Wednesday, Nov. 04, 2009

Carolina Shores sees two new faces

CAROLINA SHORES, N.C. -- Two new faces will appear on the Carolina Shores Board of Commissioners. C

Carolina Shores voters appear to have decided overwhelmingly, according to a machine count reported by precinct poll worker Leah Pressel.

"We got the mandate we wanted," said Joyce Dunn, who ran as a team with Walter Goodenough to defeat incumbent Commissioner Gere Dale.

Voters also overwhelmingly demanded in a referendum that the town return to a mayor-council form of government. Those who cast votes apparently agreed the council acted too quickly in switching from that form earlier this year.

"We want the citizens to feel valued and involved," Dunn said.

A bitter race that split the town blossomed from discontent over the form of government change, an issue that galvanized some residents into the Concerned Citizens of Carolina Shores.

The group backed Dunn and Goodenough.

Dale, who could not be reached for comment, unsuccessfully maintained that Mayor Steve Selby was the real issue in the election, and that only his reelection would assure that Selby's effort to illegally run the day-to-day operations of the town would be checked.

Dale said he believes that the new board will move to fire Town Manager Linda Herncane and that Dunn will then resign her elected seat to take Herncane's job.

Dunn called that nonsense and pledged not to accept the job even if it were to come open. She said she is not committed to firing Herncane.

The campaign was even more bitter than that waged on Holden Beach in the 2005 and 2007 elections.

Those were marked by the same kinds of charges of government mismanagement that pervaded this year's Carolina Shores election.

But the Carolina Shores race was populated with more and more vicious behind the scenes rumors than happened in either of the Holden Beach races.