Tapley upsets Bilderback to take Monroe County Commission chairman’s post

Businessman Greg Tapley, who has never held political office, overtook incumbent Mike Bilderback to win the chairman’s seat of the Monroe County Commission in Tuesday’s election.

Meanwhile, the incumbents retained their seats in the District 1 and District 2 races.

Tapley easily won with 2,388 votes, or 60.5 percent, over Bilderback, who had 1,559 votes, or 39.5 percent of the vote. Bilderback has served as chairman since 2013 and has served on the board for 12 years.

According to the election office, one of the voting machines went down and 16 ballots were locked in the machine. About 11 p.m., county election workers were waiting for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office to help fix the problem. However, none of the races was so close that those votes would change who won.

Reached at home late Tuesday, Tapley, 47, said he was “real excited” about his win.

“I absolutely did not expect that high of a margin, especially against an incumbent,” he said. “But I’m very happy because ... what I take away from that is that I think there was a message that was received and the message from the voters is, ‘We like what you had to say.’”

Tapley said he’s pleased that he and Bilderback ran clean campaigns, which “we agreed to do early on.”

He said he would spend the next seven months before he takes office “to do some on-the-job training” and to get up to speed on what the commission is working on and needs to address moving forward.

Tapley said he would like to see a conclusion to the dispute on the location of the county line between Bibb and Monroe counties, but that it may be resolved before he takes office. The counties have clashed over the boundary for more than a decade. The matter is in the hands of the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.

He also would like to look into whether the county should build its own water treatment plant, create its own water authority or look at other ways to bring water to the county.

Tapley, who served as Republican Party chairman in Monroe County 2003-2005, is the owner of Tapley & Associates Insurance and co-owner of MedPro EMS.

Evans holds onto District 1 seat

Longtime Monroe County Commissioner Larry Evans, who has served since 1987, will keep his District 1 seat for four more years.

Evans got 356 votes, or 62.35 percent of the vote, compared to 215 votes, or 37.65 percent of the vote for his opponent, Robert Grier, who was seeking his first county seat.

Evans, 66, said before the election that he was running again because “there was a lot of things that are left to be done.” He said he would like to work on bringing large manufacturers to the county that would create high-paying jobs for residents. Therefore, he would like to be sure the county has all the infrastructure in place for consideration by those manufacturers.

Evans is retired from Norfolk Southern.

Ham retains the District 2 seat

Jim Ham, who has served on the Monroe County Commission since 1987, will serve four more years.

Ham collected 752 votes, or 57.94 percent of the vote, while his opponent and political newcomer John Martin got 546 votes, or 42.06 percent of the vote, in the District 2 race.

Ham, 54, said before the election that he wants to continue to be involved in the process of helping the county grow. He said it’s important for the county to bring in industry and commercial businesses to help pay taxes so more of the burden is taken off residents.

He said that one way the county has helped bring more businesses to the county is by contracting with the Macon Water Authority and the Butts County Water & Sewer Authority to provide water to the county.

Ham is a beef cattle farmer and served as chairman of the commission from 1992-1996.

This story was originally published May 25, 2016 at 12:03 AM with the headline "Tapley upsets Bilderback to take Monroe County Commission chairman’s post."