What’s on the May 6 ballot?
Olney voters have one last shot on May 6 at casting ballots for contested City Council and school board posts, and on whether to change how the City spends economic development funds. Residents who live within the city limits will vote on three City Council positions, two school board seats, and a ballot proposition. Those who live outside city limits will vote only on the school board races, Young County Elections Supervisors Kaitlyn Mosely said.
The polls are open on Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Olney Community Library and Arts Center at 807 W. Hamilton Street.
Three City Councilmembers are up for re-election and the at-large race has drawn former Councilmember Terri Wipperman as a challenger along with three incumbents. The top three vote-getters from among Ms. Wipperman and incumbents Harrison Wellman, Chuck Stennett, and Brad Simmons will return to the Council after the municipal elections.
Terri Wipperman, retired City billing clerk and former City Councilmember is running again for one of the atlarge Council jobs in the May 6 municipal election. Mrs. Wipperman sat on the City Council from 2017 until she voluntarily left the Council in 2022. She was born and raised in Olney, and has deep experience at City Hall, first as a part-time municipal court clerk and as a billing clerk for the Public Works Department for 15 years. “We need to clean this town up,” Mrs. Wipperman told the Enterprise. She added that the current Council needs to do a better job of communicating its ideas to get citizens on board. “The citizens are mad at the City because of the dumpsters. That’s one thing that needs to be shown is that we are making more money with the little dumpsters than we were with the big dumpsters. Water is another big issue that she hopes to tackle. “After this episode with our pipes [in March] people blame the City for that and it’s not the City’s fault,” she said. “There’s no need of fixing a pipeline if you don’t have water to run through it. We need to get that water treatment plant going – talk to the contractors and engineers and see what we need to do.”
Mr. Wellman works at Tower Extrusion and was first elected to the Council in 2018. He and his wife Madison, a Young County native, and their two children have lived in Olney for seven years. His mission for a third term is I think the City Council has a lot of items on the agenda that have not been fulfilled at this time and we’ve been working on for years. I want to continue to be a part of that as we continue to better the City,” Mr. Wellman said. “We have the housing that is coming to town that is a big improvement. We have the water plant that has started. We have the ordinances and the growth strategy of Olney that we have been slowly preparing … there are numerous things we want to get done.”
In a new term, Mr. Wellman wants to encourage the public to participate in the planning process. “We want to be open and invite everyone to our City Council meetings so that everyone can be a part of what we are doing,” he said. “I would love to see more turnout. I don’t want any recognition for anything we have done. I want insight and people from the City to come and voice their strategy as well.”
Mr. Simmons grew up in Olney as the middle child of Rodney and Jan Simmons and spent 12 years in Houston before returning home in 2012 with his wife Kristy and daughter Makayla. He works at Tower Extrusions. He would like another term to see through projects that he has been working on as a Councilmember.
“If you re-elect me, I’ll be proud to serve on the City Council for the City of Olney,” he said. “We are continuing to do great things for this community. I want to see a few things followed through with which would be the water plant moving forward once we break ground. I’m a hometown boy raising my family here and I plan on retiring in this community so I want to see good things from now on.”
Mr. Stennett, a longtime incumbent, Chuck Stennett, said he will use a new term to get the water plant completed and to address other ongoing issues such as roads and utilities and code enforcement. “We’ve got to start with the plant, then work on the infrastructure and lines. If you have the plant and start pumping then the lines will need fixing,” he said. “The plant is the main thing - or you won’t have any water to leak. I’d like to see improvement on the streets and roads in the city besides whatever else we’ve got on, we need to see a lot of other stuff completed.”
Only one of the two seats up for grabs on the Olney Independent School District Board of Trustees has drawn challengers. Place 6 Trustee Kyle Hinson, the incumbent, is running unopposed this election cycle, but Place 7 Trustee Craig Mahler has drawn two challengers, A.J. Johnson, and Colson Ballard.
Mr. Johnson, the owner of A.J.’s Tree and Lawn Service, moved to Olney three years ago with his wife, Cassie Johnson, and their three children, ages 10, 8, and 4. The Johnson children attend Olney public schools and Mrs. Johnson is an AP psychology and arts professor at Olney High School. Mr. Johnson, who served in the military for nine years and worked as a security contractor, favors incentivizing teachers by moving to a four-day school week, relaxing the dress code, and “making school more fun.”
“ I was wanting to run just to give back to the community. I talked to a lot of teachers. There are a lot of concerns that we are one of the only schools in the area that is not going to a four-day week,” he said. “One of [my priorities] is to incentivize the teachers and staff [to stay at OISD]. “This is our third year here, and we have a lot of teachers here who are leaving. It seems like retaining our teachers and we are losing all of our coaches but two. We have problems retaining teachers but we’re not doing enough about it. Olney High School is a great school with a great rating, and going to four-day weeks will put us in competition with Graham, Archer City, and Wichita Falls school districts.”
Mr. Ballard grew up in Colleyville, and attended the Keller Independent School District, followed by Texas A&M University for a degree in Manufacturing Engineering. He has worked at Tower Extrusions since 2016 and plans to be in the community for a very long time. His wife, Ashley, is a high school math teacher in Olney.
“My plan is really simple, I just want to keep improving our school system in all programs that we offer,” Mr. Ballard said. “I would like to get our students prepared for life after high school whether that is college, trade school, or straight into the workforce. The district is already excelling at this but as with any organization, there is always room for improvement. And I think the combination of my background and an inside look at what the teachers/coaches need to excel would make me the best candidate for this school board election.”
Voters also will approve or reject Proposition A, a measure that will change the corporate designation of the Olney Industrial Development Corporation to broaden the group’s mission. Outgoing OIDC Director Wiley J. Hughey recommended the change from a Type A to a Type B corporation to allow the group to spend the half-cent city tax for economic development on “quality of life,” such as the municipal swimming pool, new housing, and retail projects in the community. The Type A structure allows the OIDC to use the funds for industrial development and job creation. The City Council also supports the change to Type B, which can fund all projects eligible for Type A as well as parks, museums, sports facilities, and housing developments but are subject to more administrative restrictions than Type A, the Texas Comptroller’s Office said. Industrial development corporations in Texas are nonprofit corporations funded through sales taxes.
“The OIDC we currently have is limited in scope as to what they can do with those funds,” Mayor Rue Rogers said. “The Type B opens it up to a myriad of options for the other options within the City to spur on growth or housing. It simply gives us more options about what we can do with those funds.”