ARCHIVES
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News Headlines
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
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Winners
announced in August 3 elections |
The voters of Weakley County made their will known at
the polls during the Statewide Primaries and Weakley County
General Elections held Thursday, August 3. However,
According to Administrator of Elections Diane Cashon, the
staff was up very late election night due to problems with
the new electronic voting machines' programming. On Friday,
Cashon and her staff, along with other election officials,
were still trying to count all of the votes in order to
provide a district-by-district breakdown of votes cast in
Weakley County's 11 voting precincts.
Election results show that out of 18,743 registered
voters in Weakley County, only 4,790 (25.56 %) cast their
ballots. Of this number, 3,411 of the votes were Democratic,
1,237 Republican, and 142 non-partisan. The voter turnout
was only slightly better (308 more votes cast) in Thursday's
General Election than in the May 2, 2006 Democratic Primary,
which had a total of 4,482 (22.32 percent) of all county
voters to show up at the polls.
County Races
In the three contested races in Weakley County, voters
cast their ballots in favor of Houston W. Patrick for the
office of Weakley County Mayor; Mike Wilson was re-elected
as Sheriff; and in the District 1 Constable's race, write-in
candidate Hal Sykes won the day.
Over 80 percent of the ballots were cast for Patrick,
who received a total of 3,361 votes. This amounts to a
margin of 2,712 votes over incumbent Ron L. Gifford's 649
votes. Gifford, who was disappointed by the low voter turn
out during the Democratic Primary, decided to run as a
write-in candidate in hopes that more people would turn out
for the Aug. 3 County Elections and that he might get enough
extra votes to win re-election. However, Gifford's hopes
were dashed when he actually received 1,383 fewer votes in
the election than he did in the primary when he received
2,032 votes in his favor. Patrick, on the other hand,
received 1,035 more votes than in the Democratic Primary.
Gifford has served in the office of Weakley County
Mayor since 1994.
Although Patrick had previously served for six terms as
Register of Deeds, this was his first run for the position
of County Mayor.
As military veteran who served in the U.S. Army,
Patrick was chief radio repairman with the 64th Tank
Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Georgia.
As for his educational background, Patrick is a 1959
graduate of Mississippi State University with a bachelor's
degree in agronomy. He is also a 1972 graduate of the
University of Tennessee-Martin, with a master's degree in
education. While at Mississippi State, he was inducted into
Alpha Zeta Agricultural Honor Fraternity; Blue Key Honor
Fraternity, and served as president of the Agronomy Club. He
was also elected treasurer of Alpha Zeta Honor Fraternity.
While serving as Register of Deeds of Weakley County,
Patrick completed all of the requirements of the University
of Tennessee Center for Government Training and now holds
the designation of certified public administrator. He was
chosen by his fellow registers as the first chaplain of the
Register's Association and served in that position 12
consecutive years. In 2001-2002, he served as president of
the Register's Association and was chosen "Register of the
Year."
As for community service, Patrick was the first
chairperson of United Way in Weakley County. He is a
Rotarian of long tenure and served the Martin club as
president one term. He is a Paul Harris Fellow. He and his
wife, Maxie, are graduates of the Martin Citizens Police
Academy. He has also served as pastor of Macedonia Primitive
Baptist Church for 40 consecutive years.
Patrick resides in Martin with his wife, Maxie, who is
employed by First Citizens National Bank. They have one son,
Joseph, who now lives in Spring Hill, Tennessee, with his
wife, Jennifer.
In the race for Weakley County Sheriff, Democratic
candidate Michael A. Wilson won his bid for re-election with
a total of 3,148 votes (roughly 70 percent of the vote),
while Independent challenger Jeff Hazlewood, who serves as
assistant police chief for the city of Gleason, garnered
1,328 votes.
In the District 1 Constable's race Hal Sykes won with
121 write-in votes to Robert J. Legans' 13 write-in votes.
(Read the rest of the story in the
August 9th print edition of the
Dresden Enterprise!)
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Local
National Guardsman killed in Iraq |
Major General Gus L. Hargett, Jr., Tennessee
Adjutant General, has confirmed that Sgt. Dustin Daniel
Laird, from Weakley County, was killed in Iraq last week.
Sgt. Laird was the
driver of an M1114 up-armored HMMWV (Humvee) when an
improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated near his
vehicle. The incident occurred late last Monday night near
Rawah, Iraq.
The 24-year-old
soldier, from Martin, was a member of Union City’s 913th
Engineer Company based in Union City. The soldier’s father,
Billy Laird, Sr. of Martin, was informed of his son’s death
Wednesday.
Laird, a 2001
graduate of Westview High School, was described by staff
members as a good student and giving person. After
graduating from high school, he became a member of the
Tennessee Army National Guard in May of that same year, and
deployed to Iraq with his unit in September of 2005.
(Read the rest of the story in the August 9th print edition of the
Dresden Enterprise!)
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Two arrested
in connection with recent newspaper machine thefts |
Two men were arrested August 2 in connection with a series
of newspaper machine thefts and vandalisms dating back to
July 17. Several newspaper vending machines throughout
northwest Tennessee, including ones in McKenzie, Huntingdon,
Dresden, Martin, and Paris, have been damaged and money
stolen over the past few weeks.
According to McKenzie Police Officer Nick Lowe, Chad
Christopher Evans, 26, of Byrd Road in Gleason and Joseph
Brett Coleman, 30, of Volunteer Drive in Paris were
apprehended in front of E.W. James and Sons grocery store in
McKenzie early August 2.
According to police reports, Lowe received a notice
from the Huntingdon Police Department around 3:00 a.m. on
August 2 concerning newspaper vending machine vandalisms.
Lowe reported he began checking such machines in McKenzie,
and discovered a small white car, occupied by Evans,
Coleman, and a female and infant, stopped in front of E.W.
James and Sons.
(Read the rest of this story, plus many more in this
week's edition of the Dresden Enterprise!)
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