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LANETT — The District 3 council race between incumbent Charles Looser and challenger Ronnie Tucker is one of two contested council seat races in Lanett’s August 25 municipal election.

Looser is seeking his second full term on the council.

“I was appointed to the seat when Kyle (McCoy) vacated the seat to be the mayor,” he said. “That was when Oscar Crawley died. I later ran for and won a four-year term. I’m now seeking my second full term on the council. I really like what we have been doing in the city, most of that due to the really hard work Kyle has been putting into it. I really like these new sidewalks we have downtown and in front of city hall. They are so wide, and they are new. We have had cracked and broken-up sidewalks in Lanett for years. It’s so good to have something new.”

Looser is best known for his years as an educator in Lanett. “I had 29 years in public education,” he said.

“The only thing I wanted to do but didn’t was to coach. I was a classroom teacher, counselor, principal, superintendent and completed my career working with special needs children. I started out in Chambers County teaching for two years at Five Points High. I then taught for four years at Valley Junior High (now W.F. Burns Middle School). Verdis Bible, who was then the principal at Lanett High, asked me if I would like to teach in Lanett. I told him, ‘Of course I would.’ That’s where I was born and grew up.”

Looser recently took a trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to witness a ceremony where his son, Andrew, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force.

“I am really proud of him,” he said. “My late wife Vickie would have been proud of him, too. “Andrew graduated from Lanett High just after the turn of the century and then went on to earn a degree at Auburn. He loved it there. We had been taking him to Auburn games since he was four or five years old.”

Ronnie Tucker worked for the city’s recreation department for 22 years and saw lots of youngsters go through youth recreation programs to high school athletics and beyond. He said that he’s running for the council to raise awareness of the need of Neighborhood Watch programs in the city and better planning in the way of paving streets. He said that he likes a lot of what the current mayor and council are doing, but he’d like for the progress being made to happen faster and to include all parts of the city, especially District 3.

“We really do need Neighborhood Watch chapters here in Lanett,” he said. “It is a hard punch in the stomach when someone breaks into your house and steals from you. That happened to me. Someone broke in through a patio door and stole clothing and jewelry. I know that similar things have happened to others in Lanett, and we need to do something about it. Neighborhood Watch chapters, where people talk to each other about being the eyes and ears of the neighborhood, could really help. I like what the city does in paving the streets, but it seems like such a waste to me when they do that only to have to tear it up to fix broken pipes. Maybe the pipes should be fixed before the road is paved. The main thing I want is to see District 3 get a fair shake. I want to see us getting our fair share of the benefits.”