Gaddy wins 4th term

Dr. Roger Gaddy handily secured a fourth term as Winnsboro’s mayor with 272 votes, a little more than 62 percent of the 444 votes in Tuesday’s election. His only opponent, Bill Haslett, received 165 votes which amounted to a little more than 37 percent of the votes cast.

Newcomer to politics, Janice Bartell, longtime Winnsboro business woman and owner of Vanity Stylon Hair Salon, received 88 votes to beat her rival, Tony Armstrong who received 16 votes. Bartell, who will represent District 2 on Town Council, replaces Stan Klaus who chose not to run due to health issues.

John McMeekin, who ran unopposed in District 4 to replace Jackie Wilkes, received 196 votes. McMeekin is a former businessman in Winnsboro who for many years owned a furniture store on N. Congress Street.

Gaddy, who had decided late to run for his office a fourth time, said he was happy to continue to be the town’s mayor and looks forward to new horizons for the town that he expects to improve with a new and better working relationship with County officials.

“I’m looking forward to improving the infrastructure of Fairfield County and to being competitive with Richland County and Lexington in a lot of areas that we can now control. It’s an exciting time. There’s  not been a lot of cooperation between the County and the Town in the past, and I’m looking forward to us working together now. It bodes well for the future of the town and the county,” Gaddy said.

“There’s no doubt we did the right thing going to the Broad River for water. I think it showed the County that the Town will take the lead to do what needs to be done,” he added.

“We’re very glad to have Janice Bartell on Council. As a woman and as a downtown business person, she will bring new insight to Council. John McMeekin ran a business downtown for many years, and he’s smart. They will both bring a lot to Council,” Gaddy said.

“In recent years we’ve had drought and water shortages which caused some problems for us,” Gaddy said. “Although we haven’t had money for things that would make an impact on the town, during my 12 years as mayor, we have never had a financial crisis.

“I’m looking forward to the next four years,” he said.

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