Voters choose Hatmaker and Fannon to fill council seats

LaFollette’s residents chose Hansford Hatmaker and Bob Fannon to fill two council seats. The seats became open when Hatmaker was up for reelection, and former council member Wayne Kitts vacated his seat in August to run for mayor.

Perpetual candidate Virgil Kidwell ran against Fannon and Hatmaker. Voters could select two candidates. The two receiving the most votes, Fannon and Hatmaker, won the seats. Fannon led the group with 1,043 votes, Hatmaker received 1,034 and Kidwell had 706 votes, losing the seat.

“This goes to show you what team work can do,” Hatmaker said Tuesday night as the results arrived. “We will continue to do this teamwork that our mayor and city council members has done this past four years. We will continue to make the city of LaFollette a good place to live.”

One of the projects Hatmaker intends to direct his attention to is fixing the roofs of some of the buildings the city owns.

“My first issue is try to get these buildings that belong to the city, try to get roofs put on them,” he said, referencing projects involving fixing the roofs of fire hall three, West LaFollette Community Center and East LaFollette Community Center.

Fannon hopes to work with Stanfield and the city council.

“I’ve served with this council before,” Fannon said. “I can help them if they’re willing to let me help them.”

However, he feels there needs to be some fiscal changes.

“Financially, we’re in poor shape,” Fannon said. “We’re not as well off as we need to (be).”

This is what made Fannon want to return to the city council.

“We’re gonna have to avoid waste,” Fannon said.

Fannon hopes to save between $78,000 and $165,000 on insurance by using one broker for both LaFollette Utilities and the city of LaFollette.

Fannon doesn’t want to cut services, but maintain them. He doesn’t want to make cuts to the departments or the salaries of employees, but wants to build the departments.

“I know we got to cut from somewhere,” Fannon said. “Let’s not cut from the employees.”

Fannon’s plan is to cut the city council members’ and mayor’s pay.

“I will ask for sacrifices from us before we have to have sacrifices from employees,” he said.

He also wants to find jobs for people in LaFollette by bringing industry to the city. He hopes to accomplish this by working with other Campbell County mayors to hire an industrial recruiter.

“I think we can get the city going in the right direction,” Fannon said.