District 4 race goes to Joiner

Phillip Joiner was elected to the Milledgeville City Council this past Tuesday, winning 71.8 percent of the vote in a three-way race for the District 4 seat. Joiner had 298 votes, while his opposition, John Alton and Ed “Dodo” Hollis garnered 83 and 34 votes respectively. Out of the 20,497 registered voters in Milledgeville, 5,560 ballots were cast Tuesday.

Joiner said he was pleased with the turnout by GCSU students.

“We know that well over 200 students went to the polls,” Joiner said. “It would be safe to say of the 415 voters in District 4 over half of (my votes) were college students.”

Joiner also credited community involvement with helping him win. He is involved in a host of activities in the community, including working for radio station Z-97 and Amici’s, and hosting many of the local shows such as Milledgeville Idol and Milledgeville’s Got Talent.

Claire Cantrell, a junior sociology major and one of Joiner’s campaign managers, was in charge of the candidate’s college relations. The campaign staff held about three weeks of voter-registration drives in which 650 students registered to vote.

“Once voter registration was over in the beginning of October, we started advertising. We couldn’t advertise on campus, but we could advertise around the community with yard signs, posters and events. We ordered about 150 T-shirts and put most of them on kids on campus,” Cantrell said. “(Joiner) came and spoke to different RSOs and fraternities and sororities and that was really our main way to get the message out (to the campus).”

According to Cantrell, one of Joiner’s main concerns was college and community relations. His campaign staff was comprised of almost entirely college students.

“One of his first priorities was the college students and making sure everybody knows how important the college is,” Cantrell said. “I think that he was sort of a breath of fresh air because he was the first candidate who came to us and said ‘I want to work with you.’ ”

Joiner will take office beginning in January. He said there are a number of issues the council will have to tackle, including hiring a new city manager.

“I’m going to – with all the candidates – specifically look for a city manager who understands the relevancy of college students and the university as an institution and how it relates to Milledgeville,” Joiner said. “I want our city manager to fully grasp and understand the needs of the college.”

Another issue Joiner considers a top priority is parking on the GCSU campus.

“One (issue) is the seeming lack of available parking for merchants and for customers,” Joiner said. “We have a few potential solutions that I am going to really push.”

Another key issue Joiner addressed during his campaign was recycling.

“(Another) thing I want to do right off the bat is figure out how those people who live in the city – particularly those who live in homes – about how to solve our recycling issue right now,” Joiner said. “Our city residents are at a big disadvantage. Right now they are being forced to pay money to recycle and that shouldn’t happen, so to build a new recycling center.”

Joiner also wants to create a sort of liaison committee of students, faculty and local residents, and business owners to create a stronger relationship between the college and community.

“I just wanted to tell the college students specifically how much I appreciate their support. I really want the students to continue to be involved,” Joiner said. “We need more students to stay here, and the way to get students – such as myself, my brother and a number of other people who graduated and decided to stay here and make a difference here – the way to do that is to have a better relationship between the city and the students.”

There were three others elected to the City Council during Tuesday’s election: Collinda Lee (District 1), Denese Shinholster (District 3) and Richard Mullins Jr. (District 5). Shinholster and Mullins were both incumbents to the council.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 6 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry