LaRue voters make changes on school board

LaRue County voters defeated a pair of incumbent school board members in Tuesday’s election.

L. Dawn Williams Connor defeated Norbert Skees 592-405 for the District 1 School Board seat. Linda Pearman defeated incumbent Ronnie Chelf, 554-417 in District 2.

Connor and Pearman will join Joanna Hinton, who ran uncontested in District 5 to give the five-member board a female majority. Price Smith and Michael Hornback won the other two four-year terms.

In the Hodgenville City Council race, local businessman Alex LaRue took the second highest number of votes in his first run at the office. He received 560 votes.

LaRue said he was “honored and surprised” at the number of votes he received.

The rest of the council is made up of incumbents, with Jim Phelps Jr. being the top vote-getter with 598.

Woodie Handley received 560 votes; Bonni Clark received 558 votes; Glenda Wathen received 487 votes; and Kenny DeVore rounded out the top six with 440 votes.

Rickie Joel Ogletree missed being elected to council by four votes. He had 436. Walton “Wally” Sparks received 391 votes; Greg Harry received 379 votes; and Larry Davis received 357 votes.

County Clerk Linda Carter said about 58 percent of LaRue’s 9,883 registered voters made it to the polls.

Local candidates who were unopposed include Circuit Clerk Larry Bell; state Rep. Michael Meredith; state Sen. Carroll Gibson and Commonwealth Attorney Terry Geogehegan.

Republican candidates Brett Guthrie for U.S. Congress and Mitt Romney for president won LaRue County handily.

In the constitutional amendment question aimed at protecting hunting rights, 4,411 LaRue Countians voted yes; 553 voted no.