Templeton, Gaskin to take over village reins

SOUTH POINT — A former mayor’s son, Tommy Templeton, will lead the village of Chesapeake, taking over from retiring mayor Dick Gilpin, who is finishing up his second term.

Robert Templeton was mayor for 18 non-consecutive years in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.

“We have an illegal drug problem that I have put on the forefront of the campaign,” said Templeton, who is a manager of family property. “We have quite a few problems but that is the most serious. We have a few abandoned houses in town that we need to get torn down. The biggest issue is the revenue problem.”

Currently Templeton is a village councilman.

He ran against newcomer to politics Alex Hackney, a local IT director and engineer, and Micheal Ferguson, a Proctorville police officer.

With the first 32 precincts in, Templeton had 37 votes to Ferguson’s 14. Self-described underdog Hackney had a single vote. By night’s end. Templeton’s lead went to 165 or almost 72 percent of the vote to Ferguson at 53 or 22 percent and Hackney at almost 6 percent.

Hackney’s platform was to modernize the technology of the village and clean up the appearance of Chesapeake.

Ferguson also wanted to modernize the village’s Internet, update the police department with more training and get a handle on the drug problem.

Just as in Chesapeake, a former mayor’s son will lead the village of South Point

Jeff Gaskin took the lead in that mayoral race after 32 precincts were in and never lost it.

Gaskin is following in the footsteps of his father, Bill Gaskin, who led the village for close to 30 years until his death almost six years ago.

The first precincts in had Gaskin with 54 votes; Bill Patrick next with 42; Rube Allman at 35 and Michael Curtis with 4 votes.

Final unofficial results were Gaskin at 468 or 39 percent of the vote; Allman moved into second place at 382 at 32 percent with Patrick at 285 or 23 percent and Curtis at 57 or almost 5 percent.

Among Gaskin’s political experiences are four years on South Point Council. He campaigned on increasing the sense of trust between village officials and their constituents and having low utilities.

While Gaskin wasn’t at the courthouse to watch the results come in, his two sisters — Laura Hazelett and Peggy Ray — were there pacing and waiting for BOE officials to hand out sheets with the latest vote count.

“I’ve been here a lot of times,” Hazelett said. “I’m excited. He’s always been interested in this. He is like my dad.”

Now Gaskin said his first act as mayor is to lead the village.

“I am not going to be in the office a lot,” he said. “I am not going to warm that chair. I want to be out talking with the people. In the campaign I talked with the people about the things that are right with South Point. Things we are doing well and how we can continue to work together to make it an even better place.”