CAIRO 鈥� Soon a city in Alexander County will be under new leadership.听
800 voters decided to elect a new mayor and four new commissioners while only re-electing one incumbent.听
Next month those five new leaders will walk into Cairo鈥檚 city hall for their first council meeting.听
Joining the new mayor and four council members will be one familiar face, commissioner of Ward 4, Danny Brown.听
"The people spoke differently and that鈥檚 what we have to deal with now," Brown said.听
News 3鈥檚 Emily Manley asked Brown if he was surprised at the newly elected.听
"Very much so," Brown said. "Very much so."
Simpson received 220 votes, beating candidate Kim Davis by five votes.听
Incumbent Mayor Tyrone Coleman lost to Thomas Simpson by 30 votes.听
Fourth candidate for mayor, Constance "Connie" Williams had 178 of the 800 votes.听
Brown said Simpson has worked for Cairo Public Utility for nearly 30 years.听
"He is very friendly," Brown said. "If he would come聽and check聽your meter and you were outside, he will talk to you."
Simpson also served as a commissioner on the Cairo City Council from 2011 until 2015.听
"So he has experience in government, he鈥檚 younger but he has experience," Brown said.听
This will be Brown鈥檚 second term as commissioner of Ward 4, but this time his brother will be joining him as commissioner of Ward 2.听
"I鈥檓 proud of him and I welcome him on board," Brown said. "But we are going to sit here and agree to disagree because everyone has their own perspective on how they want to run things."
In all, there were four commissioners elected on Tuesday:
- Thomas Burris 鈥撀燙ommissioner at large聽
- Rodney Moore 鈥� Ward 1
- Anthony Brown 鈥� Ward 2
- Ronald Harris 鈥� Ward 3聽
- Danny Brown 鈥� War 4
- Wesley Purchase 鈥� Ward 5
Brown says it鈥檚 their jobs as leaders to help turn Cairo around.听
"I was here when we had stores, more than one fire station, and聽police stations," Brown said. "We had everything. It can come back to that, but it has to take time and a group of organized people that really care."
Brown says he is聽concerned with the change in leadership because Mayor Coleman was working with a developer in Colorado to bring .听
Coleman was also working with lawmakers on building a on the Mississippi River.听
"The mayor was spearheading that and that鈥檚 why I hope that Mayor-elect Simpson and Mayor Coleman get together and channeling that information," Brown said." Cairo has the river and the rail, the gateway to the south."
Brown is also excited about the addition of Ronald Harris because he formerly was the street superintendent for the City of Cairo.听
Brown hopes one of the first topics the new council discusses is the infrastructure for the city鈥檚 pumps.
"We have to get rid聽of the water because if you can鈥檛 get rid of the water how can you bring someone else in here to do anything if they going to flooded out," Brown said. 聽
Brown says the new leaders will be sworn in on Thursday, May 2.
Click for the full election results from Alexander County.听
