CHICKASHA – For the second consecutive year, three new members have been elected to the nine-member City Council.
Kimberly Jo Irving was elected in Ward 3, Position 1, to replace Oscar Nelson, the owner of Chickasha Sod & Grass Farm who did not file for reelection after serving on the council for a little over six years.
Irving, a teacher, defeated Dr. R.P. Ashanti-Alexander, a school administrator who stepped down last year after serving on the council for 11 years, by a vote of 458-411.
Lisa Lynne Hatchett, a registered behavioral technician, squeaked past incumbent Kelly Boyd and bested two other opponents, as well, to win the Ward 4, Position 1 seat.
Boyd, who founded Service Tech Cooling Towers in Chickasha 25 years ago, ran unopposed in 2021 and was reelected in 2023. The other two candidates in Ward 4 were retired clinical social worker Virginia Savage and Eric Joseph Anderson, a military veteran who was making his third bid for a Ward 4 council seat.
Hatchett received a plurality, but not a majority, of the 874 votes cast in that contest: Hatchett, 283; Boyd, 274; Anderson, 221; and Savage, 96.
Incumbent Georgianne Hebblethwaite was re-elected to a third two-year term in Ward 2, Position 1, defeating Josh Rauls by a vote of 464400. Hebblethwaite, the city’s current vice mayor, is the inside sales coordinator at Royal Filter. Rauls owns H&R Diesel. William Clark Southard will succeed Brian Gerdes in Ward 1, Position 1.
Gerdes, vice president of sales at the Dr Pepper-Royal Crown Bottling Co. in Chickasha, has served on the council for five years and filed for reelection but bowed out afterward. Southard, the only other candidate for that council seat, is a retired Army officer who has been self-employed as an economic development consultant for several years.
City Council members serve two-year terms, and unlike the Legislature and statewide elected officials, Chickasha councilors have no term limits. Service on the council is voluntary; the members receive no compensation.
The annual nonpartisan council election was held April 1. The newly elected councilors will receive the oath of office on April 21.
Also on Election Day, voters throughout Grady County overwhelmingly approved a sales tax of one-eighth of 1 percent to support the Grady County Senior Nutrition Center, including sites in Alex, Chickasha, Minco, Ninnekah, Rush Springs, Tuttle and Verden.
The tax will be in effect for five years, starting Jan. 1, 2026, and expiring Dec. 31, 2030.