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Qualifying ends with few challengers to incumbents
2015-Election1
By Paul Floeckher
Updated: Sep 4, 2015, 8:33 PM
Published: Sep 4, 2015, 8:35 PM

This year’s elections in Pembroke and Richmond Hill will have few contested races.

With the weeklong qualifying period concluded, four of Pembroke’s five City Council members will run unopposed for re-election — Ernest Hamilton, Johnnie Miller, Diane Moore and Tiffany Walraven.

Kimberly McGhee is the lone council incumbent with an opponent for the Nov. 3 election. McGhee and Karen Lynn both qualified last week to run in District 2.

However, Pembroke Mayor Mary Warnell will be challenged in her bid for a second term — by her predecessor. Judy Cook, who did not run in 2011 after 12 years as mayor, has decided to seek the office again.

The two Richmond Hill City Council incumbents up for re-election will run unopposed. No one filed to challenge John Fesperman for the Post 3 seat or Jan Bass for Post 4.

“The fact that John and Jan are running unopposed speaks volumes about the confidence the voters have in them,” Mayor Harold Fowler said. “I look forward to continuing to work with them for the citizens of Richmond Hill.”

Richmond Hill voters will have to decide one item on the Nov. 3 ballot — a referendum on whether to allow retailers in the city to sell alcohol on Sundays.

Warnell and Cook each are touting their experience as mayor. Cook served three terms in office prior to Warnell running unopposed in 2011.

In a statement announcing her re-election bid, Warnell said she is “dedicated to continuing to make Pembroke a safe community” and a good place to live, work, raise a family and enjoy small-town life.

“I feel I have demonstrated the skills needed to lead the council and employees as we worked toward improving programs and services throughout Pembroke,” Warnell said. “During the past four years, the city has become a more effectively and efficiently run government. Improved infrastructure, more jobs and soon-to-be new housing lead the list of successes we have attained.”

Meanwhile, Cook pointed to community partnerships during her tenure that made possible such projects as the downtown memorial park, community clothing bank, Tommy McCormick Play Park and Northside Cemetery renovation. She also referenced Pembroke’s $5 million wastewater treatment plant, which was funded approximately 70 percent by grant money, as well as efforts paid with Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenue, including the City Hall renovation and construction of the J. Dixie Harn Community Center and city maintenance barn.

“I just love helping people and being involved,” Cook said. “I love my town.”

Anyone who is not registered to vote has until Oct. 5 to do so in order to vote in the Nov. 3 election.

 

Qualifiers for the Nov. 3 elections in Pembroke and Richmond Hill:

Pembroke

Mayor – Mary Warnell (incumbent), Judy Cook

City Council At-Large – Ernest Hamilton (I)

Council District 1 – Johnnie Miller (I)

Council District 2 – Kimberly McGhee (I), Karen Lynn

Council District 3 – Diane Moore (I)

Council District 4 – Tiffany Walraven (I)

 

Richmond Hill

Council Post 3 – John Fesperman (I)

Council Post 4 – Jan Bass (I)

 

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Later yall, its been fun
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Ted O'Neil
Updated: May 23, 2018, 6:03 PM
Published: May 23, 2018, 6:05 PM

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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