Barrow Journal

There will be three contested city council races in Winder this fall, while Mayor David Maynard appears to be heading for a third term.
Both incumbent city councilmen Al Brown (Ward 2) and Travis Singley (Ward 4) filed to run for re-election during the candidate qualifying period this week, and both will face a challenger in the Nov. 5 election. Brown will face opposition from Kobi Kilgore, while Singley will be challenged by Holt Persinger.
Holly Sheats and Robert Lanham qualified to run for the at-large council seat currently held by Michael Healan. Healan won’t seek a second term in office because he is relocating to South Carolina.
Maynard, who was first elected in 2011 after defeating incumbent Chip Thompson, won re-election in 2015 and will run unopposed again this year.

STATHAM
In Statham, three people qualified in the race to replace outgoing Mayor Robert Bridges, who is retiring. Now-former city councilman Eddie Jackson, Joe Piper and Rudy Krauss all will seek the seat.
Jackson had to resign his council seat in order to run for mayor, and a special election to fill the vacancy will be held in conjunction with the regular election Nov. 5. Qualifying for that seat will be Sept. 3-5.
As for the two council seats up for election in the regular election, councilwoman Hattie Thrasher qualified for another term, while Gary Venable also qualified, and both are virtually guaranteed to win with no other candidates. Venable is set to replace outgoing councilman Perry Barton, who chose not to seek re-election.

OTHER MUNICIPALITIES
There will be no election in Auburn, Bethlehem or Carl in November, but there will be one change to the town council in Bethlehem.
In Auburn, incumbent Mayor Linda Blechinger and council members Peggy Langley and Jay Riemenschneider qualified for re-election without opposition, as did Mayor Sandy McNab and councilman Scott Morgan (Post 4) in Bethlehem. Doug Koestel, a member of the town’s tree board, qualified to run for the Post 2 seat currently held by Wayne Ridgeway, who won’t seek re-election.
In Carl, incumbent council members Billy Nix and Rebecca Knight were the only candidates to qualify.
See full coverage of the Winder and Statham races in the Aug. 28 edition of the Barrow News-Journal.