New mayor, commissioners for Newberry

 L-R:  Newberry City Clerk Gayle Pons administers the oath of office to newly elected Mayor Bill Conrad Wednesday morning.

It was a long six weeks of campaigning, but three have emerged victorious. Newberry has a new mayor and two new commissioners.

Bill Conrad, former Commissioner of Group 4, won the mayoral seat with a total of 503 votes, to Harry Nichols’s 316 and Debbie Campbell’s 41.

Conrad was not at the Newberry Fire Department, at 310 NW 250^th Street, when the results were announced just before 8 p.m. Tuesday. He heard the results over speakerphone from his campaign manager as he waited with his family and friends at Villaggio’s Pizzeria down the road.

“I’m very excited, very happy and a little exhausted,” Conrad said. “In six weeks I think I’ve knocked on about 1,000 doors and have about 17 pages of notes on what the city wants.”

Conrad said his first job will be to meet with the commission and see if the “new blood” is on the same page with the rest of the commission or if the city’s vision for the future will need to be “tweaked a bit.”

The “new blood” he is referring to is Robert Fillyaw, who won the Group 4 seat Conrad vacated with 644 votes, and Jordan Marlowe, who won the Group 5 seat with 526 votes.  Fillyaw was challenged by Barry Green, Sr. who picked up 182 votes.  Marlowe, meanwhile, faced off against two others including incumbent commissioner Monty Farnsworth who garnered 223 votes and Mike Durst who pulled down 101 votes.

“I’m ecstatic, elated, very, very happy,” Fillyaw said.

Fillyaw said it was difficult to wait for the results after a busy two months.

“Anytime you’re waiting on results for something you’ve worked hard on, it makes you nervous,” he said.

Marlowe was happy to receive the news as well. He looks forward to serving on the city commission and thanked Farnsworth for running a clean race.

“It was a hectic seven weeks, but now I can get down to the work of being a commissioner,” Marlowe said.

About 40 people were gathered outside the fire station Tuesday night for the results. The newly elected officials were sworn in at City Hall Wednesday at 11 a.m.  The commission chambers were packed with a standing room only crowd who witnessed the swearing in ceremony and congratulated the commissioners on their victories.

Of the 3,167 registered voters in Newberry, more than 850 voted in Tuesday’s election, a 27 percent turnout.

Commissioners unanimously selected sitting Commissioner Joe Hoffman as Chair Pro-Tempore, meaning he would serve as chairman in Conrad’s absence.