Residents of Ward 3 in McComb will choose a new selectman for the first time since the mid-’90s next month after state Rep. David Myers’ seat was vacated in a court battle over dual service.
Four candidates have filed qualifying papers.
The deadline for any others is 5 p.m. Wednesday, with forms available at City Hall, 115 Third St.
Dennis Butler, Ernest Nobles, Thomas Sims and Gloria Y. Smith all have filed to run in the May 23 election.
Candidates must obtain the signature of 50 registered voters in Ward 3 and will be certified after the deadline.
In the meantime, the Enterprise-Journal takes a look today at four McComb residents hoping to be the newest face on the city board.
Dennis Butler has spent years constructing homes in Ward 3.
So when a spot on the city board came open, he quickly saw another chance to build.
“My candidacy stands for trying to revive Ward 3,” Butler, 54, said. “I think you have to come up with affordable homes and address the issue that it needs to be cleaned up. If the citizens that own the property don’t want to get it cleaned up, send a bill.”
To that end, Butler would like to see a new subdivision in the ward. He proposes greater city resources devoted to nuisance properties and problem addresses.
“We need to clean out the ditches more to beautify the ward,” he said. “We need to try to step up the police protection to show the citzens they’re being represented.”
But, Butler added, it’s not a matter of imposing a view of the way things should work on the ward. Nor is it about business opportunities for D.N.L. Construction, which he and his brother co-own.
Rather, it’s a matter of swaying people to that view and bringing them on board, he said.
In fact, Butler said he’d vote against his own ideas if they were unpopular in Ward 3 — though he’d continue to try to win over his constituents along the way.
“I will go with the people of Ward 3’s view because that’s who put me in office,” he said. “But I feel very confident. … You’ve got to be able to sit down and talk with people.”
Ultimately, Butler sees a vision rooted in getting everyone pulling the same direction, saying he will not be a pawn of previous political battles.
“I’m Dennis Butler, and I’ll represent the people of Ward 3,” he said. “If it takes me not being a Myers guy or a Patterson guy, then I’m sorry.
“I’m not going in there just to push my idea of the City of McComb. But there’s always room for better. You get new ideas in office and it’s going to be good.”
Butler touts his local ties as proof of his dedication.
He graduated from McComb High School in 1973 and studied electrical wiring at Southwest Mississippi Community College in 1976. He’s worked with Magnolia Electric Power Association for 27 years.
He said he hoped the local perspective would help when it came time for difficult decisions on which he might be a deciding vote.
“One person can’t just eat up all the dinner,” Butler said. “That’s easier said than done, but you have to sit there and hammer that out. You have to take care of your people first, but you can’t put the whole pie in your ward.”
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Ernest Nobles’ campaign is based on a politically unconventional premise: Nobles believes he can get 18- to 35-year-olds in McComb excited.
It’s a “five-generation plan” that Nobles says is about more than politics — it’s about community action.
“To me, I’m in that middle generation,” he said, referencing a work ethic he attributes to his parents and grandparents. “I learned from two generations; now I have two generations that I have to teach.”
Nobles said that too often people don’t know the proper channels for accomplishing things and let frustration turn into apathy.
“I believe in my soul that if we knew the importance of getting involved in the political structure in this country, we wouldn’t give up the opportunity to vote so easily by selling drugs or being a convicted felon,” he said. “The voting-est people are the hoping-est people. You can’t complain about your situation with your politicians doing you wrong if you don’t get out there and vote.”
If he’s elected, Nobles would like to hold monthly meetings to talk with Ward 3 residents.
“I want to be seen; I want to be accessible,” Nobles said. “I want people to know that the man that you’re electing is going to represent you to the fullest.”
For the city, he would like to see a focus on businesses and schools.
“We have to have a basis here so we can get more industry here in McComb,” Nobles said. “We have to get to a technology base for jobs, and we have to educate people so they will be ready for those jobs when they come.”
The 1991 graduate of McComb High School and 1997 graduate of Texas Southern University has fond memories of Pop Warner football and continues to grow the family cleaners in town.
He holds a degree in environmental health and is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and Walker Chapel Free Will Baptist Church.
