Qualifying will be held in less than two weeks to fill the two new seats on the Banks County Board of Commissioners.
Two new commissioners will be elected on Nov. 3 expanding the Banks County Board of Commission to five members. Last year, Banks County voters overwhelmingly supported expanding the three-member board to five members. Some 69 percent of the voters, or 4,070 people, voted in favor of the change, while 1,869 voted against it.
The election for the two new BOC members has been set for Nov. 3. Qualifying will be held Aug. 31 through Sept. 4, beginning at 9 a.m. that Monday and ending at noon Friday. Qualifying will be in probate judge Betty Thomas’ office in the courthouse in downtown Homer.
If a run-off is necessary, it will be held on Dec. 1.
The change to local government will result in the following:
•Banks County will be divided into four commission districts. Each of these districts must be represented by one of the four part-time commissioners, who must also reside in their respective district.
•The chairman may reside in any district, representing the county as a whole.
•All of the commissioners will be elected by a county-wide vote of all eligible voters.
Thereafter, these two new commissioners and the chairman will be elected every four years together in the same year and the other two will be elected every four years in the same two year off-cycle that is currently used.
ANNOUNCED SO FAR
While qualifying is still more than one month away, several people have already announced their intentions to be on the ballot. In the post which includes Baldwin, Hollingsworth, Columbia, Berlin and Washington, four candidates have announced: Fred Wendt, Ray Holcomb, Neal Pulliam and Ernest Rogers.
In the post that covers the Homer and Anderson districts, Robin Trotter, Charles Turk and Jim Loftice have announced so far.
The terms will be for four years each.
