The election for Columbus’ city council seat in Ward 3 became competitive Thursday when Rusty Greene, a Republican and lifelong Columbus resident, filed paperwork to qualify for candidacy.
Greene, 58, worked for both the Columbus and Lowndes County school districts for 25 years and is now a Century 21 Doris Hardy and Associates real estate agent. He said he has lived in Ward 3, the northeast part of the city, for more than 40 years.
“Columbus is a great little town to grow up in and raise a family, and I feel this is an opportunity to maybe give back to my hometown and make it better,” Greene said.
If elected, Greene’s priorities would be infrastructure improvements, neighborhood safety and “making sure (Columbus is) financially sound for years to come,” he said.
“Everybody complains about the infrastructure, and it takes money to keep roads up,” he said.
Greene is a former assistant principal at Caledonia Middle School and Columbus High School, and he was also a baseball coach and athletic director at CHS.
Sally Brown Tate, a Democrat, qualified to run in Ward 3 earlier this week. She also has a background in education after working as a school attendance officer for the Mississippi Department of Education.
Greene and Tate are vying to succeed Councilman Charlie Box, who is not running for re-election.
Party primaries for city races are April 6, and the general election is June 8.
Qualifying deadline for candidates is Feb. 5.
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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