Eight candidates seek city board seats

The final days of election filing added five new candidates to the ballot for Havelock’s four open commissioner seats.

Matthew “Sugar Bear” Jones made his bid for the city board Thursday, and Herbert “Hubby” Helms, George Liner, Eva Sermons and M.C. “Skip” Skipper filed Friday, according to the Craven County Board of Elections.

Jones said he’s running for office because the current board members don’t recognize the priorities of Havelock residents.

“They’re fixing stuff that’s not broke,” he said. “We’re spending money on things we don’t need to be when we need to be focused on the future.”

He said commissioners should abandon plans to introduce mandatory garbage pickup because residents favor the sticker system currently in place. Weekly pickup is available with a $2.50 county solid waste sticker affixed to each receptacle.

Jones said city residents shouldn’t have to pay for more collection than they need because some choose to dump their trash in drainage ditches, on curbs and in common areas.

Though he’s never been elected to office, Jones is no newcomer to Havelock politics. He said he’s run for mayor four times and commissioner twice.

He works in electrical equipment repair at Fleet Readiness Center East and has 37 years of government service, including nine years spent in the Marine Corps.

He said voters should elect him because he “will listen to them.”

“I won’t waste the city’s money,” he said. “And they can hold me accountable. They can talk to me.”

Helms said his bid for the board represents a renewed willingness to serve and lead city residents. After decades of involvement with the city through recreation leagues and civic groups, he said he felt “burned out” in the early 1990s.

“There comes a time when you just have to back off a little bit,” he said. “With everything that’s going on in the town, I feel like I need to get back in the ball game.”

Helms said he would like to help Havelock “get back what we have lost” in the way of commercial development — casual and upscale restaurants such as those that opened recently in New Bern and James City.

He said the Havelock Police Department has not grown proportionally with the city and that police “could really use somebody in there who would speak up for them.”

Helms retired from Cherry Point’s Naval Air Depot (now FRC East) as an examination and evaluation supervisor. He started as an apprentice at the former depot and worked as a sheet metal mechanic and government inspector.

“I think what the town needs are some people to say, ‘Hey, county and state, we’re fed up with all this,’” he said. “Why are you picking on us? We’re not the red-headed stepchild.”

Liner said he wants to be the average citizen’s voice on the Board of Commissioners — a role he feels has been vacant since Al Reid resigned last summer.

“I’m not going to badmouth any of them on the board, but I think some of them are not listening to the people,” he said. “I think since ‘Big Al’ Reid left there, the common little man doesn’t have a voice.”

Liner retired from the Marine Corps in 1992 as a master gunnery sergeant and said he will retire at month’s end after 15 years of civil service at Cherry Point. He currently is the air station’s realty specialist.

He has never sought elected office, but has served on an ad-hoc committee created to study garbage pickup and solid waste issues in Havelock.

“I’m not a politician. I’m not politically correct,” he said. “If the voters are happy with the way the city is being run with the current board, then they shouldn’t vote for me. If they want to see change, if they want to see a different approach, then I encourage them to.”

An incumbent commissioner who served for 28 consecutive years before losing her seat in 2005, Sermons was appointed to the board to fill Reid’s vacant seat when he resigned last year.

She said the current commissioners aren’t infallible, but they strive to make the best decisions they can for Havelock residents.

“I think everybody has really put their heart and soul into being fair,” she said. “I think we have a good board.”

Sermons was the first woman to join the Havelock Rescue Squad, for which she volunteered 11 years. She has been appointed to the Havelock Appearance Commission, Recreation Advisory Board and Comprehensive Land Use and Transportation Plan Committee.

She has been a fixture in Havelock youth sports, serving as the Little League president and taking on leadership roles in Babe Ruth baseball as well as recreational basketball and cheerleading. In June 2006, Sermons was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, North Carolina’s highest civilian honor.

She said transportation and smart growth are among the most important issues facing Havelock and that voters should elect her because of her deep affection for the city.

“I hope they would choose me because they know I love them and they know I love this city,” she said. “I’m going to work just as hard as I can to make this city what it needs to be for all of us, not just a select few.”

M.C. “Skip” Skipper said he grew frustrated with city leaders during the past year as his residents group lobbied tirelessly against the planned removal of a traffic signal at the intersection of U.S. 70 and Ketner Boulevard.

The chairman of the Ketner Citizens Action Group decided to run for office because he believes residents should have more input in decisions that affect their lives, he said.

“I had been unhappy with some of the actions taken and some of the decisions made by this administration, and I felt obligated to run and see what I could do to make a difference,” he said.

A retired Marine Corps officer who recently held a national office in the Family Motor Coach Association, Skipper said Havelock’s government should be more transparent and accountable to city residents.

“I firmly believe that if any government operates unchecked by the owners — that is, the voters — then the tendency is to run things from a perspective of ownership instead of custodianship,” he said.

The five candidates join incumbent commissioners Jim Stuart, Bob Priesing and Danny Walsh, who all filed to retain their seats on the Havelock board.