The Shadow
Four candidates will vie for the vacant District 1 seat on Covington City Council Tuesday evening.
The four candidates — Lance Carson, Eddie Joe Entsminger, Robert Short and Alan Hicks — will be interviewed by Covington City Council Tuesday evening beginning at 5 p.m.
Due to gathering constraints set forth by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, council will be conducting the interviews via telephone conferencing.
Council will hold a called meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday to conduct the interviews.
Council members will meet in Covington City Hall Council Chambers, while candidates will telephone from other locations.
The interviews are being conducted to fill the District 1 seat on Covington City Council left vacant by the recent death of Councilman C.J. Entsminger.
Entsminger died March 16.
He was elected to council in 2018 and took his seat as the District 1 representative on January 1, 2019.
By law, council has until April 30 to fill the vacant seat.
If it doesn’t within that time period, a judge would select the appointee.
The candidate selected by council will serve until a special election can be held on November 3.
The winner of the special election will serve the remainder of the term, which will expire December 31, 2022.
Following the interviews, council will hold its regular April meeting, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Again, because of the gathering constraints, the city will live-stream the 6:30 p.m. meeting on the city’s Facebook page, which can be found at “City of Covington Notifications.”
A limit of 10 people attending the meeting on-site will be strictly enforced.
“We’re not sure right now if we’re going to be able to live-stream the 5 p.m. interviews,” said Covington Mayor Tom Sibold. “That’s because we’re unsure if those watching the live-stream will be able to hear sufficiently what the candidates are saying through their phone interviews.”
Sibold added that if live-streaming the 5 p.m. meeting becomes available, a notification will be made on the same city Facebook page before the 5 p.m. meeting begins.
Prior to the regular meeting, members of the public who wish to submit questions or comments to be presented to council may do so by either contacting their city council representative or by emailing City Clerk Gail Wood at gwood@covington.va.us.
Comments and questions need to be submitted prior to noon Tuesday.
