Voters in Caledonia will elect a new mayor and at least three new aldermen this year, based on a poll of incumbents.
Mayor Mitch Wiggins, who will be completing his first term as mayor in July, said he will not run for re-election but will instead seek a spot on the town’s Board of Aldermen. Wiggins served one term as alderman before his successful campaign for mayor in 2017.
Meanwhile, three aldermen — including three-term board member Quinn Parker, who has announced he will run for mayor — will not return to the board.
Bill Darnell, who has served 42 years as alderman, said he will not seek another term, while Tyler Brock said he will not seek a second term.
The two other aldermen — Matt Furnari and Tammy McCool — said they intend to seek another term, the second for each.
Monday night, former Caledonia Parks Commission member Jason Chrest turned in his qualifying paperwork and will run for alderman. Chrest is the only non-incumbent to have submitted qualifying documents to date.
Wiggins said his decision to leave the mayor’s office and return to the board of aldermen was based on another job change.
“I’ve recently taken a job as an EMS provider (at OCH Regional Medical Center) in Starkville, and I’ll have more responsibilities and opportunities with that job,” said Wiggins, who had been a paramedic at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle in Columbus. “The new job will pull me away from Caledonia more than I would be comfortable with, so I thought it would be best to step down and serve as an aldermen, because I do want to stay involved.”
Parham, who served as alderman from 1997-2001 and again from 2017 until now, said he believes his familiarity with the town and experience as an alderman has prepared him for the mayor’s office.
“I know everything going on around town, what the town has been working on and has to face,” he said. “None of the issues are going to sneak up on me.”
Darnell said health issues were part of his decision not to seek another term.
“The bottom line is I just feel 42 years is enough,” Darnell said. “That, along with the knee problems I’ve had … I’ve had five surgeries on my knees … I just felt it was time to step down and let someone else have an opportunity.”‘
Furnari said when he first decided to run for alderman in 2016, he planned to seek two terms.
“I just feel like you need eight years to really make an impact,” he said. “So, if the voters approve it, that’s what I intend to do.”
McCool, like Furnari in her first term, said she was inclined not to run again after the death of her mother in July.
“I just felt like it was better for me to step away and spend more time with my dad,” she said.
But a conversation with her father changed her thinking.
“He told me, ‘You really ought to run again,’ so I changed my mind,” McCool said. “I love this town and the people of this town, and I still want to serve.”
Candidates in Caledonia do not run by political party designation and all five members of the board of alderman are at-large. That means there are no political primaries and the aldermen’s seats go to the top five vote-getters in the general election.
The qualifying deadline is Feb. 5. The general election is scheduled for June 8.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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