Friday, Feb. 27, 2009

Three seek Atlantic Beach council seat

The special election for the open seat on the Atlantic Beach Town Council will feature two candidates familiar to voters and one newcomer to town, after filing for the race ended at noon today.

The candidates are Josephine Isom, a longtime town resident who has made several previous bids for council, former Town Councilman John Sketers and Kantrese Wright, an Horry-Georgetown Technical College student making her first bid for public office.

The election will be April 14 to fill the Town Council seat left open when Retha Pierce was elected mayor last month. The winner will serve until November, the remainder of Pierce's council term.

Melton Gore, who filed to run on Thursday, withdrew his name because of a possible conflict with his job as an Horry County Police officer, town officials said. He could not be reached for comment.

Sketers, who filed Friday, said he did not originally intend to run but decided to after hearing that Gore had dropped out.

For more details, check back with www.TheSunNews.com later today or see Saturday's print edition of The Sun News.