Heggie enters chancery clerk race

By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
Feb. 26, 2003
Wallace Heggie of Meridian jumped into the Lauderdale County chancery clerk's race on Tuesday, challenging incumbent Ann Wilson Hayes in the Republican Party primary.
Heggie, 59, is the purchasing agent for the city of Meridian. Heggie and Hayes will meet in the Aug. 5 GOP primary.
The chancery clerk serves as clerk to the board of supervisors and chancery court. The clerk also maintains land records and serves as the county treasurer and county auditor.
The chancery clerk keeps up with the county payroll, pays county bills, files chancery court cases and issues legal notices in divorces, estates, adoptions, guardianships, and conservatorship.
Hayes, 63, is in her eighth year as chancery clerk. She has worked in the office for a total of 24 years as a deputy under four chancery clerks.
Hayes said she has advanced her office with the installation of computers. She said she wants to place computers in the office's court department to make records more available.
She said she wants to continue to transfer records into the county's archives department and she would like to see the board of supervisors approve a new chancery building to give her office more space.
Hayes said many county governments are moving their chancery clerk offices from courthouses to allow more space for records and archives, accessible in one location.
Heggie, a former county administrator, Meridian city manager and chief administrative officer, held a press conference at the Lauderdale County courthouse on Tuesday to announce his campaign.
Heggie said county government got into his blood from the time he served as county administrator in the 1970s. He said he has thought of running for chancery clerk whenever election time rolls around.