New Mayor, Police Chief, Council Elected; BREC Renewal Passes

    On April 5th, Jr. Shelton was chosen as the new Mayor of Central with 4,546 out of 7,705 votes, or 59%.  James Salsbury was elected Chief of Police with 52% of the votes, or 3,944 out of 7,578.  Council candidates who received more than 10% of the total council votes were also elected outright.  Four of the five seats were filled this way.  Shane Evans was elected with 4,031, or 11%, of the 36,734 total votes cast for council.  Kim Fralick won 5,135, or 14%, of the votes.  Incumbent Wayne Messina received 4,135 votes, or 11%, and John Vance won 3,984 votes, also approximately 11%.   Central’s total voter turnout for this election was 37% of registered voters.  The BREC tax renewal passed parish-wide, with  60% of the 17,799 total votes.  The parish-wide voter turnout was 6.4% to vote on the BREC renewal.  Visit the Louisiana Secretary of State’s website for a more detailed breakdown of the election results.  Central’s fifth council seat will be filled through a runoff election on May 3rd between Jason Ellis and Ralph Washington.  All elected officials will take office on July 1st of this year.