By BILL MARDIS Editor Emeritus
Who will be the next mayor of Burnside?
So far, it’s a guessing game. Apparently somebody has indicated to the powers that be that he wants to succeed retiring Mayor Dean Lovins.
However, unlike most candidates for public office, the wannabe Burnside mayor is trying to keep it a secret until he (or she) files a petition of election. Filing deadline is 4 p.m August 8.
Lovins, who won’t seek re-election, apparently is aware of who will attempt to take his place but the mayor is not talking.
“There are a lot of qualified people who can do the job (of mayor),” said Lovins. “I know who is going to run for mayor, but I’m not giving any names. I’ll let them do that.”
Lovins was appointed as mayor of Burnside in mid-term when Jim Rasnick, now a member of Burnside City Council, resigned after serving two years as mayor.
Despite the secrecy, there is little doubt that a faction is ready to drape a mantle around the next mayor of Burnside.
“Somebody is going to run (for mayor) and I’ll assure you that it will be a strong candidate,” said a source connected to Burnside city government. The source requested anonymity.
“I know who is going to run, but he asked me not to reveal his name until he files,” said the source. A Burnside resident who reportedly has remarked that he will be a candidate for mayor did not return a telephone call from the Commonwealth Journal.
A candidate for Burnside mayor and a like-minded group of potential candidates for Burnside City Council apparently will try to occupy city hall.
“A group will be coming (to the county clerk’s office) together to file, either late this week or early next week,” said the Burnside source. “It’s just a matter of getting everybody together.”
As a matter of record, a group of candidates filing together is not a slate. The only filing as a slate permitted by state law is in gubernatorial contests where candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run as a team.
Getting a jump on the group are newcomers Jimmy Gibson, 104 Poplar Avenue, and Becky Huff, a former councilor who lives at 75 Highland Drive. They filed Tuesday for seats on Burnside City Council.
In Burnside, a fifth-class city, the top vote-getter in the mayoral contest is elected for a four-year term and the top six vote-getters in the race for city council are elected to two-year terms. Burnside city elections are non-partisan.
Current members of Burnside City Council are David Baugh, Chuck Foreman, Don Coggins, Bryan Watson, Conard Bryant and Jim Rasnick.
In area, if you count water, Burnside is probably the largest city in Pulaski County. When legal sales of alcoholic beverages were approved, Burnside annexed Lake Cumberland all the way to Lee’s Ford Marina Resort near Nancy.
As of early Wednesday, nobody had filed for elected governmental offices in Ferguson but there are potential candidates waiting in the wings.
Ferguson Mayor Jim Muse has announced his retirement, and Allen Dobbs, an employee of Toyotetsu America and former member of Ferguson City Council, said he will be a candidate for mayor. And, with the political factions that exist in Ferguson, it will be unusual if Dobbs is the only one who seeks the mayor’s office.
In Eubank, Frey Todd, the only mayor Eubank has ever had, and three of the four members of Eubank City Commission -- Curtis G. Todd, Lee Coffee and Ken Nothstein -- filed petitions of election on Tuesday.
Nothstein is serving on the commission by appointment to replace Michael Todd, who moved out of Eubank to Somerset. Incumbent Edward Hicks had not filed as of early Wednesday, but Mayor Todd indicated earlier that all the incumbents would seek re-election to the Eubank City Commission. Todd has been mayor or chairman of the town board, equivalent to mayor, since 1971.
Don Phelps is in his 13th year as mayor of Science Hill and has filed for another four-year term. He will be challenged by William “Bill” Dick, an employee of General Electric Somerset Glass Plant.
Junior E. Dick, David F. Phelps, Gene Wesley and Paul Cassada, all current members of Science Hill City Commission, have filed for re-election.
Candidates for Somerset offices had a January 31 filing deadline and are not involved in the August 8 deadline for small cities and school boards. Looming as the “hottest” race this fall is the mayoral contest between incumbent JP Wiles and Eddie Girdler, executive director of the Somerset Housing Authority.
The Somerset Board of Education will elect or re-elect three members in November. Terms of Paul Henderson, Elaine A. Wilson and Hobert T. Withers Jr. expire at the end of this year. As of early Wednesday, only Wilson and Withers had filed along with newcomer Claude Barlow, 110 N. Maplewood Drive.
Gretchen Cole and T. Jeffrey Adams have time remaining in their current terms on the Somerset Board of Education.
In the Science Hill Independent School District, terms of board members Bruce Phelps, Mike Elliott and Jerome Whitaker expire at the end of 2006. Elliott and Whitaker had filed for re-election by early Wednesday morning.
Three seats on the Pulaski County Board of Education will be filled in November. However, as of Wednesday morning, nobody had filed.
Seats now held by vice-chair Helen Hansford in Division 3, and members Allen Larkin, Division 1, and Bill White, Division 4, are up for election or re-election. Chairman Phillip Wilson and member Betty Richards have time remaining in their current terms.
