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Wednesday, Nov. 04, 2009

Two incumbents hold Milledgeville council seats

Milledgeville voters had four contested City Council seats to fill Tuesday and two incumbents retained their positions.

In the three-way District 4 race, Phillip Joiner garnered 298 votes, or 71.81 percent, to beat out John Alton, who had 82 votes, and Ed “Dodo” Hollis, who had 34 votes, election clerk Mandy Harrington said.

The District 5 race was a rematch between incumbent Richard Mullins Jr. and Benjamin Lewis. Mullins retained his seat with 252 votes, or 59.29 percent, against Lewis, who finished with 172 votes, or 40.47 percent. The two men faced each other for the same position in the 2005 race.

In another rematch, District 3 incumbent Denese Shinholster beat out Donald Hill 131-100. She ran against Hill four years ago for the same position. Hill had previously served on City Council for 10 years.

The District 1 seat will be held by Collinda Lee, who won 164-96 against Alan Wicker. Lee attempted to take a seat on the Baldwin County Commission last year but lost to Linda Fussell. Lee is a daughter of Collins Lee, who served on the Milledgeville City Council and on the Baldwin County Board of Commissioners. He died last year.

“Like I tell everybody, with Jesus Christ all things are possible,” Lee said after the results were posted. “I want to thank the community and the District 1 people for coming together. Everybody has been just gracious ... I’m going to give it my all to serve the community.”

Milledgeville had a fairly low turnout for the election, with 5,560 of the city’s 20,497 registered voters casting a ballot.

To contact writer Linda S. Morris, call 744-4223.