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Abilene elects Weldon Hurt to be the next Mayor of Abilene

Despite a crowded ballot, Weldon Hurt avoided a runoff in his bid to become mayor, securing 66% of the votes.

Ryan Goodwin had the second highest support, with 23% of the vote. Dayakar Reddy got 10%, and less than one percent voted for write-in candidate Chad Clark.

Mayor-elect Hurt says his first order of business is to tackle the budget and figure out where Abilene is going, “The very first thing you do after the election is you actually get into the budget and so you’ve gotta tackle that big monster very first thing to figure out where we’re going, what we’re doing. It’s an estimate of the money that you’re gonna take in and the expenditures that go out.”

Hurt says the citizens of Abilene can expect a Mayor that is going to listen to everyone because everyone has a voice. He says he wants people to know that he is working for a better Abilene, “We have to get some type of media where we can educate the public, other than just Facebook so that we can put facts out there and educate people on the factual things that are happening in our city.”

Some candidates this election season called for the schedule of city council meetings to include some nighttime meetings, which would allow more residents to attend and participate in public comment periods.