Voters settle two seats for Port Royal Town Council. Here are the winners
Port Royal voters reelected incumbents Mary Beth Gray Heyward and Darryl Owens by big margins, settling a four-person race for two seats on the Town Council Tuesday, based on unofficial results.
The election, which also featured Parks and Recreation Commission chairman John Hazel and newcomer Eddie Gugino, was at-large, meaning the two candidates who won the most votes won the seats.
With 100% of the votes counted, Heyward won 35.2% and Owens received 34.7%, while Hazel and Gugino lagged with 21.2% and 7.7%, respectively.
“We all want the best for the town of Port Royal,” Owens said at 6:30 p.m. as he campaigned outside the polling place at Town Hall a half-hour before polls closed.
Owens held a sign, waved at passing cars and encouraged two voters walking by to vote. “It’s not too late,” he said.
Campaigning next to him was Heyward, a rival on election day, but a colleague on the Town Council. “Win or lose, we’re still going to be here,” said Heyward, noting that she and Owens campaigned with a third candidate, Hazel, earlier in the day.
Tim and Debbie Ball moved to Port Royal from Tennessee about three years ago. Each were holding signs supporting Heyward and Owens, who Tim Ball said “built the town we fell in love with.” “It’s like Mayberry by the sea,” said Ball, comparing Port Royal to the fictional, idyllic North Carolina town in the Andy Griffith Show.
Port Royal, which surpassed neighboring Beaufort in population in the 2020 census, is struggling to manage the growth and the pressure it is putting on area roads and housing.
It also is overseeing a major development of the Port of Port Royal, as well as improvements to shrimp docks and associated facilities.
Decisions on all of those issues await the newly elected council members.
Results will remain unofficial until the Town of Port Royal Municipal Election Commission meets at 9:30 a.m. Thursday to certify the results, said Marie Smalls, director of Beaufort County’s Board of Voter Registration and Elections, who said turnout for Beaufort County was 14.2 percent.
Going into the election, Port Royal had 6,175 registered voters in six precincts, while 1,340 votes were cast Tuesday, or 21.7 percent.
Heyward, first elected in 1992, entered the race having served on the council for 29 years. She retired July 1 as the pre-arrival manager at Beaufort Memorial Hospital, where she also worked in customer service and financial aid.
The 66-year-old described herself as a “great advocate” for the people and said it was important that somebody with her experience and knowledge of the town serve on the council. She said she wanted another term to ensure that what gets built at the Port of Port Royal is what the people asked for.
She also said ensuring that all residents are connected to sewer service was a priority.
Owens, 55, a project manager for Antioch Educational Center in Ridgeland, a not-for-profit that assists low-income families, campaigned on improving infrastructure, noting that there are still residents who are not connected to the public sewer system on the outskirts of Port Royal. He said he also wanted improvements to the town’s busy roads, trails and sidewalks to make it easier and safer for residents to get around by foot or golf cart.
Owens, seeking a second term, said his experience of running major departments with the Beaufort an Jasper County public schools and serving on the Zoning Board of Appeals, Metropolitan Planning Commission and Design Review Board, made him well-qualified for the position and said he would be “a voice for the people.”
While supporting the large redevelopment plans for the Port of Port Royal, he also said he wanted to ensure “smart development.”
Results
Mary Beth Gray Heyward: 471
Darryl Owens: 465
John Hazel: 284
Eddie Gugino: 103
Write-ins: 17
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 9:56 PM.
