Not everyone was anxious to announce their candidacy early last week. Some opted to announce on the last day.

The Democrats qualified 17 candidates for various offices. The Republicans, who might have pulled off the largest showing in local history, have four running.

Most of the Democrats qualified by mid-week. The Republicans, however, waited until the end of the week to show their hand.

Chattooga County Election Superintendent Jon Payne set up two tables in the courthouse lobby – one for each party to use to qualify candidates.

The Democrats were present during all the qualifying time last week. The Republicans did not use the courthouse. They qualified candidates elsewhere and did not bring any paperwork to the courthouse until mid-morning Friday.

The race with the most opponents turned out to be for county commissioner. On the Democrat side, Incumbent Mike Dawson, Blake Jones, Joe Reed and Jason Winters qualified.

Local businessman Charles Black decided to run on the Republican ticket. He said he thought about running on the Democratic ticket, but said he decided to run as a conservative because that was his values. He said he wanted people picking him because of his values and ideas and not because of what party he is affiliated with.

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By JASON ESPY

Staff Writer

A councilman threatened to walk out and another councilman suggested being an Indian-giver and implied giving the Trion Mayor control would be like a “dictatorship.”

The fuss began when Councilman Johnny Simmons began questioning Mayor Benny Perry’s purchase of two radar units for the Georgia State Patrol. The council was mad because they did not approve the radar units.

The mayor has a spending limit of $5,000. The radar units cost $2,900 each. So the mayor ordered one in February and one in March and kept within his spending limit, he said.

“Mayor, I may be missing something. But I don’t know why this is on the proposed agenda, because this is already a done deal.” Councilman Simmons said. “Why should we even discuss it because they have already been purchased?”

“No they haven’t. They’ve not been paid for,” Mayor Perry said.

“I thought the checks have already been cut,” Simmons said.

“They’ve been installed,” Mayor Perry said.

“They’ve been installed because the Sergeant (Trooper Scott Thompson) has got one and he was just in my yard a few minutes ago and he’s got one. He was thanking me for it. I said don’t thank me. I didn’t have anything to do with it,” Simmons said.