Aycock to run for re-election
By Steve Herring
Published in News on November 22, 2015 3:05 AM
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George Wayne Aycock Jr.
George Wayne Aycock Jr., 69, has announced he will seek a second term to the at-large seat on the Wayne County Board of Commissioners.
Aycock, a Republican, unseated Democrat Sandra McCullen in her 2012 re-election bid.
"I am going to run for the at-large seat," Aycock said. "I am confident that is where I need to run. It is much easier and less expensive to run for one of the districts, but I can't see running against one of my fellow commissioners."
But Aycock, who has served as chairman for the past two years, said the primary reason he is running is because the county has several major projects under way that he would like to be part of finishing including a new jail, the proposed agriculture and convention center and a proposed new 911 call center.
All seven seats on the commission are up for election next November.
The candidate filing period for the 2016 primary and general election begins at noon on Tuesday, Dec. 1, and ends at noon on Monday, Dec. 21.
The 2016 statewide primary, including the presidential preference primary, is Tuesday, March 15.
Aycock, a native of the Nahunta community, was among the five Republicans elected to the commission in 2012 that gave his party control of the board for the first time since Reconstruction.
Aycock admits that the Republican-controlled board got off to a bit of a rocky start, perhaps moving too quickly on a few issues before settling down.
One of the problems was a lack of board experience, he said.
But as a whole over the past three years the board has accomplished "a lot," he said.
"I am so proud of the fact that something like 98 percent of everything we voted on has been unanimous," Aycock said. "I am the type I try not to play partisan politics. I want to do what is best for the citizens and taxpayers of Wayne County."
He also points out that during the past two years that Ed Cromartie, a Democrat, has served as vice-chairman and has presided on two occasions in his absence.
"I think that has worked well," he said. "It was showing the people of the county we are trying to work as nonpartisan as we can.
"I think on most issues we work together. There have been some differences of opinion. I am not saying that they were right and we were wrong, or they were wrong and we were right."
Aycock said is also proud of how closely the county and city of Goldsboro are working together.
Other accomplishments Aycock said he is proud to be a part of are the new Steele Memorial Library in Mount Olive and new middle schools in the Grantham and Spring Creek communities.
At some point the county has other buildings that need work, such as the Will Sullivan Building, he said.
Also, the county needs to look at the County Office Building on East Ash Street that is home to both the Health Department and the Department of Social Services, he said.
Aycock said he is not sure what commissioners will do with the tax rate until County Manager George Wood and Assistant County Manager Tommy Burns start working on the 2016-17 budget.
"As citizens know we have spent a whole lot of money for some projects," he said. "I certainly don't want to see taxes go back up, but I can't sit and promise how much more they can go down. We have got to have the source of income to do these projects.
"I feel confident we can hold the tax rate pretty close to where it is. But I am just speaking as one commissioner."
Reductions in county funding of nonprofits like WATCH and Literacy Connections have been controversial.
All of the nonprofits are worthy causes, and what is at issue is how much and how long taxpayers can support the nonprofits at the current level, he said.
"I am not saying that we won't support them at some level," Aycock said. "But is funding nonprofits going to be a driving factor in raising taxes? It is a balancing act that we are going to have to do.
"We are going to fund what we can. Personally I can't see where we can do a lot more cutting on nonprofits right now."
The county could go in with a hatchet and chop some nonprofits off, he said.
"But then the county is going to have to provide that service," he said. "So it's either do you support the nonprofits, and I am not singling out any nonprofit, do you support a nonprofit that in the long run you supporting it may actually cost the taxpayers less than the county having to do it."
Aycock said the board is conservative, but not as conservative as some wanted it to be.
Aycock owns and operates Nahunta Storage and is a partner in the Nahunta Soccer Complex. He also owned and operated Wayne Aycock Trucking from 1971 until 1992.
He is past fleet manager and distribution supervisor for Cates Pickles/Dean Foods in Faison and past safety manager for Wilco Transportation Services in Mount Olive.
Aycock, the son of the late George Wayne Aycock Sr. and Ophelia Aycock, is a graduate of Charles B. Aycock High School in Pikeville.
He and his wife Linda live in the Nahunta community. He has three children.
He is a member of Pike's Crossroads Pentecostal Holiness Church.
Aycock is active in the community having served on the Nahunta Volunteer Fire Department for 53 years including stints on the board of directors, as board chairman and assistant chief.
He is active in the Wayne County Firemen's Association where he is past president.
He is a member of the Wayne Community College board of trustees.
Aycock was a member of the Wayne County Planning Board for nine years, including three as chairman.
He served on the Northwestern Water Sanitary District for three years.