The top issue on the mind of incumbents running for the town board in Webster is preserving the community’s semi-rural character.

Webster was the first town in Jackson County with zoning laws. In fact, the whole reason for creating the town in the 1970s was to implement land-use restrictions. Webster has tough zoning: only one house per acre, no junk cars, no trailer parks.

“We just always like to preserve Webster and not let it be spoiled,” said Alderwoman Billie Bryson. “We put in a lot of strict things that are supposed to help us with our land-use planning.”

Those strict zoning laws are what make Webster the second-most desirable place in the county to live in terms of property values after Cashiers, according to Alderwoman Louise Bedford.

“I’m not sure what a change in the board would do to the zoning, but my focus would be to keep the status quo in the zoning,” said Mayor Steve Gray.

Many candidates share the incumbents’ desire to keep Webster the way it is.

“I would like to see it stay the historically small little area that it is,” said Laura Spaulding, alderwoman candidate.

Candidate Barbara Collins said it shouldn’t be “too big of a challenge.”

“We’re very small anyway,” she said.

Incumbents on the town board don’t think Webster will stay nice and small and rural by default, but that it will take proactive measures. The town board in recent years has expanded the town limits and wants to target more areas for annexation in the next four years.

“When you say to somebody where do you live and they say I live in the town of Webster, sometimes they really don’t. There is one little community that sits right beside us and really should be in the town limits,” Alderwoman Jean Davenport said.

But Sharon Myers, an alderwoman candidate, said annexation is unnecessary.

“I think some of these people on the town board have nothing better to do and they think they have to do something,” Myers said. “They have all these big things they want to do. We just want to stay small and not get into all of these problems.”

Out of Webster’s woodworks

For years the town board meetings were conducted in the mayor’s living room, the town files stored in each new mayor’s house and town board members volunteered for town positions like the finance director. The town has only recently forayed into more formal town government arrangement with the recent purchase of a building for town hall. Incumbents are quick to point out that a rental unit in the building pays the monthly financing and therefore the building costs the town nothing.

The outpouring of candidates in the Webster election is unusual. Four years ago, all the candidates ran unopposed. Candidates this year cited numerous reasons for running.

Sam Gray, a mayor candidate, said it seems like the town is just “chugging along,” but is not realizing its potential.

Webster is full of progressive-minded people, Sam Gray said. With an outlet for dialogue, the village of Webster could be ground zero for new movements from renewable energy to reduced auto emissions, he said.

“It seems as if it is business as usual,” Sam Gray said. “Let’s bring some new ideas to the table, especially in the environmental area.”

Some incumbents have challenged Sam Gray’s short time living in the town — only one year — as grounds for being unqualified.

“I really think it is an advantage that I am not coming from an entrenched position. I’m a newcomer and that’s a good thing,” Sam Gray said. Gray said he fell in love with the area while hiking the Appalachian Trail and went into teaching as a career that could support his desire to live in the mountains.

A least two candidates were encouraged to run by County Commissioner Joe Cowan who has twice been thwarted by the town’s zoning laws, namely the regulation that prevents having more than house per acre and a law banning abandoned vehicles. Cowan has rental property in the town limits but doesn’t live in the town limits himself.

Frances Berry said Cowan encouraged her to run and so she did.

“Well, it’s nice to have a say in what goes on in the city of Webster where we live, like traffic control and schools,” Berry said of her candidacy. Berry was surprised to learn that towns have no role in running the schools or setting school policies, but that schools fall under the county government.

“This is totally new to me,” Berry said.

Berry said she would like to see the speed limit lowered on her road from 35 to 25.

“My husband is out there on his lawn mower and they go so fast they almost blow him off,” Berry said.

Laura Spaulding was also encouraged to run by Cowan.

“I think it is time for some younger folks to become more involved,” said Spaulding.