Nine vying for Wesson municipal posts

By Bob Arnold

Nine candidates are vying for Mayor, Alderman-at-Large and Aldermen representing Ward 1, 2,3 and 4 in Wesson municipal election June 3.

Only two races – the contests for Mayor and Alderman-at-Large – are competitive, with the incumbent Aldermen in the four wards running unopposed.

Wesson Mayor Race

Alton Shaw Teri Bath

In the Mayoral contest, incumbent Alton Shaw faces a challenge from Teri Bath, a relative newcomer to town with family roots in Wesson.

Shaw has served 22 years as Mayor, more than half the nearly 40 years he has been a resident-citizen of Wesson after settling here with his father, who served as police chief, and his mother, a church secretary. 

The Mayor graduated from Wesson Attendance Center, worked with the Wesson Volunteer Fire Department when he was 19 years old, and has a Master's Degree qualifying him as a Family Nurse Practitioner. He has been involved with the Chamber of Commerce, Friends of the Library and Wesson Lions Club.  He and his wife Christy started a Christian non-profit organization that raises funds to combat human trafficking.  They have two children, Benjamin and Parker.

Bath resettled in Wesson with her husband Ron, a real estate developer, four years ago from Reno, Nevada, bringing a background in economic development that has shaped her perspective and vision of leading the Chamber of Commerce, which she now serves as president.

Bath’s husband of 43 years, Ron Bath, is a real estate developer, and she also worked in commercial real estate for 20 years as a property owner and agent.  She and her husband have six children, 13 grandchildren and one great grandchild. 

Wesson Alderman-At-Large Race

Cathy Stroud Stanley Martin Chad Sills

The crowded Alderman-at-Large race pits community activist Cathy Stroud, who directs Keep Copiah County Beautiful and whose volunteer activities encompass veterans organizations and Mississippi Health Ambassadors, against Stanley Martin, who is active in church leadership, and businessman Chad Sills. 

Wesson Alderman Race

Larry Hall Jarrad Ashley Billy Ellison Mike King

In the uncontested Aldermen races, the incumbent candidates are:

• Ward 1’s Larry Hall, who visited Wesson in 1985, decided to stay, and met and married his wife of 29 years, Melanie Wilkinson Hall.  He does volunteer work, including fundraising for Socks for Heroes and various local charities.

  
  

• Ward 2’s Jarrad Ashley, who was born in McComb, grew up in Brookhaven and worked in construction with his father Larry.  He studied business for two years at Co-Lin, while also working for his father at the Shop 'N Wash, and worked six years in Atlanta area restaurants.  He manages local a restaurant, with seafood specialties, which he calls Z&Z in honor of the children he and his wife Brittany are raising -- Zoey, 6, Zada, 4, and Zane, an infant. 

  
  

• Ward 3’s Billy Ellison, who was born in Dr. Friedman's office in September, 1960, one hundred yards from where he grew up and has continued to live and work in sales-related and maintenance jobs in the area. 

  
  

• Ward 4’s Mike King, President and CEO of Summerwind Consultants, Inc., which develops antiterrorism and risk management decision-support software tools.  He spearheaded development of the Wesson Veterans Memorial.  A Brookhaven native, he graduated from Florida State University and started a law enforcement career with the Brookhaven Police Department, which he continued as a military policeman after being commissioned as a U.S. Marine Corps officer in 1983. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and U.S. Army Command and Staff College, holding a Master of  Military Art and Science.  He received the Legion of Merit Award, Defense Meritorious Service Meda and the Presidential Service Badge.

Wesson City Hall is the voting site for the election from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on June 3, with absentee voting underway throughout May on weekdays (8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.) and on Saturdays, May 24 and 31 (8 a.m. to 12 noon).