By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Current Alabaster Mayor David Frings will face candidate Marty Handlon in an Oct. 9 runoff election after neither candidate was able to gain a majority of votes in the three-person race. 

Frings collected 44.45 percent of the vote and Handlon gathered 47.29 percent of the vote. Frings and Handlon beat out fellow candidate Kevin Brand, who gathered 8.26 percent of the vote.

Frings said he will work to get more of his supporters out to the polls during the Oct. 9 election.

“We are going to have to work to get our message out even harder,” Frings said. “We’ve got some work to do, and I’ve already gotten calls from people who are willing to help.”

Handlon said she will continue to push her campaign message as well.

“It’s time for Alabaster to have a full-time mayor who can get out and promote the city and our community,” Handlon said. “I just want to be that number-one promoter of Alabaster.”

In the Ward 3 City Council race, the city’s only contested City Council seat, current Councilwoman Stacy Rakestraw beat out fellow Ward 3 candidate Les Zemnes by a margin of 530 votes to 240 votes.

“I was so excited. Now I can continue with everything I’ve learned over the past few months,” Rakestraw said, noting she was appointed to fill the Ward 3 vacancy in late May.

The rest of the new City Council members have already been declared the winners of their respective council seats after nobody qualified to run against them.

Alabaster’s other six new City Council members were elected to their positions during an Aug. 6 council meeting after no opposition qualified to run against them.

During the meeting, five incumbents were certified when Sophie Martin was elected as the Ward 1 councilwoman, Bob Hicks was elected as the Ward 2 councilman, Rick Walters was named the Ward 4 councilman, Scott Brakefield was named the Ward 6 councilman and Tommy Ryals was named the Ward 7 councilman.

Candidate George Oldroyd originally qualified to run against Hicks for the Ward 2 seat, but he later withdrew from the race, said Alabaster City Clerk Marsha Massey.

Council newcomer Russell Bedsole, a sergeant at the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, was elected as the Ward 5 councilmember. He will replace current City Council President Jim McClain, who did not run for re-election.