Alderman- pick four

• James Mashburn, 65, Retired Dayco shift supervisor and tax appraiser Haywood County*

• Gary Cochran, 51, general contractor with Cochran Enterprises*

• Carroll Mease, 66, Realtor with Main Street Reality in Waynesville*

• James Trantham, 62, retired Blue Ridge Paper maintenance and engineering supervisor*

• Alan Trantham, 38, owner of Domestic Auto

• Albert Rhodes, 85, retired US Airforce and retired from Waynesville water maintenance department

* Incumbent

For the first time in a long time, voters in Clyde will have a slate of candidates to chose from when they go to the polls to elect their town leaders.

In recent history, Clyde’s town board members have always gotten their seat by being appointed to it, usually to fill a vacancy left by an old board member who either passed away or stepped down mid-term due to health reasons. Someone who is appointed to a seat has to run for it in subsequent elections, but it has been at least two decades since someone simply stepped forward, ran and was elected.

Breaking that mold this year are Alan Trantham and Albert Rhodes.

Trantham said he has a good feel for the town thanks to his job as the owner of Domestic Auto where customers getting their vehicles fixed fill him in on their thoughts.

“People come in and sit down and talk to you all day long. They would like to see change and they are looking to me to initialize it,” Trantham said.

“One person can’t change it all, but one person can show four other people how to do something different.”

Meanwhile, Rhodes is a regular to political elections, having run for county commission in at least the past three county elections but garnering few votes.

“As I go along in my later years I would like to be of service,” Rhodes said of his bid for office.

Challenger Alan Trantham said Clyde has not realized its full potential.

“It is the best town out of the whole county to start a small business. I want people to come to Clyde and stop in Clyde instead of driving on by,” he said. “If I don’t get on, I am going to run again. I am not going to get discouraged. Even if me running against them makes them change, then I will have accomplished my goal.”

Rhodes said the five-lane road through Clyde needs to recruit some chain fast food restaurants.

“If we could get some fast foods in there like McDonald’s or some of the other fast food business,” Rhodes said. “I would cater to some chains that would help bring some jobs into Clyde.”

Focus on the flood

All the incumbents are supporting each other and running as a team to get back in office together. The incumbents claim there is no need for change on the town board.

“I think we have an excellent board and we work well together,” said Alderman Carroll Mease.

Alderman James Trantham said residents are satisfied with the current board.

“The people have expressed confidence in me by electing me two times,” Trantham said, adding that both times he ran unopposed, however.

Incumbents said they have an edge over the challengers because they are versed in the on-going flood recovery process.

“The connections we’ve got in Raleigh, with the federal government, I think it would be very important to continue with those especially at this point in time,” said Alderman Gary Cochran.

Flood recovery topped the list of topics discussed in the election. All incumbents talked about the efforts to rebuild Clyde and said things are finally starting to come together. A big piece of the puzzle is a downtown revitalization plan recently funded with a $750,000 grant from the state.

“The downtown area is going to look wonderful,” Mease said.

Meanwhile, to help the town’s flooded out residents, a 27-acre tract was secured just outside of town for a 46-home neighborhood for flood victims. A private developer is launching another 17-home subdivision in Clyde.

As these new neighborhoods are built, a lot of the flooded property along the river will be abandoned, bulldozed and turned over to the town. The incumbents plan to use the vacant property for riverside parks, greenways and community gardens and agriculture.

Rhodes’ idea is to build sheds for an open-air flea market to house weekly flea markets and bring traffic into town.

All the vacant flood property means Clyde could be facing a mini financial crisis. The flooded homeowners that used to pay property tax no longer are, leaving a hole in the town’s budget.

Challenger Alan Trantham said the town is going to have to expand its town limits, annexing neighborhoods to collect more property tax.

“We lost $70,000 out of our budget and that’s three wages and we only have five employees,” Trantham said.

But most of the incumbents are shying away from annexation. Only Alderman James Trantham spoke favorably about annexing new areas.

Challenger Alan Trantham said that while flood recovery is vital, Clyde’s other residents have been ignored in the past year. At least one incumbent has a similar concern.

“We’ve got a lot of people who wasn’t flooded and we still have to take care of them. They’ve just been great working with us while we focus on all the people who were flooded, so I don’t want to forget them,” Alderman James Mashburn said. “We still have a lot of work to do.”