Jimmie Silver earned a seat on the Halifax County Board of Commissioners, beating Ophelia Gould-Faison, who was also vying for the position that will be left vacant by longtime Commissioner Carolyn Johnson.
According to unofficial election results Tuesday, Silver collected 55.90 percent of the votes while Gould-Faison got 44.10.
“I think we worked hard, fought hard and won,” Silver said. “God looked over us and I think we’re going to work to do some good things for Halifax County.”
https://www.rrspin.com/news/8609-silver-earns-spot-on-board-of-commissioners.html#sigProId4a565d9506
He said it was the small communities in the district which helped him seal the victory. “It was just small people, community people, all the little pockets from Medoc to Hollister to Enfield to Heathsville. Those little communities — that’s where my support came out of — little places, just off the road people we talked to.”
He said he wants to see more opportunities for young people such as recreational opportunities and economic development. “Economic development doesn’t just start with getting a job. We have to be prepared to work with the school system and the community college. We’ve got to lay the foundation to be ready when jobs come and find out what people want to do here, what we have here and what kind of companies we’ve got to attract. We’ve got to start planning for the future when our kids are in the schools and start looking at what possibly can come here.”
Housing is a concern. “You’ve got to have a workforce that is ready. You’ve got to have housing for the people. We need jobs that are going to pay people a living wage. We need housing desperately in our rural area.”
Silver said population statistics show the county’s population declined over 1 percent last year. “People are moving out of the county and we’ve got to stop this. It’s killing our school system. It’s killing our tax base. It’s putting a burden on the people that stay here.”
He said the county needs to do something to make sure there are no tax increases.
The retired state Highway Patrol trooper is coming to the board at a time when a push for a new county detention center is on the table. “We’ve got too many people getting out that maybe should have spent more time in jail because of the housing issue.”
Then there is the expense of transporting inmates, he said. “If we had a modern jail we may be able to hold more inmates and make money. I believe it might speed up some of the backlog because attorneys have to travel to meet someone.”
There is an emergency services need for which he is concerned. “One of the problems people haven’t talked about is these emergency vehicles, such as the rescue squads, our rescue squads are not where they need to be and we’ve got to do something about that. We’ve got to do something about that emergency service fleet and make sure we do a better job staffing because we’ve got the fund balance and reserve. Some of these things we need to tap and make sure our people are safe.”
One of the things that made his campaign unique, he said, was that he and his wife Terri, who was the top vote-getter in the county school board race, ran together. “What we wanted to do in our dreaming when we came back to the county was to improve some of the things. And it’s going to take education in the county and people working together to foster that environment that we can have growth from the school system, getting kids prepared for careers, getting jobs for them to come back and have a workforce and having the community college onboard. I don’t think the county commissioners can do it alone, I don’t think the community college system can do it alone — we’re all going to have to work together to become what we should be.”
County school board race
In the county school board race, Mrs. Silver, a challenger, ended up collecting the most votes — 15.47 percent — while challenger Barbara Wilkins came in second with 15.20 percent.
https://www.rrspin.com/news/8609-silver-earns-spot-on-board-of-commissioners.html#sigProIdfabf4628e8
Incumbents Carolyn W. Hawkins and Charles Hedgepeth retained their seats, collecting 14.88 and 13.91 percent respectively.
Incumbents Tyus S. Few and James E. Mills failed to retain their seats.
Weldon City Schools
The top-six vote-getters in the Weldon City Schools Board of Education primary will meet again in November to decide three seats, county Board of Elections Supervisor Kristin Scott said.
https://www.rrspin.com/news/8609-silver-earns-spot-on-board-of-commissioners.html#sigProId7d8002b418
Challenger Noah Ellis Davis Sr. was the top vote-getter in the primary, collecting 21.20 percent while challenger Al Bennett collected 20.36 and incumbent Donna B. Harrison earned 20.02 percent.
The three top vote-getters will square off in November against incumbents Kimberly A. Robinson, O.D. Sykes and challenger Regina B. Brooks.
Challenger Jennifer Wilkins-Doby failed to earn a spot in the November election.
