The date for the special election to fill the vacant Ward 2 Alderman seat for the City of Petal has been pushed back to February 15 – nine days after its original scheduled date of February 6 – because of timing issues with running the necessary legal advertisement in newsprint.
During a January 5 special-called meeting of the Petal Board of Aldermen, board members agreed to postpone the date for the election because officials did not have sufficient time to inform the public of that matter in the legal section of The Pine Belt News, which by state law must run in the paper for three weeks prior to the election. Because the original election date was set at the January 2 board meeting – which was a Tuesday night – and legal notices in The Pine Belt News must be received no later than the Friday before the paper runs each Thursday, the election date was pushed back to comply with those specifications.
Polls will be open to all registered voters of Ward 2 from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. on February 15 at Calvary Baptist Church, 1123 Mississippi 42 in Petal. Any registered voter of Ward 2 who is in line by 7 p.m. that night will be entitled to cast a ballot.
The special election was necessitated after the August 8 primary election, when former Ward 2 Alderman Steve Stringer was elected to represent District 3 on the Forrest County Board of Supervisors.
The qualifying deadline for the election is 5 p.m. January 26. Because it is a special election, all candidates must run as Independents; as such, each candidate will be required to obtain 50 signatures from registered voters of Ward 2 prior to the qualifying deadline.
All necessary paperwork can be picked up at Petal City Hall, 119 West 8th Avenue in Petal.
“If they do it early enough, Melissa (Martin, city clerk) can check it in time,” Mayor Tony Ducker said. “The worst thing is, some people come in here on the last day and hand it in, and (our staff) hasn’t had time to check it.
“It may take them two or three days to check it, so the quicker (candidates) can get it in there, the quicker they can get pre-approved, so to speak.”
Stringer defeated former Forrest County District 3 Supervisor Burkett Ross in a close race in the primary election. Because there were no Democratic challengers for that seat, Stringer faced no opposition in the November 7 general election.
“It was really fun to see the energy that the board of supervisors took (on January 2, at Stringer’s first board meeting),” Ducker said. “There’s a lot of opportunity when you have change like this, but we’re about to have some change as well, so I’m looking forward to it.
“Whoever does get on board (to replace Stringer as alderman), the train has already left the station, so there’s some big decisions they’re going to have to make this year. So it’s very important that we get somebody who will come in there, put in the time and help us move forward.”
Stringer, who is the owner of Locke Extermination, was elected to the Petal Board of Aldermen in 2001. He ran against Ross in the 2019 county election, but was defeated by a slim margin.
Ross, who is the owner of Southern Bowling Lanes in Petal, represented District 3 on the board of Supervisors since 2012. He also served 33 years on the Forrest General Hospital Board of Trustees, as well as 22 years as a member of the AAA Ambulance board of directors.
The winner of Petal’s special election will fill out the remainder of Stringer’s term, which will expire in 2025. At that point, another regular election will be held to determine the next representative of Ward 2, along with the mayor and other members of the board of aldermen.
