Meadowlakes picks two new councilors and re-elects mayor
Meadowlakes Mayor Mark Bentley won his third term in office on May 4. File photo
Meadowlakes voters chose two new councilors and re-elected the city’s mayor on May 4. The winners will be sworn in to the City Council at 5 p.m. May 21 at Totten Hall, 177 Broadmoor St.
Don Wheeler beat Mike Barry in an open race for the Place 1 council seat by a 256-108 margin, while challenger Carolyn Richmond defeated incumbent Councilor Jerry Drummond 278-85 for Place 3.
Meadowlakes Mayor Mark Bentley amassed 85.95 percent of the overall vote against challenger Aaron Codispoti to claim his third term.
Bentley was honored by the outcome.
“I was pleased to see the confidence that the residents placed in me to serve another term,” he said.
A $7.5 million voter-approved bond to demolish and rebuild the city’s clubhouse and swimming pool should dominate conversations in council chambers over the next term, Bentley said.
Plans include combining the Hidden Falls clubhouse and pro shop and expanding the city pool by 1,000 square-feet.
“We need to steward through the construction of the facilities, hire the right people to do them, and monitor the process as it goes along,” Bentley said.
Another major issue facing Meadowlakes is filling the future vacancy left by longtime City Manager Johnnie Thompson. He is set to leave the community after 40 years at the end of September.
“We’ve sent out applications and narrowed it down to about six (candidates),” Bentley said. “We’re still accepting applications, some as recently as last week. We need to pour through all that, and if we’re satisfied with one of those candidates, we’ll probably go with it. If we’re not, we’ll probably continue to search.”
Bentley is confident Meadowlakes will meet its previous deadline of hiring a new city manager before the city’s budgeting process begins this summer.
“It’s clear that we still have the chance to get someone in place by the time budgeting starts,” he said.
DailyTrib.com was unable to reach councilors-elect Wheeler or Richmond at the time of this story’s publication.