Four candidates fight for Macon-Bibb county District one commission seat

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) -After much back and forth, between the Macon-Bibb County Commission and the Bibb County Board of Elections, the race is on for the District 1 Commission.

The seat was vacated by Gary Bechtel, who is running for state representative. Now, four candidates want to take that seat.

“I’m looking forward to being the person that people look to for this next position,” said Maconite Valerie Wynn.

Wynn, did not waste any time qualifying to run for the District 1 Commission Seat. She was the first to qualify.

“I want to provide new leadership, effective new leadership,” said Wynn. “I want to provide some problem solving and to go with that, we must have consensus of people to work together for those problems.”

Wynn wants to tackle the county’s current budget problem, just like Charles Neville, a retired veteran.

“I think we need to bring the government back to more common sense, everyday approach,” said Neville, a candidate. “I mean, I balance my checkbook every day at the house, every month to the penny. And I don’t know why we can’t have that happen with the county government.”

Although Neville has no experience in politics, he does not think that is a disadvantage for him.

“I’m a great individual to getting things done bulldog when it comes to things that I want done,” said Neville. “I’ll fight tooth and nail to get them done.”

Former financial advisor, Lynn Wood also knows things need to get done, like stopping tax increases.

“We have a huge vote coming up in June on a 5 mil increase and I’ve looked back at my tax records and I’ve had mil increases on my property for the last three years,” said candidate, Lynn Wood.

Wood thinks a tax increase is not the answer to solving the county’s budget.

“My goal with that is to make sure that we are able to get out of the deficit that we are currently in and move to a surplus that we used to be in,” said Wood.

Macon Beer Company Brewer, Ross Hardy believes he has the solution to make that happen.

“My platform is two planks, what I’m calling weed and WiFi,” said Hardy. “I’m looking at the decriminalization of marijuana that’s been done up in Atlanta.”

Hardy wants to look into getting municipal WiFi to attract more people to Macon.

“There are a lot of places in Macon that only have one wireless service provider,” said Hardy. ‘You can look at places all over the country. Cities, states, counties, municipalities that have publicly run WiFi system.”

Four candidates, different ideas, but all with the same goal; to help Macon-Bibb County.

If none of the candidates get 50% of the majority vote, there will be a runoff July 22nd.
This means, there will not be a District 1 commissioner in place when the 2019 budget passes in June.

Early voting begins Monday and you can only vote at the board of elections office Monday April 30th through Friday May 18th from 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. You must already be registered and all you need to bring in is your ID.

District one voters must vote twice, once in the regular election and once in the special election.

The Bibb County Board of Elections Office is still looking for people to work the voting polls for election day, which is May 22nd. If you would like to help out, head over to the board of elections office to sign up.