose Janet Banks, Mike Eveland and incumbent Saralyn Price. Eveland and Price will serve full four-year terms, while Banks will fill a vacant seat on the board with two years left in the term. All three victors celebrated at the Maggie Valley Inn. “A little bit overwhelmed at this time. I have not run for office before,” Banks said. “It’s an awesome responsibility, so I am going to do the very best I can.” Eveland, who beat out Alderman Mike 8
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Smoky Mountain News
where the old board left off or start the process completely over. “My fellow council members are very intelligent people,” Hamlett said. “They make good choices, and I believe that as a group, we should be very excited about together taking a step forward for Canton and choosing the best person we can.” Smathers said he will be looking for a town manager candidate with managerial and economic development experience. Hamlett and Smathers agreed that the four new aldermen get along and should work well together to better Canton. “I think we all want to go forward and do big things,” Smathers, said. But since all the aldermen are new, there are a lot of things they will need to learn. “Since all of us are new to the board, the challenge is, for all of us, stepping into new roles as aldermen. It will be somewhat of a sharp learning curve,” Hamlett said. The race was a nail biter with the two unelected candidates losing by 40 or 50 votes almost, showing that residents generally felt positive about all those running. Having never run for political office before, Mull was shocked to hear the news. “I am just so thankful. I did not have any idea. I had no feel for it whatsoever,” said Mull, who spent the entire day at the polls. Along with electing a completely new board, voters had to decide whether to stay on its traditional system, where all four aldermen ran for re-election every two years, or switch to four-year staggered terms, which means only two aldermen would run for office at a time and each would serve a
Maggie Valley Town Board (two four-year seats available) Saralyn Price Mike Eveland Mike Matthews Steve Hurley Billy Case (one two-year seat available) Janet Banks Charle Meadows Joe Maniscalco
192 172 131 124 96 248 97 10
Matthews for a seat on the town board, said the results mark a change in the way business is done in Maggie Valley. “Tomorrow morning at 8 a.m., we have a new beginning,” Eveland said. “I think you will find a board that will work together, with diversity.” Ever since Phil Aldridge stepped down more than a year ago, the Maggie Board of Aldermen has only had four voting mem-
Canton aldermen candidates Phil and Zeb Smathers stood outside the polls on Election Day. Zeb went on to secure a four-year term on the town board; Phil was just 32 votes shy of a seat.
four-year term. Voters have approved a change to staggered terms 403-to-128 — which will prevent the wholesale turnover the town board as occurred this election. To get the town board on the right track for future elections, Carole Edwards and Zeb Smathers, who received the most votes, will serve four years as aldermen. Ralph Hamlett and Gail Mull will serve two before running for re-election. Candidates elected to the Canton Board of Aldermen from now on, however, will always serve four-year terms. Vicki Gregg, owner of Pauly’s Florist in downtown Canton, said she voted for the staggered term system because it will give the aldermen more time to accomplish their
bers and hasn’t been able to get along. If Matthews and Aldermen Phillip Wight took one stance, then Price and Mayor Ron DeSimone seemed to take another. Banks ran to fill the empty seat left by Aldridge and hopefully bring some cooperation to the board. One of her top priorities, she said, would be to review the town’s policies and procedures and craft a policy on what to do when an aldermen resigns. “We didn’t have a policy in place how to properly replace an alderman who leaves,” Banks said. And the town was left one alderman short for more than a year. As a result, two factions within Maggie Valley spent much of the year going tit for tat with each other. But no more, Eveland said. Now, it’s about cooperation. “We can really move mountains if we work together,” he said. For Price, who has sat on the board during the last year, the results were even more welcome. “I think that we can all work together, and I am looking forward to it,” Price said. She added that during her next term, she wants to continue beautification efforts in the town, review and possibly revise policies and procedures, and work on a plan for what Maggie should be in two, three, five
goals. “Sometimes two years doesn’t give you the time,” said Gregg, who declined to say who she voted for. As a business owner, Gregg said she is most concerned about economic growth in the Canton and wants town leaders to support the paper mill and work to better the downtown business district. Robert Eggleston, 64, didn’t have a particular issue that brought him to the polls on Election Day, just a sense of duty. “I cast my vote every time the polls open,” said Eggleston, who declined to say who he voted for as he stood a few feet from campaigning candidates. “Better not. I’ll keep that secret.”
Clyde Town Board (two seats available) Jim Trantham Carroll Mease
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years. Leading up to the election, many people were ready for something new, for cohesiveness on the board, which is part of what brought Maggie resident Anna McDonald out to vote. “I just came to try to change it up a bit,” McDonald said, adding that she voted for “anyone that wasn’t in before.” Norm and Lill Sevigny, 68 and 69 respectively, have lived in Maggie Valley for six years but haven’t taken part in meetings or really followed local politics. However, they always vote. “I am a good citizen,” Norm said when asked why he showed up at the polls. After walking around and speaking with the aldermen candidates who stood watch over the polls at Maggie Valley Town Hall all day, the Sevigny’s decided who to vote for — Hurley, Meadows and Matthews. They’ve also decided something else: to get more involved and sign-up for the town’s sunshine list, which keeps residents informed about meeting and announcements.