Dean, Creel re-elected, Myrick joins council - Deceased Midway mayor wins

Dave Lewis with the Meteor

Madisonville voters returned Mayor Don “Sonny” Dean to office following the Saturday, May 10 municipal election, where incumbent council member Terri Creel and newcomer Donnie Myrick outpolled the field in the city council race. Midway voters re-elected deceased mayor Patrick Wakefield, who died April 8, after his name had been placed on the ballot as unopposed candidate for mayor. He received 11 total votes. The Midway City Council may either appoint someone to fill the mayor's seat, or call for another election. Four candidates received write-in votes for mayor in Midway, but none had filed as a write-in prior to the deadline. Votes for those candidates did not count. J.W. Williams received 9 votes, Jimmy Cook received 2 votes and Charles Bristow and David Batson each received a single vote. Williams also received a write-in vote for Alderman, Position 2, which was won by Cook with 20 votes. David Batson received 26 votes for Alderman, Position 3, outpolling candidate Edwin Faw for that seat. Faw received 17 votes.

In the Madisonville race, Dean received 119 votes to 96 for challenger Patti Womble Jones. Creel racked up 105 votes to lead the council balloting, and Myrick edged Fred Randle by a single vote, 70-69, for the second at-large council seat.

Should Randle choose to request a recount, he has until the fifth day after the election (May 15) to post the required fee to do so. Should he wait until the council canvasses the election returns, he then has only two days in which to contest the outcome. By law, the council may canvass the results anytime between May 13 and May 21.

Balloting for the remaining candidates gave Donalyn Bussear 8 votes, Milton Andrus 33 votes, Terry Don Rogers 33 votes, David Williams 42 votes and John Johnson 29 votes. All told, 224 people cast ballots in this year's city election, meaning that nine people did not vote for mayor since Dean and Jones together tallied a total of 215 votes.

There were 80 ballots cast during early voting and 144 on election day.