Ragland’s newly elected mayor, Lanis White, who won in a run-off election last month, weighed in with his thoughts on how he intends to keep the town growing while still retaining the character that keeps residents rooted to its foundation of a tight knit community.

“It’s going to be anew experience and a new experience as mayor,” White said.

He said that infrastructure is important to the community and needs to continue to grow. “Our police department needs another policeman,” White commented. “Our fire department needs to work on getting a new fire truck. A lot of folks don’t realize how important our volunteer fire and rescue are to our area and how much they contribute here. They’re very important to this community.”

Keeping up-to-date with the changing times is also in issue that White embraces. He said that giving Ragland a facelift is one way to keep the town’s appeal fresh and updated, even if some of those tasks are being done by non-city entities. “The Baptist church has bought some buildings that have been an eyesore for sometime now,” White, a retired Methodist minister, said. “They’ve got some plans for tearing those [down] and that is going to be a real positive for the town.”

Continuing, he took on a more upbeat assessment of how things have been going in the town along the lines of growth and change.

“There are some good things going on now; it’s not like I’m going in and wanting to change a lot of stuff,” White said. He said that one of the positives happening every day include the goings on at the seniors complex. “We’ll work to improve their gatherings and quality of life,” he said. The town recently bought a van to help the seniors take trips planned by the center.

When it comes to the younger members in the Ragland community, White was quick to point out, “We’ll for sure support them.”

In the New Town area of the Ragland community, there has been a tutoring program set up and White foresees the council providing monies to pay for some renovations and other projects associated with that endeavor.

The Ragland run-off election as well as the original election held at the end of July, were hot seats for debate in the community.

“The votes were awful close and a lot of folks felt the other way about the leadership,” White said of both elections. “I’m going to try to put out the few fires that were burning… and try to get some folks together on some things. Some of the left over remnants of some hard politicking still remain. There was a lot of passion in this race. There were some hurt feelings and we’re trying to get over that.”

Two weeks ago, White was involved in an altercation with newly elected councilman, Perry Poe, over a disagreement the two men had that ended up with White allegedly taking a swing at Poe.

White weighed in on the so-far outcome of the event and how it will affect the town’s governance. “We’re going to try to work through that,” he said. “[Poe has] initiated a good positive step to get through that.”

The town’s newly elected leaders will each be taking on roles that they have neither never had before, or as in the case of councilwoman Gaylin Brown, have not held in a few years.

“It’s going to be a whole new council and only one member has previous experience in their area,” White said. “We’ve already started working a cultivating new relationship.”

Ragland is also working on hiring a new town clerk. The previous clerk, Tanya Kennedy, left on election night. She had been serving four-and-a-half years.

In the meantime, Mrs. Edna Earl Daffron has been sworn in as of this week as the temporary clerk.