August 13, 2018
By: Dwayne Page
The newly elected Alexandria Mayor and Aldermen have been sworn into office.
Five days after their election on Thursday, August 2, Mayor Bennett Armstrong and Aldermen Lloyd Dyer, Bridgette Rogers, and Shane Blair took their oath of office prior to a special meeting on Tuesday, August 7 at city hall. City Attorney Vester Parsley Jr. administered the oath.
Two other vacancies on the council were also filled during the meeting with the appointment of Linda Dickerson and Cindy Overstreet. They too were sworn into office. The other alderman already on the council is David Cripps.
Although the results of the August 2 election were not officially certified by the election commission until Monday evening, August 13, the newly elected city officials were apparently authorized to take office right away according to the Town of Alexandria’s city charter which states as follows in Article II section 2.01
“The terms of office of Mayor and all Aldermen shall commence at 12:01 p.m. on the next day following their elections, and they shall serve until their successors have been elected and qualified”.
Mayor Armstrong won a write-in campaign for re-election August 2 to a second four year term. Armstrong defeated Donna Davis 34 to 28. She also ran as a write-in candidate. No one qualified to get their name on the ballot to run for mayor.
Three aldermen were elected in Alexandria August 2 but only one of them qualified to get his name on the ballot, Lloyd Dale Dyer. He was elected to a four year term with 130 votes. Two other persons mounted a write-in campaign for alderman including Shane Blair, an incumbent, who won a four-year term with 19 votes and Bridgette Rogers, who was elected with 11 votes to a fill a two-year vacant term.