Election Preview: Columbia County Board of Commissioners for Districts 2 and 3

COLUMBIA COUNTY, Ga. (WJBF) – In Columbia County, two of the five commission seats are on the ballot this year: Districts 2 and 3.

Republican candidates Trey Allen and Mark Petersen are running for District 2 Commissioner. Allen represented the district for 12 years, before running for state senate in 2020.

Republican Candidates Michael Carraway and Rickey Meredith are running for District 3 Commissioner. That seat was left vacant when Gary Richardson was elected to the State House earlier this year.

Both Petersen and Meredith are veterans with business experience, and along with business experience, Carraway previously served on the county’s planning commission.

Carraway and Meredith want to address issues like traffic, infrastructure and growth in the county, helping small businesses and seniors in the community, and more.

“We got to get in front of of those things and maybe react a little bit quicker in widening roads and so forth,” Carraway said. “We need to start a little earlier, but after they’re started, we need to make sure that we are following the timeline so they don’t get behind.”

“I met with a lot of small business owners and there’s a lot of red tape, and I’ll see that some of that’s rolled back to make business more accessible,” Merideth said. “The small business is the heart of the community.”

Allen and Petersen want to increase support for law enforcement, focus on infrastructure and repaving roads, lowering taxes and insurance rates, and more.

“Using our position as a commissioner to make peoples’ lives easier with what we’ve learned from our experience,” Petersen said.

“I want to focus on making sure that the roads get paved, repaved, that the infrastructure is given all the assistance that needs in my district to make sure that Martinez doesn’t fall behind,” Allen said.

Early voting ends on May 17th. Election day is May 21st. Click here to view polling locations.

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