Contests for new leaders in Grundy County’s Beersheba Springs and Coalmont drew only five candidates and will likely leave one seat open, records show.
Voters in August will choose from two candidates for Coalmont mayor, Rudy Brown and Aron R. May.
But with two city commission seats to be filled, only Dennis Jones filed to run, Grundy County Election Administrator Donna Basham said.
The other commission seat may be filled by appointment or left open until the 2010 county general election, Ms. Basham said.
“Also, someone can qualify as a write-in, and they have 50 days to decide whether they’ll run or not,” she said.
The deadline to file as a write-in candidate is June 17, she said.
The lack of candidates is nothing new.
Mr. Brown is a Coalmont city commissioner and has two years of a four-year term left. If he’s elected mayor, the commission seat will become vacant, Ms. Basham said.
“That’s not unusual for Coalmont to have a vacancy,” she said. “They have for at least the last two elections.”
Meanwhile in Beersheba Springs, John Bohr and Donald Boyd will run unopposed for an unexpired two-year city commission seat and a four-year seat, respectively.
Mr. Bohr was appointed to the seat two years ago when no one qualified to run. He’s the only candidate to serve the remaining two years of the term.
Ms. Basham said both towns are trying to modify their charters, shifting their election days to match the county’s. The move is a money-saver in the face of low voter turnout, she said.
The last municipal election for the two towns cost about $5,000 for 22 voters. Cities foot the bill unless they’re on the same election schedule as the county, Ms. Basham said.
August’s election is expected to cost at least as much as the last one, she said.
Ben Benton is a news reporter at the Chattanooga Times Free Press. He covers Southeast Tennessee and previously covered North Georgia education. Ben has worked at the Times Free Press since November 2005, first covering Bledsoe and Sequatchie counties and later adding Marion, Grundy and other counties in the northern and western edges of the region to his coverage. He was born and raised in Cleveland, Tenn., a graduate of Bradley Central High School. Benton ...
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