“This place means a lot to me,” Nobles said of the city. “I could have come back to McComb and went and moved into one of the newly formed subdivisions, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to be surrounded by my familiar surroundings. … We’re putting coals on a fire here. We’re trying to get the steam going up. … I’m in it to help someone.”
Nobles said getting out the vote can make that happen.
“Don’t give up what so many people worked hard for you to get just because you don’t think it will count,” he said. “One man can’t pick up a refrigerator. But if we get several people together, all working in one accord, it can go anywhere you want it to go.”
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Thomas Sims once helped with state Sen. Kevin Butler’s election campaign.
That experience helped the 51-year-old McComb resident realize he wants to pitch in, too.
So he has a single message for Ward 3 voters: “I will be a person that has their back on the board.”
Sims, a 1974 McComb High School graduate, attended Southwest Mississippi Community College in 1977, is a Mason, has worked for Relay for Life and the American Heart Association and attends Bethel Methodist Church on Dinwiddie Street.
With Myers vacating his seat, Sims said he sees a chance to bring his energies to the city board table.
“David Myers was a fine selectman,” Sims said. “And Mr. Myers will be sorely missed on that board down there because one thing that David tried to do is speak out. People really respected him for that. … I would like to carry on the tradition that Mr. Myers started, but … I think I can work with the mayor, I really do.
“I’m not going to agree with everything that the mayor or the board brings about, but I’m going to try to be my own man. But I think that when there is a strong, strong disagreement, some people can agree to disagree. … and maybe later on, you bring up the same issue. You just don’t quit. You just continue to bring it up, and maybe in time you can be able to win them over.”
As for his platform, Sims said in talking with people in Ward 3 he’s already gotten a few ideas.
One is better lighting for safety at night. Another is speed bumps on Elmwood street for the safety of school children. And a third is looking at ways to work with churches to use vehicles to help people struggling with gas prices.
Sims also said that getting the most qualified people on McComb’s school board is important — “people who went through the McComb public school system and have our children in mind,” he said of who would be most suitable for that board.
But his strongest conviction, Sims said, isn’t any particular idea, but a peace-keeping approach.
“I have found that when you talk to people man on man, things have a tendency to go better,” he said. “When you put issues out there for the public viewing, then people have a tendency to be on guard and they’ll be a little more hesitant to say the things they really feel.”
Call it a bottom-line belief.
“I think that I can be a service on the board, and I think that I can help the people in Ward 3,” he said. “I want to be able to speak for those who can’t speak for themselves.”
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Gloria Y. Smith, 53, has seen clean-up efforts around McComb increase in recent years. Now, she wants to help lead the charge.
Smith said she has been impressed by the clean-up efforts in areas of the ward, and says her campaign is about a desire to spearhead a movement that will spur even greater participation.
“It’s a city-wide thing, true enough,” Smith said. “But within that ward especially, I want to keep it where when tourists come and family members come; they won’t be like ‘McComb is a run-down area.’ ”
Smith ends her conversations with “Thank you sweetly” and says, “I don’t know if this matters” of her work with the March of Dimes in response to questions about her past experience and readiness for the job.
But she said her life has been “a learning experience” to prepare her to hit the ground running.
Smith was born in Lincoln County and raised in Amite County. She has spent 25 years in Pike County, with 12 of those in McComb.
She was a 21-year employee of JC Penney and has worked with church and volunteer groups such as the Society Dames Club and the Progressive Women’s Club.
“You learn as you go and participate in things and see how things work,” she said. “I’m pretty fast catching on. I always liked that kind of hands-on training.”
The clean-up focus, Smith adds, is also about unity.
“The hardest thing is to get participation,” she said. “But we should work together. I know some are trying more so than others, but I know it could be better. It’s about everybody coming together and making up their minds that we’re going to do it.”
And for Smith, that means an opportunity to get to know the people she hopes to serve.
“The main thing is to get to know more of these citizens within that ward,” she said. “Visit with them, talk with them more and encourage them if possible to be at as many board meetings as possible. And if there’s something I’ve omitted, pull my coattail and bring it to my attention.”
Most importantly, Smith said, she’ll make that easy to do.
“I’m just a phone call away,” Smith said. “If you don’t catch me at home, I’m more than happy to give you a cell phone number. I’ll come see what the issue is and we’ll do our best to see what we can do about it.”
