Wednesday, July 18, 2001
|
Wednesday, July 18, 2001 |
|
Pfeifer's ready to go, but he'll take it slow By DAVE
HAMRICK
Peter Pfeifer says he knows he has a lot to learn, but he's ready to get started. "For the past eight years, I've been at least somewhat familiar with the doings of the commission," said Pfeifer, who last week won a special election runoff to become the Post 3 Fayette County commissioner. "But you've got a learning curve ... if it's something new, you can't be ready to start on day one and be as effective as you're going to be later on." Pfeifer was pleased with the turnout for the runoff, he said. Ordinarily, fewer voters will participate in a runoff than in the original election, but this time slightly more voters cast their ballots. He received 1,643 votes (52.17 percent of the total) to Scott Gilbert's 1,506 (47.82 percent), and the 3,149 votes cast were about 6 percent of those eligible. The two candidates had emerged from a field of five in the June 19 election, in which only 3,076 of Fayette's 51,466 registered voters turned out. Gilbert ran an exceptionally good race, Pfeifer conceded after the votes were tallied. Not as well known as Pfeifer and not previously active in politics, Gilbert pulled off a closer-than-expected margin. His campaigners "worked very, very hard," said Pfeifer, "and it paid off." He said he expects Gilbert to be a force in local politics in the future. Pfeifer, who was sworn in Friday in Probate Court, will get his first chance to govern at the County Commission's July 26 meeting, and it will likely be a baptism by fire. Several contentious zoning issues will be on the agenda, some of them postponed during earlier meetings to allow petitioners a vote of all five commissioners. Former Commissioner Harold Bost resigned last spring citing personal reasons. "I'm grateful I have a least a couple of weeks to understand what's going on rather than being thrown into it two days later," Pfeifer said. "I'm looking forward to it. When you're campaigning, the focus is on the campaign. Now that the focus is shifting, I'm excited about it." He said he take it slow when it comes to trying to influence the rest of the commission. "I'll try to learn the ropes a little bit before making statements and trying to influence the course of action," he said.
|
||