District 3: Stevens defeats Anderson
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on November 4, 2015 1:46 PM
News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Mark Stevens, new District 3 council member, left, congratulates Antonio Williams, new District 1 council member, on his victory over incumbent Michael Headen for his seat in the Goldsboro City Council after receiving the election results on Tuesday evening at the Board of Elections.
Mark Stevens beat out incumbent William Goodman and fellow challenger Van Arthur Anderson for the District 3 seat of the Goldsboro City Council following the unofficial results of Tuesday night's election.
Stevens received 164 votes and Anderson received 31 votes. Goodman ran a write-in campaign for re-election to the council. The write-in category for District 3 received 152 votes. Whether or not all of those votes went to Goodman will be announced by the Wayne County Board of Elections on Thursday.
"It feels pretty good," Stevens said. "I'm very excited to begin working and helping the city."
Goodman, who served on the council from 1987 to 2004, and was then re-elected in 2012, said his run on the City Council has been "very good."
"I lost to a good candidate. He's a very smart young man, and I think he'll do very well on the council," Goodman said. "Right now, I think I'm just tired."
Goodman said he had no intentions of running for the City Council again in the future.
"I don't think I'll ever run again. I had already said before tonight that if I was re-elected this would have been my last term," Goodman said. "I'm 65 years old now. I think it's time for my wife and myself to just enjoy ourselves."
Stevens said the early voting results that showed him in the lead shocked him slightly.
"I was taken aback really, but I was pleased to see those numbers and was praying that everything went right for me," Stevens said.
He said once he is sworn in, he has several issues he would like to immediately begin working on.
"There are a couple issues, and the first is to start working to create educational and recreational outlets for our youths," Stevens said. "Then I'd like to work to fix the dilapidated houses we have in our city and bring them up to where we can get people living in those homes again. I want to work with the sitting City Council to roll up our sleeves and take these issues by storm."