With the votes tallied, Clay Sams won the vacant seat on the Bartonville Town Council, garnering 58.99 percent of the 573 votes cast Tuesday in the election.
Sams, 67, was vying for the unexpired Place 3 seat against Bill Reaves and Isaac Shepherd. Sams received 338 votes, Reaves received 224 or 39.09 percent of the votes and Shepherd received 11 or 1.92 percent of the votes.
The 30-year Bartonville resident said one of his first priorities will be to try to make people feel more a part of the government process and to repair the divisiveness among residents.
“We need to find a way to bring the community back together,” he said, adding he wanted to make sure all residents’ voices would be heard. “We need to find equal ground,” he said, “and be more inclusive.
“We need to make this a Mayberry town where we can get back to being a great community.”
Early voting results had shown Clay with a clear lead in the three-way race to fill the unexpired term.
“I always felt it would be close,” Sams said, adding he spent a lot of time walking the streets of Bartonville and knocking on doors.
“It all boils down to who goes in there and votes,” he said, adding he believed the rain may have deterred some voters who were unwilling to stand out in the rain waiting to vote in Bartonville. He indicated several had told them they tried to vote in nearby Argyle but realized that was not allowed.
Sams retired in 2005 from his position as the southwest regional operations manager with Mohawk Industries. He graduated from the U.S. Institute of Technology as a material facilities specialist.
In a questionnaire filled out for The Cross Timbers Gazette, Sams said he wanted to insure “that a smart, intelligent, logical and common sense-approach is applied when addressing and managing all future development, and that all enacted ordinances are enforced. As you travel the roads of Bartonville, you should be mindful that there is no other place near here like Bartonville. It is country – and I want to keep it so for those that follow.”
Sams said the community should never be divided into a north/south Bartonville and that “we must find common ground to start the communication process.”
In the proposition seeking the legal sale of mixed beverages in restaurants by food and beverage certificate holders only, Bartonville residents voted overwhelmingly in favor with 470 or 79.66 percent of the votes. A total of 120 or 20.34 percent voted against the proposition.
A total of 83,776 early voting ballots were cast in Denton County. A total of 144,732 or 35.36 percent of the 409,334 registered voters cast ballots in the Nov. 4 election, according to the Denton County Elections Administration. See all Denton County election results here.
In another election watched by many both within the county and around the country was the proposition regarding the prohibition of hydraulic fracturing in Denton. A total of 14,881 or 58.64 percent voted for the measure while 10,495 or 41.36 percent voted against it.
The proposition was worded as follows: Shall an ordinance be enacted prohibiting, within the corporate limits of the City of Denton, Texas, hydraulic fracturing, a well stimulation process involving the use of water, sand and/or chemical additives pumped under high pressure to fracture subsurface non-porous rock formations such as shale to improve the flow of natural gas, oil, or other hydrocarbons into the well, with subsequent high rate, extended flowback to expel fracture fluids and solids?
