Canton incumbents to carry on
After a long day at the polls, Ralph Hamlett and Gail Mull were heading to The Imperial on election night to celebrate their re-election to the Canton Board of Aldermen.
Relieved that the votes went in their favor, they are excited to begin their first full four-year term on the board so they can continue what they started in the last two years.
“This means that people trust what we’ve done for the town of Canton and they honored us with the privilege to serve them for four more years,” Hamlett said.
It’s been a whirlwind two years for incumbents Hamlett and Mull. Two years has been enough time to start some initiatives to get Canton moving but not enough to see the light at the end of the tunnel, the both said. Mull and Hamlett wanted four more years to get the momentum going in Canton.
Mull could barely contain her excitement when the final results came in, which had her as the top vote-getter. She said the results show that the board is on the right track.
If the election was a popularity contest, she and Hamlett feared they would be ousted, but their re-election gave Mull a sense of vindication for the work they’ve done.
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“We are elated. We have persevered and the town of Canton is the real winner in this because we will be able to complete what we started — the momentum will continue,” she said.
They say their goals will be the same moving into a second term — kick start economic development downtown, work on improving infrastructure to attract new businesses and see the town’s public pool renovation project through to fruition.
With signs encouraging residents to vote for Hamlett and Mull, the two incumbents stuck close together to get re-elected.
“We’ve had so many ambitious initiatives — now we keep on,” Hamlett said. “We look at what we’ve done and see if it’s working — some of our initiatives may need tweaking but we’ll keep working hard to meet the challenges before us.”
Neal McCracken and Kate Brown, who are both longtime residents who have been involved in town committees and projects, were challenging the incumbents for office. Brown serves on the town’s appearance committee and McCracken serves on the Canton ABC Board and helped start the MaterFest in Canton.
The challengers know Canton fairly well, but they were unable to convey how they would lead the town any differently than Mull and Hamlett have in the last two years. Brown did mention some disappointment with changes made to the Labor Day festivities, but those changes resulted in record attendance this year.
Alderman Zeb Smathers was pleased with the election results and sees it as a testament to what the board has accomplished in the last two years. While there is still much to be done, he said he was proud to be part of the team that has accomplished so much.
The board hired a new town manager, approved raises for employees without raising taxes, installed new water meters that will be more efficient, fought to keep Camp Hope, revamped the Labor Day celebration, put policies in place to encourage economic development for the mill town and began the process of replacing the town’s public pool.
“Four years ago I was part of a team that set out with a clear vision to accomplish specific tasks to make Canton better,” he said. “The voters of Canton got behind Ralph and Gail — but it’s not so much a vote for them as much as it is a vote for what we’ve all been doing as a team.”
