Two candidates enter county commissioners race
BY ANDREW MACKIE
RECORD STAFF WRITER
HICKORY
The race for two open seats on the Catawba County Board of Commissioners got a little more in-teresting on the final filing day.
Newton resident Jack Beach and Maiden resident George McClellan joined a previous challenger and two incumbents.
Beach, 40, believes he can provide the leadership needed to revive the local economy.
“The economic situation is not as good as it was in the past and we need leadership to move us forward,” he said. “I feel like I’m the type of person that can do that.”
The product manager at Shurtape Technologies is a Newton-Conover High graduate and served in the United States Army during the first Gulf War in the early 1990s.
Beach also supports more transparency from the county in working with local municipalities.
“We all need to be more open with each other,” he said. “We need to work together.”
McClellan, 67, is a former Maiden Town Council member. The board’s approval of a sales tax in-crease spurred his candidacy.
“What set me off was that they said, ‘If you don’t vote for the sales tax, we’ll increase the property tax.’ It’s time they learn how to live within their means just like everyone else. I’m sick of what’s going on in the county with taxes.”
McClellan and his wife are longtime owners of Scottie’s Bar-B-Q in Maiden.
McClellan served on the Maiden council in the late 1980s and again from 2003 to 2007. He lost his reelection bid in November by a scant four votes.
No other candidates filed Friday, leaving three Republicans with no opposition – N.C. Reps. Mark Hilton and Mitchell Setzer and Catawba County Register of Deeds Donna Spencer.
For more information, call 464-2424.
For more indepth local political coverage, go to the ‘Let’s Talk Politics’ at http://www.hickoryrecord.com.
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