The three challengers in the race for Kernersville's board of aldermen won their bids to be on the board, squeezing out one incumbent, according to complete but unofficial election results Tuesday night.
In a race that had six candidates vying for five seats, Alderman Bob Prescott was the odd man out, though by a slim margin. He got 846 votes. Just 42 votes separated the four candidates with the least votes.
Prescott could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.
The three challengers — former Police Chief Neal Stockton, former Alderman Irving Neal, and former planning-board member Keith Hooker — are not new faces to Kernersville government, but they are new to the board.
Incumbents Dana Jones and Tracey Shifflette kept their seats.
Meanwhile, Mayor Dawn Morgan, who ran unopposed, also locked in another term.
The challenge for the new board will be to reap the rewards of the money the town has invested in infrastructure projects by encouraging smart development — while also keeping Kernersville's small-town charm, according to several candidates.
Morgan, who became an alderman in 2001, was appointed mayor in 2008. She then won the seat in the 2009 election. Soon, she said, the new board members and she will go on a retreat to talk about Kernersville's priorities.
"I'm really excited to begin the new term with the newly elected aldermen," Morgan said. "We're going to hit the ground running."
Hooker has some ideas about the town's priorities.
"We can't have development just for sake of development and lose our small-town feel," said Hooker, who served six years on the planning board and seven years on the board of adjustment. "We don't want to lose the things that make us who we are."
Stockton, who was the town's police chief for 25 years, got the most votes out of the six board candidates, getting 1,170, or nearly 21 percent, of the 5,666 votes cast.
After the results came in, he celebrated at China Palace restaurant on West Mountain Street.
"We are going to have to look after our assets and our interests," Stockton said.
Dana Jones, who has been an alderman for eight years, elaborated on that sentiment.
"There are going to be some great things on the horizon for Kernersville," Jones said, while describing how the town government can manage the balancing act of growing the tax base and creating jobs, while also preserving the town's charm.
"You need to have a plan. A lot of it has to do with quality of development," Jones said. "We pride ourselves on long-term planning, and we want to keep a good quality of life for our citizens."
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