Chain edges Lanier for third at-large city council seat; Godfrey, Kolbie re-elected

Brandon Chain knows how his fellow classmate, and city council race opponent, Ben Lanier feels. He was in the same position four years ago.

Chain received 770 votes, 11 more than Lanier, to pick up the third  at-large Dublin City Council seat during Tuesday’s election. Incumbents Tess Godfrey, who was the lead vote getter with 1,247, and Sara Kolbie, with 1,129, will be returning to their seats.

“This feels good. It’s been a long night,” Chain said. “I ran four years ago and did not lose by a whole lot so I knew I had to step it up a little bit more this time. (Lanier) is my classmate. We grew up together. I know how he feels. But we ran a good race. I wish we both were going in, but I feel like Ben will come back.” 

Rae S. Bloodworth (589), J. Roy Rowland (570), John C. Hall (391) and Mitchell Whittington (95) also received votes in a race that had eight candidates. 

“The biggest thing for me is I am very honored,” said Kolbie. “When you run for city council for the first time you don’t know everything you are getting into. Tess and I have learned a lot over the last three and a half years. Mostly, we have gotten to know our community better and what our constituents actually want. I’m just so honored that the voters feel like we represented them well. I’m really looking forward to moving forward with the projects.” 

This includes the parks projects, ordinance upgrades and saving business owners as much as possible, she said. 

“We want neighborhood safety,” Kolbie said. “We want to see these projects come to life that we’ve been working on.”  

Chain ran with Godfrey and Kolbie four years ago. 

“I’m certainly excited about a young person coming on board,” Kolbie said about Chain. “He is certainly passionate about the community as a whole. He’ll have another new perspective.” 

Chain is looking forward to working with Godfrey and Kolbie and the rest of the council.

“I’m coming in to work with them,” he said. “I’m not coming in to work against anybody, but I am going to stand up for things that [are right.] I might be ruffling some feathers at the end of the day, but that’s alright because that’s what I’m there for. They are already up to speed and I’ll be asking questions. I’m ready to get the training I need because I don’t want to speak on anything but facts.” 

Chain feels there are things in the city that need to be changed as well as worked together on, and he hopes the council can be more transparent.

“There are a lot of things I want to do for the youth,” Chain said. “They say that the youth can’t do things directly through city council, but there are other different avenues we can go to get things done for the youth and the city.”

One issue Chain would like to see addressed is too many young children being on the street after dark. This is something that has been a topic since he was growing up, he said. There have been so many stories and situations where young people get into trouble at night.

“They need to be home and the parents don’t know where they are,” Chain said. “Sometimes we have to hold the parents accountable and sometimes we have to try to work with them because some are working hard to provide. We need to work on that as a community.”

When Chain campaigned, he heard people’s thoughts and issues. He told them that if he won he would be returning to talk with them.

“I want to hear what they have to say and what they want done because I want to work towards it,” Chain said. “I want to bring back to them information about what is going on so that they will hear from their city councilman, that way they’ll know if their issue came up in the city council meetings.”

Chain said his mother, Brenda, who is a Laurens County commissioner, taught him a lot about politics.

“I want to be somebody for the community where I can talk to them on their level where they can understand,” Chain said. “It’s going to take a lot of adjusting for me, but I ran for this and that what I plan to do.”