Kirk Forshee will be Trenton's new police commissioner after besting the two contenders in a not-particularly-hard-fought campaign that ended tonight in an election in which 187 voters showed up to cast ballots.
The final machine count was Forshee, 85; Mike Norris, 43; and Johnny Taylor 57. Then, for a dramatic finale, two paper ballots--absentee votes--were tallied, adding one each to Forshee's and Norris's totals.
The 187 Trentonians who showed up represented 9.68 percent of Trenton's registered voters, according to the Dade Board of Election's figures.
Kirk Forshee had done the most campaigning, in that he announced his candidacy in The Planet and showed up at one city commission meeting afterwards. Neither of the other candidates had done that much, though The Planet did manage to track down and photograph Mike Norris a few weeks before the election. Johnny Taylor not only eluded The Planet before the election but did not show up for the vote count tonight.
Forshee will now serve out the unexpired term Sandra Black won in 2017--Johnny Taylor ran against her then, too, similarly imperceptibly--and will be up for reelection in 2021. Ms. Black resigned last year to marry and move outside city limits.
Now, for the results of another of today's hot press events, the special called meeting of the governing board of the Dade Water Authority: There aren't any. After an executive, or closed-door, session that lasted nearly an hour and a half, the board announced it had settled on a candidate to replace general manager Doug Anderton, who is retiring this summer after 49 years on the job, but could not announce a name until the candidate had accepted its terms of employment. That consummation will arrive either at its next regular meeting or at a special called meeting sooner, Chairman Ted Rumley announced anticlimactically at the end of the meeting.
