Filing for local elections ended last Friday and the names of candidates for area school boards and city councils are as follows:
Whitesboro
The two-year terms of aldermen Ben Edwards, Stacey Miles and John Moore are up for re-election. The one-year term of Colby Meals (who was appointed to replace Barry Keller’s vacant seat) is also up for re-election. Candidates for the two-year terms are Edwards, Miles, Moore, former city inspector Johnny Carnes, Mike Pack, and Ronnie Fielder. Running against Meals will be Su Welch, wife of former mayor Dee Welch.
The Whitesboro ISD has two three-year terms available, currently held by president Jeff Patterson and Kevin Hartless. Both have filed for re-election, as well as Whitney Walsh-Sietz, Nicole Hawkins and Caleigh Latta.
Whitesboro ISD will also be having a bond election. Last week, the district announced a call for a $118 million, two-part bond. Proposition A is for $100 million and includes the construction of an early childhood center, high school auditorium addition, high school CTE addition, agri-science arena and district renovations for safety/security and busing. Proposition B is for and $18 million and includes a multi-purpose event center. To learn more about the bond, read the front-page article in the Feb. 16 issue of the News-Record and visit www.whitesboroisdbond.com.
Collinsville
For city council, aldermen Thomas Worsham Jr., Stephen McDaniel and Chase Guidera (who was appointed last month to finish out the five months left in former councilmember Dan Riddle’s term) are up for re-election. Worsham, Guidera, Jessica Orsburn and Brandon White have all filed for the three-year terms. Nobody filed to run for the one-year term, so this position will be appointed by the council after the election.
Collinsville ISD has two seats available. Carrie Crane in Place 5 and Justin McDonnell in Place 4 both have three-year terms that expire this year. Only the incumbents filed, so there will be no school board election this year.
S&S
The S&S CISD school board has two openings as the terms of Sean Turner (Place 5) and Chris Lopez (Place 6) expire this May. Tommy Carney and Brian Clark have filed for the Place 5 seat. Lopez, Randall Leach, Jeffrey McSpedden and Andrew Reeves have filed for the Place 6 seat.
Tioga
There are three two-year seats open for Tioga City Council. The Place 1 seat (currently held by Kurt Hall), Place 3 seat (currently held by Jim Coffey) and Place 5 seat (currently held by Heather Nesmith) are open for election.
Incumbent Hall filed unopposed for Place 1. Coffey and Alton Rhymes both filed for Place 3, however Rhymes’ application was rejected due to not being registered to vote in the city of Tioga so Coffey will run unopposed. For Place 5, Nesmith and Logan Peterson both filed to run.
Tioga will also hold a special election (on the same date of general elections) to fill the unexpired one-year term for Place 4. The vacancy was created when former council member Jamie Skaggs resigned prior to moving out of the city. William Fritcher has filed unopposed.
Tioga ISD will have openings for Seat 2 (currently held by Dallas Slay), Seat 5 (currently held by Dugan Rainey) and Seat 6 (currently held by Stacy Price). Slay and Patty Wheeler have filed for Seat 2 and incumbents Rainey and Price will run unopposed for their respective seats.
Filing began Jan. 17 and ended at 5 p.m. on Feb. 16. This is the time in which anyone interested in running for local office must submit their name and intent. Any individual who did not file by the deadline is not eligible for this year’s elections.
Early voting is April 22-30. Election Day is May 4.