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By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer

CHELSEA – Chelsea City Council Place 4 incumbent Arthur Fisher Jr. will retain his seat for the next four years after winning a runoff election for the place on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

Fisher defeated Dr. Jeff Honea II in the runoff after neither were able to secure a majority of the vote in a three-man race for the seat in the general election on Aug. 26.

After the final results were tallied from the 1,077 votes placed by the citizens of Chelsea, Fisher earned 611 votes, or 56.73 percent, while Honea earned 466, or 43.24 percent of the vote.

“I’m speechless, I’m so thankful,” said Arthur Fisher Jr. “Throughout this whole process, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet a lot of people in Chelsea, a lot of good people, and regardless of what that outcome would’ve been, I’m grateful for the opportunity to have met a lot of good people in here and I think this is a great framework and a good baseline in order for us to continue work hard for Chelsea and make sure that we grow in the right way and in a proper way.”

The results were a flip of what occurred in the general election, when Honea secured the most votes of the day with 713, or 39.70 percent, and Fisher earned 644 votes, or 35.86 percent.

The upcoming term will be Fisher’s first full term on the body. He was approved to serve in Place 4 in October 2023 after its former occupant, Tiffany Bittner, resigned from the position in August 2023. Before serving with the Chelsea City Council, Fisher served on the Chelsea Planning and Zoning Commission beginning in August 2022.

The incumbent works professionally as a public policy manager for Grenergy USA, while in the past, he has served as an electrical engineer at Southern Company, a financial and operational analyst at Spire and a reliability and a maintenance engineer for Alcoa.

Fisher holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Southern University and a master’s degree in finance from Samford University.

He will serve on a body that is mostly retained from the current administration. Scott Weygand, Chris Grace and Casey Morris will join him after running unopposed following the qualifying period. Johnna Barnes will serves as the other member on the council after running unopposed as well.

The group will be led by a newly-elected mayor in Cody Sumners, who previously served Place 1 on the Chelsea City Council and takes over for Tony Picklesimer, who chose to not run for reelection.

“I’m just so thankful for the people who have been willing to serve and the people who serve in this space reflect a wide range of experience that makes sure that Chelsea grows in the proper way, and I’m just so thankful for the people who have been willing to give that opportunity, to be vessels for the city and I think we have a good team,” Fisher said.

In this upcoming full term, Fisher emphasizes that he desires to work with this group to ensure that every citizen within the city has the tools to set them up for the best future possible, both near and beyond.

“I want to make sure that we give the opportunities and the resources to the right group of people to make sure that we can grow and give opportunities for not just adults, not for kids, but for everybody,” Fisher said. “My wife and I, we’re a family and we want to make sure that all families have the opportunities to be able to give their kids the skill set and the resources in order to be successful, that’s all. We want to have a good time here in Chelsea and we want to make sure that we’re doing it right.”