A lack of motivation from current members of Riverview town council prompted a meeting of community residents about the possibility of annexation into the city of East Brewton.
Riverview Mayor Carl Smith said four members of the current council had said they were ready to give up their seats.
“When they said they didn’t want to run for the seats again, we started considering what we might need to do,” Smith said. “We didn’t have anyone coming forward to say they were interested in those seats and we were concerned we might not have a full council in place. That would mean we’d have a situation of not having a town government in place.”
Smith said a town meeting was called a month ago asking residents to voice their opinion on an option to be annexed into East Brewton.
“We had several residents to come to the meeting to let us know they were not interested in being annexed,” Smith said. “At that meeting, the situation was explained about the lack of interest in council positions. Several of the residents said they would be willing to step forward to make sure a council was in place.”
Five council positions and the mayor’s office will be up for grabs in the August election, Smith said.
“We will be holding a town meeting again on July 10 to see who is interested in running for the council and mayor positions,” Smith said. “I will be running for office again and we will see if anyone else is interested in the mayor’s seat. We hope to have enough people interested at that meeting to fill the seats on our council.”
Riverview currently enjoys patrol and safety coverage by the East Brewton Police Department and fire protection from the East Brewton Fire Department.
“We have a lot left to do for our town,” Smith said. “I hope the residents of this community will be willing to get the work done.”
Municipal elections for Riverview follow the same schedule as other municipalities in the area. Qualifying for office ends on July 17 with the election set for Aug. 28.