A new face will be part of the Elizabethton City Council for the next four years.
During a viewing party at Beef ‘O ‘Brady’s in Elizabethton, a handful City Council candidates/members and city officials learned that Kim Birchfield secured the most votes during the election for City Council, earning 2,598. Mayor Curt Alexander finished second with 2478 and Jeff Treadway wrapped up the third and final spot for City Council with 2231, respectively. In the five person race, incumbent Bob Cable finished fourth with 2231 while Jennet Morgan earned 1199 votes. The three top candidates voted upon will serve on the Council.
Birchfield was quick to thank the citizens for the opportunity to join the Council for the next four years.
“I’m very appreciative of everyone’s support,” he said. “We worked hard during this election. I want to congratulate each of the candidates that ran in this race. It was a very clean campaign and I consider each of them my friends. I’m looking forward to what’s ahead.”
Mayor Alexander sat with his family during the night at the restaurant, going over the tallies as soon as they came in. At the end of the night, the mayor said he was appreciative for the citizens to allow him another four years to serve Elizabethton.
“I want to thank the citizens of Elizabethton for their votes,” Alexander said. “I love this place, there’s nowhere else I’d rather live in the world. I’d like to congratulate Mr. Birchfield and Mr. Treadway, I think we’ll make a great team on City Council and I’d also like to congratulate Mr. Cable and Ms. Morgan, they ran a great campaign. It’s been an honor and privilege to serve the past 12 years and I’m hope the next four are even better than the last 12.”
Treadway also expressed his thanks to the citizens, adding the Council has a loaded agenda ahead for the coming years.
“I’m very pleased and very happy,” Treadway said. “I feel like we’ve got some good things started as a Council. I appreciate the opportunity to continue what we started and the folks that came out and supported me to have another term with the Council.”
Work gets back into session Thursday with the regularly scheduled City Council meeting set for 6 p.m. at City Hall. With different items floating around, including the Elizabethton Twins, a search for a new police chief and other items coming through the pipeline, the mayor said officials will be busy.
“We’ve got a lot to do,” Alexander said. “We’ve got a lot of things to work on. It’s time to get to work.”
Treadway added he’s looking forward to working with Birchfield, and showing what the Council has up as far as projects go.
“It’ll take Kim a little while to see what we have going,” Treadway said. “And the direction we’ve been trying to steer with different things. There’s a lot of demands for projects … it’s going to be a challenge to set our priorities on what we will be able to afford.”
No stranger to the community, Birchfield said he is going to work hard with the councilmen and the school board and bring a common sense approach while serving the city.