Almost a year after Melissa Meek-Phelps surprised the Panola County Board of Supervisors with a letter of resignation, the county will have an elected and sworn Circuit Clerk serving in the position next week.

Supervisors were told in Monday’s meeting that Heather Turner will take the oath of office when the Election Commission has certified the results of last week’s runoff election, which Turner won handily with 68 percent of the votes cast.

Turner, who worked as a deputy clerk in the office for 12 years under Meek-Phelps, received 3,072 votes to the 1,467 votes cast for Teresa “Chelle” Dishmon. Just 20 percent of the county’s registered voters returned to the polls for the runoff.

Turner and Dishmon almost split precinct wins (11 to 10), but overwhelming majorities at the Cliff Finch building, Extension Office, Eureka, Black Jack, and Batesville Courthouse propelled Turner to the landslide victory.

Dishmon won 8 of the 10 boxes in Districts 1 and 2, losing only at the Union Fire Station (26-48) and Pleasant Grove Fire Station (10-50) precincts.

Turner won all the boxes in Districts 3,4, and 5, except Courtland Baptist (160-176), Crowder (18-35), and Batesville Fire Station #1 (62-123).

The precinct with the best turnout was the Extension Office (31.1 percent) followed by Tocowa (29.3 percent). The least participation was at Union Fire Station (10.6 percent) followed by Batesville Fire Station #1 (old Patton Lane precinct) and Crenshaw (both at 12.4 percent).

At Monday’s meeting, the supervisors approved an agenda request from Turner to hire Martie Pipkin and Aimee Carpenter as full-time employees, both with effective start dates of Monday, Dec. 9.