The need for improved city services and more jobs tops the list of issues raised during current political campaigns for municipal offices in three Carroll County towns.
Voters go to the polls from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at city halls in Carrollton, North Carrollton and Vaiden Tuesday to select mayors and aldermen. There were no primaries, and all candidates are running independently. Top five vote-getters in each town will go in as aldermen.
North Carrollton and Vaiden have contested mayoral races. In Carrollton, incumbent Annie Mae Wilson is unopposed.
Sarah Grantham, who has been mayor of North Carrollton since 1980 is on the ticket again. Ken Strachan, 26, a former account executive for Montgomery Publishing Inc., who now sells insurance for Lee Funeral Home of Winona, is opposing her for mayor.
Eight are running for alderman in North Carrollton. They include incumbents Warren Mitchell Costilow, James G. George, and W. L. Lott; also, George Morgan, Tom Hearn, Patrick Montgomery, Charles McCluskey, and Dianne Slocum.
In Carrollton, incumbents Betty Morgan, Harold Scruggs, and Clint Gee are running for alderman; also running are Russell Wilson, Glenn Hogue, and Donnie Wiltshire.
Tommy Curtis Thornton, a pharmacist, who has been mayor of Vaiden since 1993, is looking for the job again Tuesday. George W. Turbeville Jr., a retired human services professional and a former Carroll County circuit clerk, is also running for mayor of Vaiden.
James A. Cox, Grace Voorhees, Lemon Cunningham and Marcus Purnell join incumbent Vaiden aldermen Felix Costilow, Jr., Bradford T. Watkins, and Frances "Bud" Welch in seeking election Tuesday.
Turbeville, speaking Saturday on behalf of his campaign, said he sees the need in Vaiden for replacing "old, corroded water pipes. We also have severe street and drainage problems," he said. "Our fire and water departments need upgrading. I'll look into getting more grant money, but I'll not comment on any personnel matters. So many people need jobs, too."
Turbeville, a Mississippi State University graduate who was born in 1931, added that he wants to work to do something for the young people of Vaiden. "They are greatly in need of supervised recreation," he said, "some place to go where they can be in sports events, like a recreational park."
The need for improved city services runs deep, Turbeville said.
"We have some people who are still driving on clay gravel streets, and some houses have never been hooked onto city sewage. They are using septic tanks and barrels. I can't really tell you why this exists, but it's true, and I intend to find out a way to help these people."
Overall, Turbeville said, "I'm retired and I have time to do this job."
He was with the Department of Human Services 35 years and was county director 29 years. He won three elections for circuit clerk, resigning in 1964 to take the county welfare director job after serving nine years as circuit clerk.
Thornton, a University of Mississippi graduate who has been an area pharmacist since 1975, said, "I don't make any promises. We have two water wells; number two, near Vaiden Grocery, is beginning to fail. It grew a fungus. We did some repairs and chlorinated it and are applying for a block grant for a new water well, which hopefully we will get and would be located nearer the Interstate.
"With the new jail (the Carroll-Montgomery Regional Correctional Facility) and the nursing home that's being built out that way, we'll need more water than ever for Vaiden. We can get only one of these block grants at a time, but we're looking into replacing major water lines, because some of these in the downtown area have been in operation since the 1930s. We're going to have to upgrade the sewage lagoon, also," Thornton said.
Thornton commended the town's employees.
"We've got a real good work force, and it's taken a good many years to put them together," Thornton said. "I don't see any need to let any of them go."
The development in and around Vaiden, Thornton said, indicates there's a greater opportunity to bring more business. "Also, we've been paying off the bonds for street work done in the 1980s, so we might be able to do something on reworking our streets."
His perfect attendance record, Thornton said, ought to be mentioned. "I've been in office two terms, and I haven't missed a regularly scheduled board meeting," he said. "I've tried to serve and be responsible for my position."
Sarah Grantham, a former beauty shop operator who is career center director at J. Z. George School at North Carrollton, could not be reached to comment on what she considers the issues of the 2001 campaign in North Carrollton.
Grantham and North Carrollton board members, however, recently authorized a downtown street and drainage project that is nearing completion. They are also, according to city clerk Mag Corder, continuing to angle for funds to improve and expand the water department, especially the Boyd system. That's the rural water system managed by the town of North Carrollton.
Under the leadership of Grantham, who also worked as a health care technician, the town both began, then gave up, ambulance service that was a cooperative venture with the town of Carrollton. She has been in city government since 1977, when she was elected alderman and served as mayor pro tempore after the resignation of the late Mayor Clarence Montgomery and before winning on her own during a special election in January 1980.
The recent loss of the town's only manufacturing concern, the Cana woodworking plant, hit hard. Grantham and her board have been trying to get more industry, so far unsuccessfully.
This is a loss that Grantham's opponent, Ken Strachan, is also interested in fixing, he said last week.
The town owns the industrial park, though not the Cana site. "I want to help locate an industry there, which would provide at least 80 jobs," Strachan said. "That'd be 80 families helped. Also, I want to get grants to help the town out with streets and drainage. We need more businesses here. I want to get grants for the fire and police departments.
"The thing is we need to keep up things right along - for 365 days a year for four years," Strachan said. The town is blanketed with his political signs and posters. "My daughter, Katie, who will be 20 months old June 14, goes campaigning with me and helps hand out cards," he said.
