Several candidates for county offices had a chance to speak at a meet-and-greet hosted by the Anson County Democratic Party and NAACP on Sunday.
Candidates at the event ranged from those born and raised in Anson County to transplants hoping to bring their ideas to the county.
BOARD OF EDUCATION
Mike Livingstone of Wadesboro is running for the District 6 school board seat. He said he served on the board three years ago and also served as a county commissioner. He has a daughter attending an Anson school and his wife teaches. It took her awhile to settle in and understand the school system.
“It’s not going to get fixed overnight,” Livingstone said of the education system. “Our kids need a lot of attention. We’re blessed to live in a county that has what a lot of places don’t have, and that’s a quality of life.”
Livingstone said that Anson is his home, and his previous time serving on the school board reflects that.
“During that time, I tried to make good decisions,” he said. “I think the policies we make, we need to make sure we follow through on them. I think the people that come before that board, we owe them a good explanation as to why we’re doing what we’re doing. Every time I went to a board meeting, I tried to be prepared. I think it’s important to know what you’re going to talk about, what is going to come up.”
Livingstone said it would be nice to have a new high school built in the county.
“But the truth of it is, until we can bring more economics into the county, more tax base, it’s a hard thing to do,” he said. “But our kids, they learn in the building they’re in, and we need to support them not only now, but futuristically, because now, some are sitting out here today that will be standing up here tomorrow. Our challenge is to give them the best opportunity through teachers, through administrators, so that when they ask questions, we can give them answers. Our kids are our future.”
Incumbent Frank Liles of Wadesboro has represented District 6 for four years.
In that time, Liles said the board has improved, but acknowledged there is always room to grow. Within that time, the board appointed Michael Freeman as the county superintendent and pushed for an increase in teacher supplements.
“Yes, there’s always room for improvement,” he said. “We’re not the highest state on the report card, but we’re not the lowest, neither. We’re going to try to improve, and a lot of that needs to be done at the state level. It needs to be done at the state level, and we do our part at the local level with the Board of Commissioners to increase our teacher supplements.”
Patty Williams of Polkton is running against Shane Drake and incumbent Mike Turner in District 1.
Williams said she has served as a Department of Corrections officer and has been a civil officer, a child support officer, the first female patrol sergeant in Anson County and is currently working in the criminal investigations division under Sheriff Landric Reid.
Williams was the only county school resource officer in Anson for a number of years.
“I seen what the teachers did,” she said. “I saw the children. Some are now grown men and women. My thing when I was in the school was building bridges between children and law enforcement, the reason being is because children now, when they are adults, when I had them, I may’ve had to hug them, I may’ve had to fight them, I may’ve had to take them to court. But I can see them on the street now, and if I was being in a fight or I was being hurt or running somebody, that child is more likely to help me now as a man or a woman.”
Williams said she has been inside the schools and has children who are enrolled in county schools.
“I live my life like I want to show you,” she said. “I have diversity in my family. I believe in the schools.”
Turner listed some of the successes he said the school board has had since he has been on the board.
Among those achievements are hiring Freeman as the superintendent and petitioning the county commissioners for an increase in teacher supplements.
“A couple years ago, we went to the commissioners to get a sales tax increase for a teacher supplement,” he said. ” I don’t think many people realized that until we did.”
Turner also mentioned Parent Portal, which allows parents to check on the status of their kids enrolled in the school system.
“No child goes to school in this county on an empty stomach, and that’s thanks to this school board,” he said. “That was one of my pet peeves.” Children in the schools now receive breakfast and lunch.
Turner said he is from Anson and that his children went to school there.
Drake is running against Williams and Turner in District 1.
Drake grew up in Stallings and moved to Anson County in 2002 to work as a deputy sheriff under former Sheriff Tommy Allen, and ended up getting married and settling in Anson. His children attend schools in the county.
“One of the biggest problems that I have with people is the way people talk about Anson County,” he said. “I hear people all the time talking negative about Anson County. Me, I love Anson County. I would rather live here than anywhere.”
Drake said he wants to be an advocate for the county.
“We have some really good teachers, some really good people that work for the school system,” he said. “Mr. Turner and everybody here, you’ve all done a fabulous job the last couple of years in my opinion, and I don’t want to say anything bad about the work that they’ve done. But the one thing that I’ve learned through the course of my 16 years in law enforcement is relaying information. When somebody has a problem, they tell somebody. Then they tell somebody else, then they tell somebody else, then they tell somebody else. Well, when the story is going from one person to the other, something always gets left out or something gets subtracted from. I want to be a voice for the people in my district.”
Drake said he will be available as much as he is needed to help communicate the county’s needs to the board, and will push to have the board vote on issues that need to be voted on.
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Mechell Ann Roberts Turner of Wadesboro is running against incumbent Bobby Sikes, also of Wadesboro, in District 1.
Turner described herself as an entrepreneur and the owner of an herb, vitamins and whole foods store in Peachland.
Although she is not originally from Anson County, her son’s family is, and can trace their roots to the county back for 200 years, she said.
“If you want to know something about me, I want to grow this county,” she said. “I know you’re tired of promises. I am a Republican. I will be honest with you on that. But I am here.”
Turner has degrees in education and she has experience in teaching everything from kindergarten through college classes.
“I am an entrepreneur,” she said. “I know what it means to bring businesses here. I want to be the voice for Anson County to grow Anson County.”
Sylvester Bennett of Morven is a contender for the District 3 seat.
Bennett said he is a North Carolina general contractor and the executive director of the Lemuel Training Center in Morven.
“I’ve heard a lot of talk about the school system and the training of the students,” he said. “One thing we do at the Lemuel Center is our goal is to develop a vocational school. Actually, we’re doing that now. I work with a program out of Union County, and on occasion work with a program here out of Anson County, but we provide an alternative. All of our students are going to graduate from schools, and during the years I was in school, we had a program in industrial arts. That actually got me interested in general contracting. So this is the area we’re focusing on, and that’s what we want to develop.”
Bennett said he also wants to see what he can do to better the district and see it get more involved.
District 3 incumbent Ross Streater spoke after his opponent. Streater has been a commissioner for 27 years.
Streater spoke about some of the achievements of the commissioners from the last four years.
“We have renovated the courthouse, and added ADA compliance to the restrooms in the courthouse,” he said. “You know, the courthouse looks real pretty now. We spent over $1 million, and some of that was grant money, and most of it was from our fund balance money, which we brought down some. We renovated the parks and rec office building, the rooms and showers. We renovated the Belk building, put the new Emergency Management Center out on Country Club Road. We secured over $949,000 in grant money to build that facility.”
Among the county’s other successes, Streater said that the county relocated some departments to better locations and bought the property that the future Anson County Agri-Civic Center will be built on. The county also opened the animal shelter in Polkton, and has done everything with minimum tax increases, he said.
Reach reporter Imari Scarbrough at 704-994-5471 and follow her on Twitter @ImariScarbrough.