Two of the major contenders for Mayor in the upcoming Eutaw Election are current Mayor Raymond Steele and Mayor Pro Tem/Councilwoman Hattie Edwards.

Qualifying to run for political offices in the Eutaw Municipal Election scheduled for August 28 ended at 5 p.m. on July 17.

Candidates whose names will appear on the ballot are:

 Mayor

Current Mayor Raymond Steele

Hattie Edwards (Mayor Pro Tem)

Jerry B. Brown

Corey Cockrell

Quinton  M. Walton

District 1 Council Seat

Carl Davis

Alphonzo (Duke) Morton

Mary E. Wray

District 2  Council Seat

LaJeffery Chris Carpenter

Stanley Lucious

Faye Tyree

District 3 Council Seat

Mary Harris Graves

Joe Lee Powell (incumbent)

District 4 Council Seat

Trudie V. Cox

Sheila Hahn Smith (incumbent)

District 5 Seat

Gloria Williams Mobley

Reginald J. Spencer

Only four people who are currently city elected officials are running this year – Mayor Steele, District 2 Joe Lee Powell and District 4 Sheila Hahn  Smith.

Prior to the deadline for declaring candidacy for city offices, a call meeting of  the Eutaw City Council was held.

Due to errors as to when the meeting was to be held, there were two signs in several public places. One announced the City Council would meet at 5 p.m.;  the other announced the council would meet at the regular time of 6 p.m.

By 5:35, there was a quorum present – Councilmembers  Sheila Smith, Hattie Edwards, Joe Lee Powell and  David Spencer.

Steele opened the meeting by saying that he had called the meeting at the request of the council.

Councilwoman Smith said the council had wanted the meeting to be held because Debbie Duncan, a citizen approved by the council as an election official, was told she was “here illegally.”

Steele admitted that he was not sure the appointment was legal, nor was he sure what her duties and responsibilities would  be.

After approximately an hour of bickering between the Mayor and council, it was decided that Town Clerk Peggy Stripling would be responsible for the absentee boxes and the election ballots and Duncan would be in charge of the voters’ list.

Part of the problem was that redistricting has moved some people from one district to another. The council wanted to make sure that every citizen knew where  they were to vote. For this reason, they wanted a list of voters and where they voted to be available.

The Democrat will publish a list of voters and voting places prior to the election.