Batesville voters overwhelmingly elected 35-year-old Teddy Morrow as alderman-at-large in Tuesday’s general election, putting a new candidate in that seat for the first time in 20 years.

Voters on Tuesday also chose to keep the other two ward aldermen who faced opposition in the election.
In the at-large race, Morrow handily defeated Ed Allen, 64, for the open alderman’s seat.
Morrow pulled in 75 percent of the general election vote to Allen’s 22 percent, 1,413 votes to 424, a spread of 989 votes of 1,881 cast.

The at-large seat opened up after five-term Alderman-at-Large Hudson Still gave up the seat to run for mayor.

Morrow advanced to the general election after defeating radio station owner J. Boyd Ingram in a runoff. The two candidates tied in the primary.

Morrow and the city’s four ward aldermen, as well as mayor-elect Jerry Autrey, will be sworn into office July 4.

The at-large alderman’s position pays $14,308 a year while the ward alderman positions pay $12,945 a year.

The Batesville mayor’s office pays $56,381 annually.

At age 35, Morrow is the youngest city official by 21 years. The next youngest official is Autrey, 57.

Morrow stressed economic development and support for Panola Partnership during his campaign, his first run for public office.

Morrow owns two downtown clothing stores, Williams and Stubbs.

He is a member of the Downtown Merchants Association,?Panola Partnership, and is president of J.P. Hudson Park.

The alderman-elect also defended the city’s expenditures on the downtown Square, where Memorial Park was dedicated in recent months and a street overlay is planned.

Morrow is married to the former Allyson Williams. They have three daughters, Mary Jane, 11, Julianna, 9, and Isabella, 2.

A Stubbs employee said the alderman-elect took his family on vacation Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. They were set to return to Batesville Thursday.

In other alderman’s races, voters returned incumbents Bill Dugger and Bobbie Jean Pounders to their ward seats.

Dugger and Pounders will return to city government along with Ward 2 Alderman Rufus Manley and Ward 3 Alderman James Yelton.

Manley and Yelton beat Democratic challengers in the primary.

Dugger defeated Republican Danny Jones in the general election, keeping his seat after the incumbent and challenger reportedly ran a gentleman’s race for the seat.

Dugger, who will now serve his third term, pulled in 61 percent of the vote, or 425 votes. Jones pulled in 37 percent of the vote, or 259 votes.

Dugger and Jones stressed economic development and city spending during the campaign.

In Ward 4, four-term incumbent Alderman Bobbie Jean Pounders defeated Republican challenger Michael Harbour. Harbour was making his first run for public office.

Pounders captured 62 percent of the vote, or 300 votes, compared to 33 percent or 160 votes for Harbour.

Pounders advanced to the general election after defeating Wayne Thompson, another first-time candidate, in the Democratic primary.

During the campaign, Pounders defended city expenditures on the Square and voiced support for Dr. Bob Corkern’s planned purchase of Tri-Lakes Medical Center.

"I want to thank the voters for their support. It’s my privilege to serve the city of Batesville for another four years," Pounders said Wednesday.
    

Chris Olson has been named fire services coordinator and Rip Copeland will be fire safety educator, according to City of Batesville Fire Chief Tim Taylor.

In a recent interview, Taylor said these and other changes in the department will mean better fire protection for the people of the city. The need for reorganization has been present in the department for quite some time, he said.

The department has career firefighter and paid on-call firefighter. Both Copeland and Olson fall under the career firefighter.

Taylor said the department would handle the reorganization in two phases with phase one creating the positions of fire services coordinator and shift leader positions and establishing a ladder truck lieutenant.

Olson is responsible for updating the department’s standard operation guidelines and the city’s disaster operations plan. He also is responsible for researching what grants may be available to the department.

During phase two of the program, the position of fire safety educator will be created, three full-time personnel will be hired, and a firefighter ranking system will be established.

"The new full-time hires are budgeted positions that we have to fill vacancies in the department," Taylor said.

The chief indicated that Rip Copeland would receive the position of fire safety educator.

"Rip has been working in the schools and with our various community education projects for quite some time," he said. "We would like to see him brought on board for a five-day week to improve this service."

"The people we have designated as shift leaders are senior members of the department," Taylor said. "They will be acting as the shift supervisor, but they will still respond to calls.

"They are firefighters, no matter what their title is," he added.

Taylor said these changes would be a step in the right direction for improving the city’s fire rating.

The lower the city’s fire rating, the lower the price of fire insurance.

"I’m not going to say it will get us from a six to a five on rating, but it will get us on the right track once we complete the reorganization," he said.

Other responsibilities for Olson include but are not limited to the following:
    

"There was a need for additional full-time supervision," he said. "By reorganizing the department, we get that by simply designating some of our existing personnel as supervisors."

The Batesville Fire Department runs three shifts of firefighter. A standard shift is 24 hours.

The shift leaders’ new responsibilities include: