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December 22, 2008

New mayors, chairman take office in 2008

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Editor’s note: This is Cullman County’s No. 9 news story of 2008, as picked by the editorial staff of The Cullman Times.

By Patrick McCreless

staff writer

Cullman County’s mayoral and commissioner elections this year brought many new faces into local government.

James Graves won a decisive victory over Norman Tucker for Cullman County Commission chairman with 57 percent of the vote. Graves defeated previous chairman Wiley Kitchens during the Republican primary.

Of all the municipal elections, only two town mayors were re-elected after defeating opponents, including Vinemont Mayor Melba Patton and Dodge City Mayor Perry Ray. West Point Mayor Kenneth Kilgo, Garden City Mayor Harden Davis and Fairview Mayor Randall Shedd were also re-elected, but they did not have opponents.

Several cities required run-offs before a mayor was selected, including Cullman, Hanceville and Good Hope. Of those, Good Hope had the most surprising result with 22-year-old Corey Harbison defeating incumbent Gordon Dunagan.

Harbison recently followed through with one of his campaign promises by working with the town council to lower Good Hope’s business license tax to in an effort to attract new businesses to the area.

During Cullman’s run-off, Max Townson defeated former city council member Ernest Hauk with 1,660 votes or 56.1 percent of the vote.

Kenneth Nail soundly defeated Bobby Brown in Hanceville’s run-off by 300 votes. Brown had previously served as a Hanceville mayor and city council member. Hanceville’s previous mayor, Katie Whitley, did not run for re-election.

Since his election, Nail and the council has made several changes including reinstating public comment sessions at the beginning of council meetings and reinstating sick hours to certain city employees, both of which were removed during the previous administration,

Johnny Dyer won Baileyton’s mayoral seat easily by defeating Joseph Golden with 72 percent of the vote.

Herman Nail became Holly Pond’s new mayor when he received 53 percent of the vote to defeat Carla Hart.

Like Good Hope, Colony also had a surprising election with newcomer Morris Fitts easily defeating long-time Mayor Earlene Johnson with 74 percent of the vote.

Fitts’ administration was recently surrounded by controversy due to his desire to fire Colony’s 20-year town clerk, Gwendolyn Purifoy. During a council meeting, Fitts accused Purifoy of moving the town’s money into other accounts without his knowledge. Newly appointed council member Norris Flanigan resigned from his position due to his what he perceived as Fitts’ mistreatment of Purifoy.

Purifoy resigned from her position on Nov. 19.

‰ Patrick McCreless can be contacted by e-mail at patrickm@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.

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