Incumbents Taylor, Patterson keep positions, Pierson voted in
With 490 votes tallied in Tuesday night’s municipal elections, the incumbent mayor Patrick Taylor was reelected, incumbent commissioner Amy Patterson was reelected and former commissioner Eric Pierson was elected to serve on the Highlands Board of Commissioners once again.
In the mayoral race, Taylor ended the night with 343 votes, 70 percent. His competitor, current commissioner Marc Hehn ended with 145, 29.59 percent. There were two write in votes.
In the race for commissioners, which had two spots open, Patterson came in first with 261 votes, 29.06 percent and Pierson came in second with 238 votes, 26.50 percent.
In his speech last night after winning, Taylor said that he felt humbled and grateful for the support he received during his campaign.
“The negativity that was projected about this town has been rebuked,” Taylor said. “We need to move forward. Yes, we have challenges, but we can work together, and this vote has proved that we can work together and move forward as a community.”
Early on Tuesday morning, a photo was passed around social media of a double rainbow over the town. Taylor referenced the photo in his speech, saying it was a sign of positivity moving forward.
“This place is special,” Taylor said. “And that photo gave me a good feeling that we are moving forward. On Halloween night, I worked passing out hot dogs as a Rotarian and I was amazed at the amount of people that came out. This is a special place. This is a wonderful place. I love this town. We do not want to get bogged down in negative rhetoric about what we didn’t do or what we should do. We have a positive vision of this community. We will work together to preserve what is so special about this community. To preserve this sense of community and protect this special plateau environment.”
There were several people Taylor thanked for help in his campaign.
“The first person I want to thank is my wife Sallie,” Taylor said. “Sallie has always been so supportive and understood that I am on duty. We have been married for 41 years and she has been my positive advisory. There are times where I am mad and she is a former middle school teacher and she always says, ‘You must stay calm and positive.’ There are so many people I want to thank. First of all, I want to thank the town board for those four commissioners’ support. We all work together for the betterment of this community. I also want to thank our town staff and our town manager Josh Ward. They are professional and holding the best interest of the community. They have been under a lot of pressure over the last few years, but they have continued to be professional. Another group I want to honor is the 180 people who voluntarily contributed to this campaign. They were concerned about the future of this community. I will stand by this, these people care about Highlands and they wanted us to move forward. I want to thank Jim Tate, he endorsed me and has always been supportive of me and this community. I want to thank Bob Scott, the mayor of Franklin, he also endorsed me. Another group is a group I like to call the voluntary volunteers. They stepped forward and asked how they could help. I appreciate the people that were willing to put out yard signs. The real critical thing for me in this campaign, I was facing some very stiff competition and when I first started running, I knew I couldn’t do it by myself. The first person I want to thank is my fishing partner Stell Huie. Wendell Willard stepped forward with his expertise and has done a wonderful job in the finance department. Then, we have had a great media campaign, and the person that did that was Margo Teed. The other person that was critical was Matt Everett, our master of social media. Then, I needed someone who could give an overview of the campaign. Mike Hightower was the man to do it. He told me to keep my mind on the positive things. He was my political advisor. Another group I want to recognize is the Highlanders for Good Government. They formed a group, which I think is very important for this community. They are going to be the watch dogs to make sure our decisions are good for this community.”
Pierson said he felt very happy and delighted to have the support of people in the community.
“I don’t really have a set agenda,” Pierson said. “There are some projects that I want to follow up on that I brought up to the board back when I was serving, but in this municipality, there are a lot of issues that come up and I want to fight through those and make things better for the town. I would like to thank Margo Teed, and everybody that supported me in this. I’m just glad that I got all of the support I did. There’s a lot of hot button issues and the town is looking at some struggles, but I’m ready to work with the commission and make this town better.”
Patterson thanked all of the supporters and people who have been encouraging.
“I pretty much do what I’m going to do, but I always think about what I’m doing,” Patterson said. “I’ve been on the board for 30 years and I don’t make the same decisions now as I did then. Things change, circumstances change, but I still try and understand what the future is. It’s always that balance of where you want to get to and how to get there without making any problems.”
- By Christopher Smith