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Election winners are mix of new, seasoned
Myers, Smith, Crowe, Coleman tapped by local GOP
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Bryan County residents will see some new and familiar faces after voters had their say in Tuesday’s primary election.
More than 5,000 voters turned out to cast ballots, choosing Republican nominations for the local contested races for sheriff, tax commissioner, clerk of courts and District 3 county commissioner.

According to unofficial results from the Georgia Secretary of State’s website, incumbent Clyde Smith has won the Republican nomination for sheriff with 2,889 votes over challenger Glenn Christian, who received 1,357 votes.

“I was very happy with the results and I will continue to do the job the people of Bryan County have elected me to do,” Smith said Wednesday. “I am very humbled by their confidence.”

Christian’s spirits remained high on Wednesday.

“Obviously I’m disappointed but I’m very optimistic about the future,” Christian said. “I’m not going to change anything I’ve done in the past. We ran a clean campaign and a clean race and I think I have a lot of supporters that came out and voted and I wish to thank all of them—my family and friends as well.”

Carrol Ann Coleman won the Republican nomination for Bryan County Tax Commissioner. Coleman received 2,278 votes over Carla Gardner, who received 1,379.Delete-Merge Upbodycopy

"I am excited and thrilled for the opportunity to be Bryan County’s new tax commissioner," Coleman said. "With Debbie Newman’s retiring, I know I have big shoes to fill and will work hard to earn the confidence and trust that I was shown by this election. I am thankful to my friends who helped me with the campaign and to everyone who voted for me. I am looking forward to January and being the best tax commissioner I can be."

Gardner expressed disappointment, but was very thankful for the support she recevied.

"I felt like I ran a hard, honest campaign and I appreciate the support of everybody for their contributions, donations and their well wishes and time and voters that supported me. It was definitely an eye opening experience and lot of work went into it. I hope that the tax office runs good under the new leadership."

Bryan County Clerk of Court incumbent Rebecca Crowe also won the Republican nomination, receiving 3,120 votes over challenger Haley Beeson, who received 1,101 votes.

Crowe was excited and “overwhelmed” on Wednesday, and said she was thankful for her family friends and co-workers that helped with her campaign.

“I’m very excited that I can continue to serve the citizens of Bryan County for another four years and I’m humbled that they have put their faith and trust in me to continue to serve them,” she said.

Beeson took to her Facebook page to give her followers an update on unofficial results Tuesday night.

“Unofficial numbers are Crowe 3,032 Beeson 1,080,” she wrote. “Thanks so much for all of the well wishes and for the 1,000 of you who voted for me. You guys rock!”

Taking the Republican nomination for District 3 County Commissioner was Steven Myers. Myers received 513 votes over Billy Albritton, who received 349 votes.

Myers said Wednesday he felt great and would probably relax for a few days.

“I’m going to come back and learn a lot about county government and how I can go about better serving the people of Bryan County,” he said.

Albritton said Wednesday he wanted to congratulate Myers on a clean campaign, but was a little disappointed with voter turnout.

“I was disappointed with the poor voter turnout,” he said. “But what happened is what happened. Life goes on and I’m going to keep doing the same things I’ve always done. I’m not going to disappear.”

On the Democratic ballot, the nomination for District 1 U.S. Representative went to Lesli Rae Messinger. Messigner received 304 votes over Nathan Russo, who received 243.

For a complete list of results, visit www.sos.georgia.gov.

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Later yall, its been fun
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This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

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