AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD RACES ON TAP

SCOTT CITY -- Just enough people filed for school board to create healthy election races in the Scott City, Oak Ridge, Delta and Advance school districts. Polling places are open from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Incumbents Gale Dale, Cathy Raines and Ray Smith filed for re-election to three-year seats on the Scott City Board of Education. William Wilthong also filed for a three-year term.

Dale has served 12 years on the school board and has been board president for four years. Raines and Smith are both seeking a second term on the board. They were first elected in 1993.

Wilthong is the only candidate who hasn't served on the board, but he isn't a stranger to the district. Wilthong, the former high school football and baseball coach and athletic director, retired last May.

"The school has been good to me so I thought I'd run and hopefully give back some expertise," he said.

There also is a contested race among Scott City school board candidates for a two-year unexpired term. Debbi Miller and Scott Raines are both vying for a seat vacated last fall by Tom Anderson, who is school superintendent at Oran.

Miller ran for school board last year and was defeated by a 33-vote margin. She and her husband, Mike, own Miller Drywall in Scott City. They have four children; two of them are high school students.

Raines, who works at Consolidated Freightways in Cape Girardeau, wants to help make the school better for his children and others in the future.

Raines chose to run for the two-year term to "get his feet wet," he said. He and his wife, Dawn, have two children, Austin, 3, and Destiny, 5 months.

In the Oak Ridge school district, four people filed for three seats on the board. Incumbents Jerry Mac Schriener, Jacqueline L. Ludwig and Jeff L. Hahs are seeking re-election. Charlie Glueck is the only challenger.

All three incumbents are running for school board in Delta. They include James Bowers, Aaron Helderman, Jr., and Wesley Kinder, Jr.

Charles Lawson might be the lone challenger in the district but he's not running against anyone, he said.

"I just feel like I might make a difference," he said, adding that he has run for office in the past but was never elected.

Lawson worked in the St. Louis area as a police officer before retiring and moving to Delta five years ago. He also is a former Delta police chief.

Four candidates filed for three seats on the Advance Board of Education. The candidates include incumbents Gary Georger, John W. "Bill" White and Mark H. Richmond.

Dirk Eggimann is the only challenger. A 1985 graduate of Advance High School, he thought it was time to get involved. He is a self-employed farmer.

"I'd thought about it before," he said. "But I decided this was the time to run."

Eggimann and his wife, Marsha, have a daughter who will start school at Advance Elementary in the fall.

Nell Holcomb voters won't see much of a race for school board. Only three people filed for the three open seats on the board. Jeri L. Holcomb is the only newcomer. The other candidates include incumbents Jim C. Wills and L. Faye Farrow. Both are seeking a second term.