Bill Rivenbark

Early voting is underway in North Carolina and runs through October 31st.  More than half of the seats on New Hanover County’s Board of Commissioners, three of the five, are open this year. 

At its Tuesday evening meeting, the New Hanover County Board of Education continued its debate about renaming Parsley Elementary School.   

Walter L. Parsley was a white supremacist and co-conspirator in the 1898 Wilmington coup d'etat.  His grandson, also named Walter L. Parsley, inherited the family property in the Masonboro Sound area, and in 1999, sold a little more than 17 acres to New Hanover County Schools. Walter L. Parsley Elementary opened in 2001. Simple enough. But after that it gets complicated. 

Change is coming to the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners. Incumbent Republicans Woody White and Patricia Kusek are not seeking re-election -- but there are nine other Republican primary candidates on the ballot, vying for three open seats. WHQR spoke to two of them.

New Hanover County’s Board of Education has four open seats this year.  Eight people, four Democrats and four Republicans, are competing for those seats – which carry four-year terms.

New Hanover County’s Board of Education has four Republican incumbents seeking new terms; three of them have served for more than two decades.   Three Republican challengers brought the primary candidate total to seven.

North Carolina’s primary election takes place on May 8th – when voters decide on their November candidates for school boards, county commissions, sheriffs, congressional representatives, and the state legislature.  Bill Rivenbark, who currently works at a New Hanover County ABC store, is running for a seat on New Hanover County’s Board of Education.