Immediately after candidate filing opened Dec. 1, candidates lined up at the Anson County Board of Elections to put their name on the ballot.
Several seats are open for the March 15 primary election. The county Board of Commissioners has four seats open for election in Districts 1, 3, 6 and 7, currently held by Bobby Sikes, Ross Streater, Jarvis Woodburn and Harold Smith, respectively.
Four school board seats are also open in Districts 1, 3, 6 and 7. Those seats are currently held by Mike Turner, Beulah Pratt, Frank Liles and Carol Ann Gibson, respectively.
The county register of deeds’ seat, currently held by Joanne Huntley, is also open.
REGISTER OF DEEDS
Huntley was the only candidate who immediately filed for the office of the register of deeds Dec. 1.
She said while she feels she has made progress during her time in office, she has plans to do more if re-elected.
“I have done a lot for the office so far, but there are still a few things I would like to do as far as modernizing goes,” Huntley said. “I enjoy serving the public, and I enjoy meeting people, and I think I have actually been a benefit to the office and have brought them into the computer age. I hope to take them into the e-recording age.”
Bringing the office up-to-date has been a big task.
“With the help of the county commissioners, I have all of my images scanned and everything is available on the computer,” Huntley said. “That’s all of the deeds, and the deeds of trust. There are over 100 different kinds of documents that have been recorded and registered. My birth and death and the most recent marriage licenses have been scanned.”
Those records are more secure than ever now.
“I hope to continue to serve the public to the best of my ability,” she said. “I hope to start e-vitals with the Secretary of State’s office, which would allow me access to the birth certificates of anybody born in the state of North Carolina from 1972 to the present. We don’t have babies born in this county anymore, so that would be very helpful to the citizens.”
Huntley has been in office since 1999.
COMMISSIONERS
Bobby Sikes is completing his 12th year with the county commissioners and filed for re-election around noon Dec. 1.
“I’ve always felt highly of Anson County and I want to do everything I can to help it,” he said. “I always work with my neighbors and family and friends to try to help them, as well as the county. I served on the Ansonville Fire and Rescue for 35 years and my goal is to help people.”
Sikes said that while on the board, he has helped the commissioners to build the new county emergency medical services building, library, parks and recreation complex and make plans for the upcoming Anson County Agri-Civic Center.
“It’s not me, it’s all of us working together,” he said.
While he said he couldn’t go into detail, Sikes said there are county projects he is excited about that have the potential to help create jobs.
“We’ve got several things coming up that we hope will work out and help the county,” he said.
Ross Streater also showed up as soon as filing opened, hoping to continue his 27 years of service. He joined the county board in 1973, and will have served 28 years by the end of his term next year.
Streater said there have been several projects he has helped the county undertake in addition to the ones Sikes mentioned.
“Since I’ve been commissioner, we have built all-new elementary schools, and I think that was one of our biggest projects,” Streater said.
Streater also mentioned a water line he hopes will be installed.
“It would be a line from Lilesville to Wadesboro,” he said. “Right now, if the line broke between Lilesville and Wadesboro, the county would be without water. But with this new water line, it would switch over. That’s one project we’re working on, and hopefully we can find the money, but right now I think it would cost $16-$20 million. With a county our size, we just don’t have that money. We have a water fund, and I want to make sure we keep that water fund in a condition where if we have a major breakdown, we have money.”
Streater attributed a lot of the projects’ success to his fellow commissioners.
“In the last 27 years, I’ve never seen a board work together like this present board,” Streater said.
SCHOOL BOARD
Newcomer Shane Drake arrived early to challenge incumbent Mike Turner for his seat on the school board.
While this is Drake’s first time running as a candidate, politics are somewhat of a family tradition. His mother was the mayor of Stallings for four terms when Drake was growing up.
“I’ve always wanted to run for an office, because I enjoyed it when I was younger when she was mayor,” he said. “But my main influence is the direction I want to see the schools here in the county go, and see us go further into the 21st century.”
Drake is a detective with the Anson County Sheriff’s Office and has three daughters who all attend school in Anson County.
“I believe I can be a positive voice between the parents and the Board of Education,” he said, adding that he wants those with issues to come discuss them with him.
Drake said he would like to see more interaction between parents and the school system, and more communication from the school system. He suggested the schools put something online for parents to access or send regular emails from teachers with updates about the parents’ students. Often, when children are struggling, they don’t tell their parents, he said.
He addressed the state’s ratings for the schools, saying that even if they seem a bit low, they aren’t that bad.
“All in all, if you look at it statewide, even though we didn’t perform as well in areas some of the educators wish we had — there’s room for improvement, that’s for certain — but I wouldn’t go so far as to say they did bad overall,” he said. “There’s room for improvement. There always is, because the standards they require for kids to learn now has probably increased 200-fold from the time I was in elementary school. It’s amazing the stuff that the kids are required to learn now under the new standards. It’s a totally different way of teaching. It’s harder on the teachers and it’s harder on the students.”
Turner filed for re-election just minutes after noon. He’s approaching the end of his first three-year term.
“In that three years, we’ve hired a new superintendent who has local roots and a connection to our school system, and we achieved a YCC grant, a federal grant, for Youth Career Connect at Anson High School, and our schools are on the upswing,” Turner said. “We’re making good progress.”
Turner said Drake’s concern about parents’ access to their children’s school records and homework assignments has already been addressed with PowerSchool Mobile, a free app that lets parents check on their child’s grades, attendance and more to keep an eye on their progress.
Parents can create a PowerSchool Mobile account by visiting https://ansoncountyschools.powerschool.com/public/home.html.
Like Drake, Turner was optimistic about the school ratings.
“If you take Anson County Schools and put them in the same demographic ratings in comparison to other counties, we’re in the middle of the pack,” Turner said. “We’re not that bad off, even though we want to better. That’s why we’re here, just to do better.”
Like Streater, Turner praised his current board, saying that he would like to keep the “continuity” and serve with them.
“We have aspirations to make things much better in Anson County,” he said. “I think if we have the continuity, we can do it. And just like the commissioners, they have continuity with their board. They have rapport with each other and they work together pretty good. But we do expect, regardless of what changes are made, we expect to see Anson County schools climb the ladder.”
Democratic Party Chairwoman Vancine Sturdivant was also present when filing opened to support some of the candidates.
Filing is open at the Anson County Board of Elections office until noon Dec. 21.
The primary election will be held on March 15. Early voting will be held at the Anson County Board of Elections office from March 3-12.
The elections office is located at 402 Morven Road, Wadesboro. Call 704-994-3223 or email Elections Director Steve Adams at sadams@co.anson.nc.us for more information.
Reach reporter Imari Scarbrough at 704-994-5471 and follow her on Twitter @ImariScarbrough.
