Minco elects Hollandsworth Mayor

By Jayson Knight
jaysonrknight@gmail.com

The City of Minco held a mayoral election Tuesday between Vice Mayor Susan Hollandsworth and Minco businesswoman Dena Sanford for an unexpired term vacated by longtime mayor Keith McMullen.

Hollandsworth won 53 percent of the vote with 157 votes. Sanford took 139.
Hollandsworth was the acting mayor for the last three months, and said she’s ready to get back to work.
“I’m just ready to get started and move forward on everything, the sewer and the police and everything. We have to work on the sewer first of all, because it’s costing us $10,000 a day. We’ve got that million (from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board) and so now we’re going out for bids to get started getting the sewer lines and the lagoon fixed.
“As far as the the police department, we got a $50,000 deal from the Indians, which was very helpful. The chief (Fredrick Johnson) is doing a really good job of using the resources and to get them back in good shape.
“I think I have an excellent staff right now. We’ve been working on grants together and we have five open grants right now that we’ve applied for. We need to pay for the engineering of all this, because it’s like a $6 million deal for the lagoons and the sewer. We’re looking at a lot of money to get it back where it needs to be. Nothing’s been done to the sewer since it was put in 80 years ago or whenever it was. We got a grant to redo the manholes, because that’s where we’re getting a lot of surface water in our lagoon is from the manhole not being properly done.”
Sanford put out a statement, saying, “Thank you to everyone who got out to vote. I did not win, but knowing you supported my vision is so humbling. I hope that we will continue to move forward as a community with kindness, and humility. Please pray for Susan and the rest of the council that they serve Minco with open hearts, and open minds. May they be guided down the right path that is best for Minco as a whole. May God provide them the way to improve our town. I will continue to work toward improving our parks. One project at a time.”