Contested races decided Saturday

Three incumbents were returned to the Albany school board and city council at the end of Saturday’s local elections and will be joined by three newcomers.

Even with three contested races, well under 20 percent of the 1,706 registered voters in the city and 1,960 in the school district cast ballots, and more than half of those were during the early voting period.

All of the winning candidates will be sworn in during the entities’ next regular meetings in May.

Albany ISD Results

In what was arguably the most hotly contested race, Kim Neece came out at the top of a long list of five candidates for Place 7 on the Albany Independent School District board of trustees Place 7.

The seat has been held for the last 30 years by retiring board president Betsy Parsons.

Neece received 107 votes, followed by Michael Bean with 69, Clint Chapman with 60, Stephen Kayga with 44, and Dinty Bowman with 13.

In Place 5, incumbent Kelly Head won his seat back with 195 votes, while challenger Amanda Tabor received 85.

Joe Tidwell, who was unopposed for retiring trustee Pam Davis’ Place 6 seat, received 110 votes.

City Election

Even though the AISD Place 7 race had more candidates, Albany’s council race was actually tighter, with fewer votes separating the results.

New council member Don Taggart collected the most votes with 135, and incumbent Carolyn Waller earned the second spot in the at-large election with 107.

Others were Ragan Riley with 88 and Dwaine Knight with 39.

Incumbent mayor Rodney Alexander, who was unopposed, received 173 votes.