By Bill Grubb
News Editor

ROGERSVILLE - City voters will elect a  mayor and six aldermen in June 2013 but board members will now be filling a vacancy, perhaps as early as the December meeting.
    Vice mayor Philip Beal has officially resigned his position and left the city board.
    Beal was first elected in June 2005 and re-elected to the board in 2009.  He jumped  from 532 votes and being the sixth board member in 2005 to leading the slate of aldermen in 2009, with 573 votes, becoming the vice mayor.
    “Because I am moving outside the city limits of Rogersville, I must step off the BMA,” Beal wrote in a letter distributed at a November 29 workshop session.
    Beal wrote that he had purchased a house in Timberlake subdivision, west of the current city limits.   
     In November 2006 the Rogersville Board of Mayor and Aldermen gave final approval to an ordinance that would extend the city limits westward approximately 1.2 miles.  The annexation area included the Price's Heights, Western Heights, Morgan Estates, Cedar Crest, Brooks Landing and Timberlake subdivisions, as well as vacant land on the north and south sides of Highway 11W.
    The former council member wrote he had hoped the proposed annexation, which is still in court, would be completed before he sold his residence inside the city so he could finish his term.
    “I still hope the annexation will be completed soon since we prefer living inside the city,” Beal wrote.
    He also noted that during much of his second term the city and fellow board members have been dealing with the impact of a recession and added that John Johnson, Brian Hartness, Ann Howe, Wayne Slater, Eloise Edwards and the late Benny Floyd “have inspired him by their concern and hard work for the citizens of Rogersville.”            
    Beal also thanked Mayor Jim Sells for his support and for appointing him as the city's representative to the Rogersville City School.
    He also had kind words for the various volunteers “who save the taxpayers more money than the city could ever give them in return” with their various projects drawing visitors who “leave lots of tax dollars” in return.
    The former vice mayor ended his letter with a salute to the city's employees.
    “So finally, thank you Rogersville city employees.  You are the best.  You make us look good,” Beal concluded.
    The last time the Rogersville BMA filled a vacancy was in 2009, when Eloise Edwards was appointed to fill the remainder of the term left vacant by the February 2009 death of Floyd.
    At that time, City attorney Bill Phillips noted the remaining aldermen had the responsibility of filling the vacancy, although there is no method for selecting that individual.
    In 2009, Beal said he had discovered in the past the board has either appointed a family member of an alderman or a candidate from the previous election.
    “I don't even know who it was, right off, but I say we should appoint number seven from the last election,” Alderman Wayne Slater said, with the remainder of the board agreeing.   Edwards was the seventh candidate in the 2005 municipal election.
    In June 2009, Mark DeWitte was the seventh candidate in the alderman's race, with 450 votes.  Sheri Ives received 327 votes,  the late Bob McCraken had 288 votes;  Charlie Freeman had 265 votes and Tammy Crayne received 238 votes in the election.