By James Beaty
Voters in three McAlester wards elected new city councilors Tuesday — with the councilors expected to take office as soon as next week.
Former acting City Treasurer Steve Harrison, 58, won the Ward 2 seat. Harrison is also a CPA who has chaired the city’s volunteer Audit & Finance Committee, which gives financial advice to the city council.
Robert Karr, 46, a quality inspector at Spirit AeroSystems, won the Ward 4 city council post. Like Harrison, his city council race marked his first run for a city office.
In the Ward 6 race, former councilor Louis Smitherman, 64, regained the seat he had held for 11 years, before losing it in a 2005 recall election.
All three candidates garnered more than the 50 percent of the vote needed to win the posts, negating the need for a runoff in any of the three-way races.
Also, voters in the Quinton School District passed a $4.1 million school bond issue on Tuesday by 66.55 percent of the vote.
For more of this story, see Wednesday's edition of the McAlester News-Capital.
Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.
