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Gardner wins District 5
75 countywide mail-in ballots still to be counted
RickGardner
Rick Gardner

Check out election results for Bryan County -- or the state -- at the Georgia Secretary of State's election website here: http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/GA/Bryan/51361/128900/en/summary.html

UPDATE: According to the Secretary of State website unofficial results, Rick Gardner is the clear winner of the county commission District 5 seat with more than 58 percent of the vote (or 225 votes) to Jimmy Henderson's more than 41 percent (or 161 votes). 

Rick Gardner is the victor in the Republican primary race for the District 5 seat on the Bryan County Board of Commissioners.

Gardner outpolled incumbent Jimmy Henderson 212-172, according to early unofficial results reported around 7:45 p.m. Tuesday. Polls closed at 7 p.m.

Elections officials said there were still about 75 mail-in votes to be counted, but it was unclear whether enough of those were from District 5 voters to change the results.

If the unofficial results stand, Gardner will replace the man who defeated him in the GOP primary four years ago and went on to run unopposed for the District 5 seat.

Henderson declined to comment Tuesday night. Gardner, who will take the seat barring a challenge from a write-in candidate in the November general election, said he’s ready to get to work.

“I’m proud and honored the citizens of 5th district saw fit to elect me,” he said. “I will begin working tomorrow and contact the chairman.

I’m not going to wait until January to get into the work mode. I told citizens I would hit the ground running and I will do that.”

The contest between Gardner, a retired Army aviator who served in the post from 2002-2010, and Henderson, a county native who worked for more than 30 years for Hobart, was the only contested local race in the primary election.

Perhaps as a result, turnout was light throughout early voting and again Tuesday — at least in some areas.

Stephen Benes, a poll manager at Precinct 5 in recreation center in Richmond Hill, said only 48 people had voted in his precinct by 12:45 p.m.

But Precinct 6 poll officer Diane Harrison said there was steady flow of people voting at the John W. Stevens Wetlands Education Center at J.F. Gregory Park in Richmond Hill.

Among those residents who came out to cast ballots were first-time voter Loretta Mckee, an 18-year-old senior at Richmond Hill High School.

Mckee, who cast her ballot at Precinct 6, said she did so because she thought it was important and “cool” her opinion counted.

Her father, Eugene Mckee, said he helped his daughter because “that’s democracy.”

“It’s our responsibility to vote,” he said.

Also voting Tuesday was Eva Newbold, a 19-year-old college student. She said her mom pressured her to come out and vote but that she was excited to vote for Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Michelle Nunn.

There were a handful of other local candidates on the GOP primary ballot Tuesday, but all were unopposed and are not facing opposition in November barring as yet unforeseen challengers.

Those include the county commission’s District 4 Commissioner Carter Infinger and District 2 Commissioner Wade Price.

Bryan County Board of Education Chairman Eddie Warren, District 1 member Paine Bacon, District 4 member Marianne Smith and District 5 member David Schwartz are also unopposed.

There were a handful of important contests at the federal level and results were not available at press time — but many election watchers expect a runoff.

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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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