Aberdeen mayoral election: Incumbent Charles Scott
Mayor Charles Scott is asking voters to give him a second term
ABERDEEN, Miss. (WCBI) – Voters in Aberdeen head to the polls next week for municipal elections.
The mayor’s race features the incumbent, Mayor Charles Scott, against challenger Dwight Stevens. Over the next two nights, we will hear from both candidates.
In this feature, we hear from Mayor Charles Scott about his goals for a second term.
Charles Scott said he decided to run for the mayor’s office after his mother passed away and he came home for her funeral.
“When I got here, I done what I had been doing for the last 15 or so years. Evaluating the city. Because each time I would come in, I drove the city, evaluated it, and based on my skillset, I know what would be done, with the right support,” Scott said.
Scott said his career in the military prepared him for the job as mayor.
“What made me better prepared for this is I am a logistician. We deal with finding what is needed to fix the problem. We are able to identify low-hanging fruit, a project we can go work on now, and another thing is how do we build toward the future, how do we prepare youth for the future,” he said.
Scott said one of the projects he is proudest of during his first term is securing grant money for improvements at the Aberdeen Port.
He also said his Mayor’s Youth Council is helping promote leadership and community involvement among high school students.
“Beyond training the future leaders, we prepare the babies. And when I say the babies, our elementary school. Some students in the Mayor’s Youth Council go read to some of those students. The same students, who go to middle school, recruit them to come into the mayor’s youth council. We also remind them they are leaders. You have chosen to take time out of your schedule. So, those students are talking to the rest of the student body at high school. It has had a lot to do with students performing at a better level,” Scott said.
Scott also said he is looking to the future with Aberdeen Vision 2030.
“Whoever takes this seat after me, they have a roadmap to follow. If we want to land that hotel we need that truck stop. We need to finish the port that has been a major operation for the last 35 months and 14 days,” he said.
Scott is hoping voters give him the chance to finish those jobs on Tuesday.
Polls will be open on Tuesday from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. There is no Republican challenger. So, the winner of Tuesday’s race will be the next mayor of Aberdeen.
