Myrtle dodges holding election but Blue Springs vote will proceed

The Town of Myrtle will get by without having to hold a municipal election this year but the Village of Blue Springs will go with theirs on June 8 as scheduled.

Blue Springs

The Village of Blue Springs will hold an election because they have more than one candidate for mayor and more than five for alderman-at-large.

Incumbent mayor Rita Gentry is being challenged by Mike Walker.

Candidates for aldermen include Bradford Goodwin, Rhonda Pannell Horton, Jimmy Hutcheson, Kevin Rackley, Lorence Strange and Renna Tolbert.

All the candidates for aldermen are newcomers to Blue Springs politics. None of the five current aldermen-at-large chose to seek re-election.

The retiring aldermen are Shirley Allen, Rick Bradford, Lynda Bramlett, Andrew Grisham and Malcom Leath.

Because aldermen in Blue Springs, as well as Myrtle, serve at large rather than representing wards or parties, primary elections are not held.

Myrtle

After the qualifying deadline passed Friday, only the incumbents, and all of the incumbents, qualified to seek re-election in Myrtle.

Serving for the next four years will be Mayor Micheal Canerdy and Aldermen Milton McDonald, Cynthia Parks, Dustin Rasberry, Teresa Smith and Sean Wiginton.

Although it was not a factor in this case, Myrtle, like Blue Springs, is exempt from the new law requiring a candidate to live in the political subdivision he or she wants to represent for the previous two years. That law only applies to municipalities with population over 1,000.

Obviously, the current officials have lived in the town for the past four years.