FAITH — All three incumbents won re-election to the Board of Aldermen, and they’ll be joined by two newcomers.
Todd Peeler, Keith Deal and Gary Gardner kept their seats, while C.J. Moody and Matt Lyerly will take the seats vacated by Gay Sanderson and Bill Johnson, who did not seek re-election.
All five seats on the town board are up for election every two years. The mayor and mayor pro tem are appointed by the board and have historically been the leading vote-getters. If that holds, Peeler will again be mayor and Deal will keep his job as mayor pro tem.
In unofficial results, Peeler paced the field with 111 votes, followed by Deal with 105, Moody with 96, Gardner with 90 and Lyerly with 87. Challengers Brian Campbell and Michael Hibler finished out of the running with 73 and 33 votes.
“I think we’ve got some good people coming on the board this year,” Deal said. “We’ve got some new blood on the board, and I think things will work out alright once we get going.”
Deal said the board has things to work on, such as continuing to bring its public works in-house, and will soon need to turn its attention to next year’s budget. He said it will be “a learning experience” for the new members until they get settled in.
Moody said he was surprised to collect more votes than incumbent Gardner and attributed that in part to the fact that he was born and raised in Faith and had the support of family and friends. But he said one of the reasons he ran was “because you still don’t know everybody. I’d like to get more involved in the community to reach out to other people.”
“Being my first time running, I feel blessed that I had so many people vote for me. It was a good feeling,” he said. “I just feel honored to serve our small town and look forward to it.”
Lyerly said he was dealing with “a little bit of anxiety, but nervous energy” in the wake of his win Tuesday night.
“I have never ran for government before, even student government in high school,” he said. “So this is a very new, uncomfortable thing for to do, but I’m excited to turn a new page.”
Lyerly said he looks forward “to helping the guys and getting to work on whatever Faith needs us to do” and hope he and Moody will “be able to give them some insight that maybe they weren’t seeing or looking at, just another voice, and hopefully we can all work together for the good of the town.”
Peeler and Gardner could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.
A total of 180 people voted in Faith, for a turnout of 21.63 percent.