ALBEMARLE — With 10 terms expiring soon, the Stanly County Board of Commissioners spent a significant portion of its Monday night meeting appointing members to four different county boards.
After a 6-1 vote, Brad Holbrooks was appointed as a new member of the Airport Authority Board. He will replace Walter Scott Booth, whose resignation will go into effect on July 31.
“With his background as a military pilot and looking toward what we need to do in the next couple years, I think he would be a valued member of the authority,” Ken Swaringen, director of the Stanly County Airport, said of Holbrooks.
Commissioner Mike Barbee’s vote for the appointment went to Art Whittaker.
“Please convey to Mr. Whittaker that we will get him on a board,” Chairman Bill Lawhon told Barbee following the vote.
Candice Lowder, director of the Economic Development Commission, addressed the commissioners with a request to appoint five members to the EDC for terms that will run through 2023. Because the EDC is not holding a July meeting, Lowder stated five appointments would be needed prior to the terms that are ending on Aug. 12.
After a 7-0 vote, Phillip Gene Austin was appointed to the District 1 seat as a replacement of Randy Parker, who didn’t reapply for the position.
Steven Bradley, the current vice chairman of the EDC, was unanimously reappointed to a term holding the District 2 seat. While there were other applicants for this position, Lawhon confirmed that they already had memberships on other county boards.
For District 3, Wes Morgan was also unanimously reappointed to his current EDC position.
After a 5-2 vote, Greg Underwood — the lone District 4 applicant — was reappointed to his seat with the county. Commissioners Zach Almond, Lane Furr, Peter Ascuitto, Barbee and Lawhon voted in favor of Underwood while Tommy Jordan and Scott Efird voted against his reappointment.
For District 5, William Huneycutt’s request for a reappointment to his seat was approved unanimously by the commissioners.
“He’s done a good job on our board and he’s an outstanding citizen,” Lawhon said of Huneycutt, who works as a local certified public accountant in Albemarle.
The next item on the commissioners’ agenda was to appoint a new member of the Centralina Workforce Development Board in order to fill a vacancy for a private sector representative.
Lowder stated that Kristy Huneycutt, HR manager for Preformed Line Products, had been nominated by the EDC to do so for a two-year term; the commissioners unanimously voted in favor of Huneycutt’s appointment.
In the final board appointment agenda item of the night, Cynthia Fish, Brenda Farmer and Rick Johnson were each unanimously approved for three-year terms as regular members for the Board of Adjustment. While Fish and Farmer have already served on the board, Johnson will be replacing David Dulin, who didn’t ask for a reappointment.
The Stanly County Board of Commissioners will hold its next regularly scheduled meeting on Aug. 9 at 6 p.m.