ELIZABETHTOWN With a week to go, municipal election filing in Bladen County is very weak.
The county has 21 spots to fill among the seven municipalities. Through Friday, only seven of those 21 seats had attracted a total of eight candidates.
Newly filed between Tuesday and Friday of last week were two Bladenboro commissioner candidates: Gregory Sykes and Blake Proctor. Sykes is an incumbent, and Proctor a former administrative employee.
The filing period remains open through noon on Friday. Election Day is Nov. 2. Absentee voting, which is inclusive of the method known as one-stop voting, commences before that.
According to an election roster provided by the county board, the following are occupants of the seats up for election this fall:
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Paul-evans
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Stephen-hester
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Jerome-myers
Sam-allen
Paula-greene
Rufus-lloyd
Rufus-duckworth
Mike-suggs
Ms. Cecile Keaton Bryant and Ms. Earnestine Keaton on their family farm.
It’s hard enough to keep a small family farm going. But add to that the challenges of systemic and environmental racism and the Keatons’ accomplishment becomes even less likely. But it’s their commitment to keeping their land, farming it, and teaching the next generation that has protected their family legacy.
Less than 30 miles inland from the coast, in rural, southeastern North Carolina, there sits a 40-acre tract of land that has been in the Keaton family for generations. The ancestral connection goes back more than a century, to a time when their great-great-grandparents left slavery behind.
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