ELIZABETHTOWN — Leadership in the economic and attraction hubs of Bladen County got the approval of voters Tuesday in municipal elections.
Four out of four incumbents on the ballot in Elizabethtown will return to office, and three out of three more in White Lake are also headed back to Town Hall. In each town, voters picked a mayor and three commissioners.
Ricky Leinwand, Howell Clark and Dicky Glenn retained their seats on the Elizabethtown council in a race with three challengers, and Mayor Sylvia Campbell joined them running unopposed.
In White Lake, Goldston Womble kept the mayor’s seat he has held since December 1985 with a win over Gray Marshburn. Incumbent commissioners Tom Riel and Tim Clifton were re-elected and newcomer Dean Hilton joined them as the leading vote-getter. Jay Young was the other candidate in the race.
All results are unofficial until the canvass on Nov. 15.
“Competition is good,” said Leinwand, who led all vote-getters in the Elizabethtown council race with more than 20 percent. “It keeps us on our toes, as better council members. We welcome competition, because it keeps us honest. We want to do the right thing. We’ve got a great mayor, a tremendous staff at the town of Elizabethtown. We’ve got a great organization.”
Clark and Glenn achieved 18 and 17 percent, respectively. Jessica McKoy Wilson, Mary A. McMillian and Debbie Heyward were the challengers.
“You had three ladies running, I got to meet them and know them, and I really liked them a lot,” Leinwand said. “Of course, I had to support the fellow incumbents. But they ran a good campaign. They were very organized.
“But we were organized, too, and we fought for our town. We’ve very thankful.”
Leinwand said the message was experience and asking voters to consider where the town was 20 years ago and where it stands today.
Womble, 69, is close to having been mayor half of his life. Voters returned him to office with more than 63 percent of the ballots. Hilton, Riel and Clifton were well ahead of Young in the commissioners’ race.
“We had a really good voter turnout,” Womble said. “We had around 307 who voted, and obviously I was pleased with the outcome, and not only for myself, but the two incumbents who went back in. And Dean Hilton won also, and I think he’ll be a great addition to our board.”
White Lake leaders have tussled with the health of the lake in the last two years. It’s a problem that history shows has come and gone through the decades, but perhaps not to the extent it has reached now. Scientists say changes in how water is supplied to the lake, and the amount of acid in rainfall, have to be dealt with going forward.
Monitoring has been increased. Commissioners meetings have often had speakers question the decisions of the mayor and commissioners. Marshburn is among them, and campaigned as “White Lake’s last chance.”
Womble said he thought “to some extent” the results did validate how the town leaders have handled the lake’s health. But he said most voters told him they knew there was more to what the leaders do than a single headline-making issue.
“I tried to point out in what I sent out, that certainly that is our primary issue,” he said. “I think folks that I talked with seemed to be pleased with the way we’re going about handling it. A lot of comments I received also, people realize there’s a lot to administering and running the town in addition to dealing with one problem. The lake problem is our primary focus, I’m not minimizing that in any way, but there are a lot of other things that go into the administration of a town.
“I received a lot of comments that people are pleased with the manner in which we’re running the town. I received comments that people want us to stay the course with the lake, that we try to restore it back to the way it was. We’ve done that, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Hilton said he’s looking forward to his tenure. He has several interests in his business portfolio, and a single drive for wanting to serve.
“We need to make a proactive approach to improving White Lake and moving in a positive growth pattern,” Hilton said.
He added that partnerships are key.
“At the end of the day, I’m honored that the people think enough of me to vote me in,” Hilton said. “I’m there because I want what’s best for White Lake long term.
“We have places we can improve. We can strengthen relationships with other municipalities and the county.”
Hilton acknowledged positives in the new multi-use path, sidewalk plans, and public safety in fire and police departments. He said water and sewer work is a big next step. Business owners, he said, need to see a recommitment.
“And we’ve got to figure out ways to keep drawing people to White Lake,” Hilton said. “As schools tighten their calendars, it’s hard for businesses to make it. We’ve got to partner with the county and Elizabethtown to draw people in on a year-round basis. I’d love to see a county park, or baseball and softball fields.
“It takes time and commitment and money. But those are things that we have to work toward. We have to be proactive. I hope that people will be involved.
“I hope they’ll feel their voices are heard and that they matter. The council wants the best for the community.”
Ballot measure
Two alcohol ballot measures in Bladenboro overwhelmingly passed. In the commissioners’ race, only Sarah Jane Benson among incumbents was returned to office.
Stephanie Thurman led a seven-way race for the available three commissioner seats. Mac Bowen was third.
In Clarkton, Tim Tart unseated Arthur Whedbee in the mayor’s race and Linda Croom ran unopposed and won the available commissioner seat.
There were uncontested races in Dublin and East Arcadia, all of which returned incumbents to office.
In Tar Heel, Mayor Roy Dew ran uncontested and received all 13 votes cast. The commissioners’ race was for three seats, and only Sam Allen filed to run. He garnered 13 votes. The other two spots were unknown at time of publication, though it is known there were 17 total write-ins.
Eddie Nye (second from left) shakes hands with Tom Riel on Tuesday morning outside the White Lake precinct. He also spoke with mayoral candidates Goldston Womble (center) and Gray Marshburn (second from right).
Electioneers await the next voter outside of one of two precincts in Elizabethtown on Tuesday morning. Voters in the county seat returned three incumbent commissioners and their mayor to new four-year terms.