ELIZABETHTOWN — A trio of incumbents running for reelection to the Elizabethtown Town Council will have to ward off challengers to retain the three non-affiliated seats on Election Day.

A special election also is being held in the upcoming municipal election for the two years remaining on the unexpired term of the late Dickie Glenn. Rich Glenn Jr., his son, is serving by appointment of the town board and is the lone candidate in that race.

He has no opposition on the ballot.

Incumbents Paula Greene, Herman L. Lewis and Rufus D. Lloyd — who all were initially appointed to the council to complete unfinished terms of office — fall among the six candidates vying for the three spots that have full four-year terms. Their opponents for leadership roles on the Town Council are Harfel Davis, Ilka Huntley McElveen and William H. Moore.

The four-year terms of councilmen Ricky Leinwand and Howell Clark, and Mayor Sylvia Campbell each have two years remaining.

Election Day is Tuesday.

Absentee ballots by mail, which had to be requested by Tuesday, must be turned in by Election Day. Voters in town are able to cast early ballots at what is generally known as one-stop through Saturday at the Bladen County Board of Elections, 301 S. Cypress St. in Elizabethtown.

Hours through Friday are 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Saturday, it is 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Come Tuesday, registered voters in Elizabethtown will submit their votes at two precincts: the Bladen County Recreation Center, 803 W. King St., and the Powell-Melvin Agricultural Services Center, where the Bladen County Center of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service is located at 450 Smith Circle.

“Historically, we’re looking at about 34 percent,” Chris Williams said Thursday when asked about the potential turnout in this off-year municipal election. Williams is director of the county Board of Elections.

Elizabethtown has 2,507 active and inactive voters, according to Williams.

“The importance of this race is keeping the momentum we’ve got going that we’re seeing in this town,” Mayor Sylvia Campbell said. “We want that to continue. We’ve got projects on the table this board is familiar with. They’re continuing to make sure all things lead to the growth we have in Elizabethtown. We see a lot of good things happening, and I’m not saying anything against those who also are running. They may work just as well on the council.”

Here are the candidates in the running this election cycle for Elizabethtown Town Council:

• Rich Glenn is a 52-year-old native of Elizabethtown. Previously a bank executive in town and in Whiteville, he now works as a practice manager at his wife’s eye care clinic in Fairmont.

Glenn does not have a challenger in his quest to win outright the two years left on the unexpired term of his father. Dickie Glenn died in December 2019, just after winning releection.

As a current appointed councilman, he said, he’s open and available to listen to any resident’s concerns in the community. Just trying to provide the services with minimal cost to residents is always challenging in this world, he added.

“I think the biggest thing is, I’m very trustworthy,” Glenn said. “From what I do in my family business, I have to get personal with people. I always thought I did a good job for people. That comes with being a good listener.”

• Incumbent Paula Greene, 65, was born in Elizabethtown and returned to live here 41 years ago.

The licensed attorney said she was the first woman to work in a day-to-day law firm in Elizabethtown.

This marks her third election after first being appointed to complete the unexpired term of Charles DeVane. “While I’ve been on the board,” Greene said, “I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished.

“I’m excited about the future in Elizabethtown without raising taxes,” she said. “In a challenging economic environment, we still managed to complete complex projects to make our town grow while giving services like roads, water and infrastructure. We’re just beginnning a street paving and reconstruction project on over 73 percent of our town’s streets. We are exploring wastewater expansion, not only for Elizabethtown, but that would make the entire region grow.”

• Incumbent Herman Lewis, who is 78, was born and raised in Elizabethtown. He is a retired school teacher and school administrator.

Lewis has served on the Town Council since 2001.

As for the issues that are important to Lewis in this race, he said, “Well, getting roads done, and we’re working on that. Continuing the improvements that we have made already. … We want to expand that, bringing jobs and housing. My main focus is on housing, which is critical. The housing shortage really made me run.”

• Rufus D. Lloyd, 83, was born in Winston-Salem and grew up in the Council community of Bladen County. Like Lewis, he’s a retired educator and school administrator who ended his career in a role for the Bladen County Board of Education.

After initially being appointed to the council in 1991, Lloyd has continued to serve as a town leader through the years. Though he did not run for reelection in 2007, Lloyd again was appointed that year to fill Sylvia Campbell’s remaining two-year council member seat. Campbell was elected mayor in 2007; Lloyd has been reelected as a councilman since 2009.

“The reason I’m running for reelection is because we’re in the midst of doing some things I would like to see done,” he said, noting that he wants to see improvements made in the “New Town” area of Elizabethtown, off Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

Lloyd expressed concerns about town developments and infrastructure, while interested in improvements made to the community as a whole.

Voters should select him, he said, “Because if you go back and look at the things the boards I have served on, we have been successful in completing projects.” He cited the building of the new fire and rescue facility and the new airport terminal, a series of downtown projects, ongoing improvements to the Elizabethtown Cemetery and upgrades to the town’s water and sewer system.

“That’s the project we’re working on presently,” he said of the water and sewer system.

• Twice, Harfel Davis declined to be interviewed for this election story. He said Thursday of last week that he was “running wide open” and did not have the time to speak with the Bladen Journal. He did not return a phone message requesting comment on Friday.

• Ilka Huntley McElveen, 51, is a New York native who first moved to Elizabethtown in the early 1970s to work for her grandmother, the late Esther Huntley, at the former Rainbow Nursery School. McElveen now owns and operates the Elizabethtown business, which has been renamed the Kidz-N-Motion day-care center.

This is not her first attempt at public office: In 2010, McElveen lost in her bid to win a seat on the Bladen County Board of Education.

“I have seven children, and none of my children want to come back here and live their life in Bladen County,” she said. “There’s nothing here appealing to them. We’re right next door to Robeson County. And if you compare Robeson 20 years ago and now, look at the growth it has had and then look at Bladen County. Robeson has flourished with industry coming in. Growth here is stagnated by people, I guess, not open for change. It’s not the people here. It’s a nice community.”

McElveen said she would not be running for public office if it did not put her in a position to potentially make change.

“I can’t talk about the people in office if I don’t make a change,” she said. “I do a lot of stuff in the community now. I don’t do it for praise or for political reasons. That’s what I do. If I were elected to Town Council, there could be things I could possibly change.”

She said she should be elected “because I’m a person of my word, and if I’m wrong, I’ll admit I’m wrong. I’m not going to be swayed. I’m not going to be bought out. If I stand alone, I stand alone.”

• Political newcomer William Moore, 72, was raised in the Council community. A disabled veteran, he retired as a firefighter from the Air Force on the heels of a four-year military career.

He remains active as a house painter, life insurance salesman and street preacher.

This marks Moore’s first stab at public office.

He said he would like to see the town tear down or rehabilitate what he called the “old rundown houses” that mar the landscape inside the town limits, especially in the New Town area along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

“I’m available to help people with their issues,” he said, when asked why he has thrown his hat into the ring. “And try to get something for the homeless people.”

This story authored by Michael Futch of the Bladen Journal. Contact him at 910-247-9133 or mfutch@bladenjournal.com.