John Brand elected Hickory mayor

By By William F. West / community editor
April 2, 2003
HICKORY In a close special election here Tuesday, voters decided acting Mayor John Brand should hold the job full time.
In unofficial returns, Brand, a Republican, defeated Michael Evans, a Democrat, 104 to 97. Brand said the contest went as he expected.
If Evans had won, Brand said, "I was not going to have any ill feelings either way."
Evans said he will run again.
Brand, 35, a plumber, will serve the remaining 18 months left in the four-year term of former Mayor Wayne Griffith. Brand said Hickory will pay him $200 a week as mayor.
Before his victory, Brand was an alderman and mayor pro tem. He had taken over as interim chief executive after Griffith quit March 4 to run for a Newton County Justice Court judgeship.
Brand said he wants to seek grant dollars to help the town because it doesn't have the tax base for projects. He also said the town must secure an occupant for an abandoned, deteriorating middle school building, an eyesore along U.S. 80.
Brand said Hickory will repair a deteriorating roof on the town's gazebo. "There's a lot of things that we need to be doing that we haven't done in the past," he said.
Brand chaired the board of aldermen meeting Tuesday night as election commissioners counted the voting results in the back of the town hall.
It took the commissioners about 30 minutes to complete the tally as Evans and about 15 of his supporters watched.
Election commissioners received four affidavit ballots Tuesday. They voided three of them for lack of proper voter registration and will have to verify the fourth one.
A special election will be necessary to fill Brand's position on the board.