Filing period begins with race in Mount Olive
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 9, 2017 1:45 AM
A contested race for a seat on the Mount Olive Town Board was created Friday during the opening hours of filing for the Nov. 7 municipal and sanitary district elections.
The offices are nonpartisan.
Vicky Darden and Hobert Yates both filed for the District 1 seat, one of the town's two minority district offices, now held by Kenny Talton who has said he will not seek re-election.
Four Mount Olive candidates were at the Wayne County Board of Elections office at noon when the filing period began.
Joe Scott, Barbara Kornegay, the Rev. Dennis Draper and Mrs. Darden filed within minutes of one another.
The entire Mount Olive Town Board is up for election including At-large Commissioner Jerry L. Harper and District 2 Harlie Carmichael. District 2 also is a minority district.
Filing continues through noon on Friday, July 21.
Other first-day filers included Charles Taylor Hooks III, Pikeville mayor; Walnut Creek Councilman Steven Douglas Benton; and Southeastern Wayne Sanitary District board member Bobby Ray Outlaw.
Scott, the current District 4 commissioner and mayor pro tem, filed for mayor. Mayor Ray McDonald Sr. has announced he will not seek re-election.
Scott retired after six years from Acme United Corporation as a purchasing and logistics manager for its health care division. He was the manager for Grain Systems, North Carolina division, for 10 years and was in sales and part owner in Scott and Jones, Inc. for 20 years.
Draper filed for the seat being vacated by Scott.
Mrs. Kornegay was appointed to the District 3 seat in June to complete the term of Tom Preston who stepped down at the end of May.
She filed for election to that office.
Mrs. Kornegay is vice president for enrollment at the University of Mount Olive. She has a bachelor's degree in elementary education with a minor in music from Appalachian State University; a master's degree in adult and community college education with a minor in sociology from N.C. State University; and a doctorate degree in adult and community college education with a minor in sociology from N.C. State University.
Mrs. Darden is a 1969 graduate of Carver High School and a 1971 graduate of the De Shaver Cosmetology School in Durham. She worked at Burlington Industries for 20 years and for 12 years with Cooper Standard. She worked for two years each at Faison Manufacturing and Carolina Turkeys.
Yates moved to Mount Olive in 2010 after serving for 21 years in the U.S. Air Force followed by another 24 years with the federal government.
He spent 15 years in pastoral work in Oklahoma and Illinois. He served as pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Rose Hill and is a current member of First Baptist Missionary Church in Kenansville where he teaches Bible study and Sunday school.
Draper moved to the Mount Olive area in 2003 as the pastor of First United Methodist Church. He is retired.
Draper grew up in Wilson County and Fayetteville, the son of two educators. He graduated from High Point University, High Point, the Divinity School of Duke University, Durham, East Carolina University, Greenville and Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Ga.
Also up for re-election this year are:
* Walnut Creek: Councilman Mike Daly.
* Pikeville: Mayor Glenn Hartman and Commissioners Michael Herring and Lyman Galloway.
* Eureka: Mayor John Douglas Booth and Commissioners William A. Martin and David Elmore.
* Seven Springs: Mayor Stephen Potter, Commissioners John Holmes Lee II and Ronda Hughes, and the unexpired term of Lisa Cash that is being completed by Commissioner Robert Alan Cash.
The sanitary district seats up for election are:
* Belfast-Patetown: All five board seats, Dawn Anderson, Ben Casey Jr., Landis Davis, Fred Newcomb and C. Ray Sullivan.
* Eastern Wayne: All five board seats, Daryl Anderson, Richard "Ricky" Carraway, Ervin Watts, Carl Mozingo and James Sutton.
* Southern Wayne: Two board seats, Sally R. Bowles and Gary Scott.
* Fork Township: Three board seats Henry L. Braswell, Tim Gardner and Danny F. Hope.
* Southeastern Wayne: All five board seats, Rudy Peedin, Charlie M.B. Holloway, Albert Williams Jr. and James A. Taylor.