County appoints new commissioner

The County Commission met on Monday, Oct. 19 to discuss several orders of business. The first item on the agenda was to appoint a new commissioner in lieu of Mrs. Connie Sharp's withdrawal from her seat.

There were two men who vied for her seat on the commission: John Booker, who had once been a county commissioner for eight years, and Doug Jobbitt, who ran for commissioner once before.

The men drew numbers to determine who would speak first. While one candidate spoke, the other went out of the courtroom until it was his turn.

Booker drew the number one and Jobbitt drew the number two, leaving Booker to speak first.

Commissioners Allison Tanner and Aren Ragsdale had questions for the hopeful commissioner.

"I see what goes on in the county," said Booker when asked why he wanted to be a commissioner again, "I see things done right and things done wrong, and I have an opinion on that and I'd like to voice it."

Then he was asked what his opinion was on whether the commission should have eighteen members or nine. "Well, I'm nothing but one voice," said Booker, "but when I was commissioner we had 18 and it was better to have 18 than nine, I think."

Jobbitt returned to the room, ready to speak his piece and say why he should be chosen to serve on the county commission.

"I'm a business man, not a politician. I ran for this seat almost two years ago and I've done a lot of homework on this county," said Jobbitt. "I've been a member of this county for fourteen years. I've run three successful businesses in my life. The third one, The Ultimate Garage Sale, I closed; it didn't go out of business, and now I'm the manager of a division of All Around Underground."

He stated that he wanted to be a commissioner because he believed that business people needed to be running it, and stated that he is able to see things from both sides.

Commissioner Patrick Halfacre asked Jobbitt his opinion on the solid waste dilemma and addressed his concern that he had heard about a dump site off Memorial Drive that was rumored to belong to Jobbitt.

"I do not have a dump site off of Memorial Drive, I run All Around Underground Dead Stock Removal," said Jobbitt. "The problem is that we need more recycling here in this community. I ran a recycling business for 23 years... I'm not really for the scale down here because that will make people illegally dump, but I understand it's a necessity. So it's the best of two evils."

Commissioner Tanner also asked Jobbitt his opinion on the number of commissioners he thought was appropriate, "You know what, I've had a bunch of commissioners ask me that, and I've actually had to sit down and go over whether it is better... I honestly don't know if 18 is better than 9 commissioners. I would have to see what the benefit of nine would be; I've watched eighteen work and sometimes it drags on, but I haven't gotten into both sides of that situation. Until I get to know both sides to figure out what my opinion is, I actually don't have one."

The commissioners then wrote their votes down on a piece of paper and handed them in. Mr. Booker and Mr. Jobbitt waited to hear the outcome inside the courtroom as Mrs. Sandra Clayton announced that Doug Jobbitt had won the seat eight to seven votes.