Local News: Local Candidates for Council and School Board

Filing Deadline Nets Four New Candidates
By Janet Phelps and Cassie Smith

From the Bryan-College Station Eagle

Two school board and two city council hopefuls submitted paperwork Monday -- the last day to file for a place on the May ballot in Bryan and College Station.

Two seats are up for grabs on the College Station City Council, as well as for both the Bryan and College Station school boards. The two Bryan council races are not being contested.

City Council

College Station City Council members serve three-year terms and are not paid. Six people are competing for the two open positions.

Mayor Pro Tem Lynn McIlhaney, 60, who is in Place 4, will face two competitors: A&M United Methodist Church College Ministries Director Katy-Marie Lyles, 24, who filed Monday, and FedEx Manager Douglas Reid Cummings, 31.

A 22-year-old student, Chandler Salome, filed for Place 6 on Monday. He will face incumbent Dave Ruesink, 75, and another student, Clifton Thomas Eggers, 29.

The two Bryan City Council positions, which are three-year terms and are paid $10 per month, will go unopposed.

Incumbent Mike Southerland, 62, filed to run again for the At-Large seat.

Art Hughes filed for the Single Member District 5 seat. That seat is held by Ben Hardeman, who can't seek re-election due to the city's policy on term limits.

A project manager for Madison Construction, Hughes, 65, ran an unsuccessful bid for the same position in 2003.

School Board

Eleven people have filed for four available seats on two school boards, including two who filed Monday for Place 2 on the College Station board.

That seat currently is held by Tim Jones, who is not seeking re-election. Joel Walker, a 33-year-old assistant professor of physics at Sam Houston State University, and Desiree Allen Marek, a 54-year-old homemaker and business owner, both filed for Place 2. Carol Barrett, 45, also is seeking that spot.

None of the three have run for office before.

Two people have filed for Place 1 in College Station, a seat currently held by Marc Chaloupka, who is not seeking re-election.

Joel Mitchell, 46, and Paul Dorsett, 34, will compete for that place. Dorsett owns Expressions Dance and Music with his wife, and Mitchell is an engineer with Mitchell & Morgan. Neither has sought public office before.

In Bryan, four people have filed for single member district Place 4, a seat held by Bema Johnson, who is not seeking re-election.

Jeff Goehl, James Edge, Kelli Levey and Marilyn Scamardo will compete for that seat.

Scamardo is a 54-year-old retired teacher who works as a Realtor and music teacher. Levey, 46, is a writer with Texas A&M University's marketing and communications department. Edge, 44, is a self-employed Realtor and Goehl, 46, owns Bryan Outboard Inc.

Goehl, who was defeated in his first bid for school board last year, is the only one of the four who has sought public office before.

Incumbent Merrill Green, 78, has filed for re-election to his at-large Place 7 seat on the Bryan school board.

Green, a retired coach, has served on the school board since 2000.

He will face John R. Street, who has not run for office before. Street, 41, is an employment recruiter with West Corp.

Published Tuesday, March 10, 2009