St. Albans voters elected St. Albans High School teacher and coach Scott James as the city's new mayor, giving him the nod over incumbent Mayor Dick Callaway and two other newcomer candidates in the city's first nonpartisan election.
James received 970 votes, besting Callaway (432 votes), retired business and government account representative Ron VanBibber (377 votes) and South Charleston High School teacher and coach Dusty Herscher (193 votes), according to unofficial election results Saturday night. The post is for a three-year term.
"We're tickled to death," said James, a special education teacher and girls basketball coach, after the results were announced. "We won because a lot of people turned out and supported us. Now we have a lot of things we want to get accomplished."
James, 57, said his first priority as mayor is to reduce the number of drug and crime problems in the city. He said as soon as he takes the post, he wants to discuss with law enforcement how the city can make headway on punishing drug dealers.
"We need to attack [drug and crime issues] head on, and I want to talk with state and local police about what we can get on the table," he said.
Callaway, 75, has been the mayor of St. Albans since 2006. He said he doesn't plan on running for mayor again.
"I lasted a lot longer than I thought I would," said Callaway, a former at-large city councilman. "It's just nice to see the results to come in and for it to all be over."
For the three City Council at-large seats, Walter Hall received 1,330 votes, incumbent John D. Caudill IV received 809 votes and Cathy Henderson and Lee Roberts each received 769 votes. Aly C. White had 751 votes.
If Henderson and Roberts still have a tie after a canvassing, a "coin flip" situation will occur, according to Callaway.
"The candidates may draw a straw, flip a coin or have some type of lottery," he said.
For City Council Ward 4, incumbent Cheryl Thomas (91 votes) topped Brian Kloosterman (63 votes).
For City Council Ward 8, incumbent Pat Quinlan (167 votes) defeated Annie Lane (67 votes).
For City Council Ward 9, David Cassis Rucker (249 votes) won against incumbent Garry Pennington (96 votes).
Robert J. Keiffer (Ward 1), Jason Philabaun (Ward 2), Ronald K. Colby III (Ward 3), Christopher S. Withrow (Ward 5), Dale E. Withrow (Ward 6) and Andrew D. Eads (Ward 7) all ran unopposed. All are incumbents except for Eads.
Reach Max Garland at max.garland@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @MaxGarlandTypes on Twitter.