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Q - newberry city hallNEWBERRY – Three Newberry city commission seats are up for election this April 12, only one of which is being contested.

Monty Farnsworth and Jason McGehee will be reelected without opposition, while Commissioner Rick Coleman is being challenged by Darryl Bowdoin.

Coleman has over 20 years of experience in banking and has served two years as city commissioner thus far.

He was born in Jacksonville but spent most of his life in Mayo. He has been married to his wife Marcy for 17 years and has three children. He has been involved with coaching local sporting teams and is a local business owner of Coleman Softwashing.

“Everything I ran on, we’ve done,” Coleman said. “We’ve lowered taxes, we’ve cut the budget. I don’t know why [Bowdoin is] challenging me.”

Bowdoin is a fifth generation Newberry native. He has been married to his wife Jodi for 31 years, and they have two grown children who attended Newberry schools.

Bowdoin is the Operations Manager at Little River Marine in Gainesville and has held other work-related leadership positions for the past 26 years.

He has also served as football and softball coach for the City of Newberry youth teams for several years, according to his Facebook page.

“I was asked by numerous citizens to run,” Bowdoin said. “People now ask me all the time, ‘What is your platform?’ and I want what the people want. I want to bring the community together. Perhaps the commissioners have lost touch with the community.”

Bowdoin explained that he had a long and complicated struggle with the City in June due to the way his driveway was set up, and part of the reason he is running is to bring attention to the community.

“When you go to the doctor’s office, you have a survey in your email even before you get home. I feel like there should be some sort of survey with the commissioners, and some sort of evaluation,” Bowdoin said.

Newberry Mayor Bill Conrad said that the commissioners work well together, but anyone who is qualified has a right to run.

“I have friends who have Ricky signs in their front yards,” Bowdoin said, “That’s fine, and we will still remain friends after the election. I just want people to vote, and let their voices be heard.”

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