Final days to file for May 3 local elections
By Melinda L. Lucas
With two contested races as of Tuesday, residents only have two more days to toss their hats into the local political ring for several local elections to be decided May 3.
Of the six elections, the Albany school board and Albany city council have contested races, with the Moran school board, Moran city council, and Shackelford County Hospital Board both drawing a full slate of candidates but no contests as of Wednesday morning.
There is one seat still lacking a candidate on the Fort Griffin Special Utility District, although one or more candidates were expected to file at Wednesday’s FTSUD board meeting.
Several of the boards are looking at the possibility of being able to cancel their elections if there are no contested races.
Candidates have only until this Friday, Feb. 14 to have their names placed on the ballots for any of the local elections.
As of noon Tuesday, the ballots are as follows:
Albany School Board
Teagan Brown and John Gallagher have filed for Place 7 on the Albany ISD’s board of trustees.
Incumbents Matt Bellah in Place 5 and Joe Tidwell in Place 6 have also turned in their paperwork.
Applications to file for the election are available at the superintendent’s office at 501 E. S. 1st Street, by emailing lmusselman@albany.esc14.net or by faxing 325-762-3876.
Albany City Council
Henry Garcia, along with incumbents Don Taggart and Lynsi Musselman, have filed for two positions. The top two candidates receiving the most votes will win the positions in the at-large election.
Mayor Susan Montgomery has also filed for reelection.
Applications are available at Albany City Hall or by calling 325-762-3133.
Hospital Board
The Shackelford County Hospital District’s board has three two-year terms and one unexpired term.
Ami Davis, Karin Cox, and Anita Jackson have completed their paperwork for candidacy. Davis brought her application and petition Wednesday morning, and her signatures were in the process of being verified. Several others, including incumbent Jo Ann Estridge, have picked up applications, but had not yet returned them.
Applications are available at the district’s office in the EMS building and must include petitions signed by 10 registered Shackelford County voters in order to file. Those voters have to be verified by the voter registrar, so hospital district secretary Regina Whitt suggests getting at least 12 signatures, allowing up to a half day to get those signatures authenticated before the Friday afternoon deadline.
Call 325-762-3313 for more information.
Moran City Council
The Moran city council will fill two at-large positions for two-year terms and one for a one-year term on the council, as well as the mayor’s seat.
Mayor Tyler George filed for re-election. Patricia Martin filed for the one-year unexpired seat, and newcomer Phillip Huskey joined incumbent Tyler Kinman in filing for the two two-year terms.
Call 325-945-3441 on weekday mornings for information.
Moran School Board
Incumbents Alice Branham and Sam Snyder filed in the last week for reelection to their two three-year terms on the Moran ISD board.
As of press time on Tuesday, no one else had filed for the two at-large seats.
Packets are available in the school superintendent’s office during regular school hours.
Fort Griffin SUD
Trent Tankersley has signed up for one of the two three-year terms expiring this year for the Fort Griffin special utilities district board.
The positions are currently held by Mike Bartock and Sid Collinsworth.
Carrie Holson at the SUD office said Tuesday that one or more candidates were expected to file at the end of Wednesday’s board meeting.
For more information on filing for one of these seats, contact the SUD office at 325-762-2575.
