THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 9, 1996 TAG: 9605090369
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
An Ocracoke Island resident who advocates seceding from Hyde County apparently has won a seat on the five-member Hyde County Board of Commissioners.
``We have no business being in Hyde County,'' Frank D. ``Wayne'' Teeter, Jr. said last week, while running for the four-year post. ``I'd rather join nobody. The property evaluation here is 100 times what it is on the mainland.''
Teeter, a 51-year-old commercial fisherman, won the Democratic nomination for the 3rd District seat currently held by his brother-in-law, Board of Commissioners Chairman David Styron, who decided not to seek re-election. Tuesday's election was Teeter's first bid for public office. He defeated fellow islanders Jeannetta O. Henning and Peter N. Stone.
All three candidates are Democrats. No Republicans sought elected office in Hyde County this year. So although Tuesday's race was a primary, the winners will be unopposed on the November ballot.
Teeter received 366 votes, Henning 299 and Stone 249.
About 40 percent of Hyde County's 3,351 registered voters went to the polls Tuesday, said Board of Elections Director Linda Mason.
In the Board of Commissioners' 5th District race, incumbent Commissioner Willie Edward Gibbs, 46, beat Charles Marshall by 18 votes. Gibbs, a correctional officer at the Hyde County detention center, received 568 votes to Marshall's 550. Gibbs pledged to try to bring more jobs to the rural mainland.
``I want to see the county grow economically,'' the Engelhard resident had said during the campaign. ``We need to look into different businesses that are trying to relocate and encourage them to move to Hyde.''
In the Board of Education race, both incumbents won. They will begin serving their terms this year because Tuesday's race was the final election rather than a primary. Each seat carries a four-year term.
School board member Dick Tunnell of Swan Quarter was re-elected with 788 votes; Mary Lou Harris of Fairfield with 751 votes. Unsuccessful challenger Serena Gibbs of Fairfield - the only African-American school board candidate - received 469 votes.
KEYWORDS: PRIMARY ELECTION RESULTS NORTH CAROLINA by CNB