Last week’s municipal elections ushered in three new mayors in Lexington County.

Viola McDaniel will be sworn in Nov. 15 as mayor of Swansea after an uncommonly crowded and contentious race in the small town in the Southern part of the county. In January, Juston Ricard will be sworn in as mayor of Springdale, which rests near Cayce and West Columbia. Also in January, John Reeder will be sworn in as the mayor of Gilbert, having untreated the incumbent Donnie Cason.

The new mayor in Swansea takes over an embattled seat. Jerald Sanders, the previous mayor, was ousted following allegations of misconduct in office and embezzling more than $4,500. How much the Town Council was to blame for not checking his power was a frequent topic throughout the campaign, and a key point of contention between the two candidates who finished on top of the fourperson race.

McDaniel, a retired administrative supervisor for the state health department who owns a small cleaning business in Swansea, won with 101 votes. Sitting Councilman Michael Luongo garnered 73.

Like the candidates she ran against, McDaniel espoused a desire to bring the town back to its legally required weak mayor-strong council form of government. Having won the election, she said pulling the town together is her primary focus.

“What I was for, and still am for, is unity,” she told the Chronicle, “and I believe that the people in Swansea are tired of all the bickering and fussering that’s on the council, and from outside agitators, and they’re tired of that. They want peace and tranquility. And that’s what I’m about.”

One of her first priorities after she’s sworn in is hiring a town administrator to take on many of the duties that have been going to the mayor and help figure out the town’s finances.

Those budget woes are also high on the list of problems to solve. McDaniel said she would push to quickly conduct a financial audit. The town is months late in passing a budget for the current financial year, which started in July.

“Right now we don’t have a budget,” McDaniel said. “We don’t know how much money we have. So we need someone in there besides me. Because I can do budgets and stuff. But because of what has gone on in the past, as the mayor being a town administrator also, I kind of want to put my hands aside just a little bit and let a professional person with budgets come in, which would be our town administrator, and let them go over the facts of the money, the budget and stuff. And then later on we have to see what else we can do.”

Transparency, she concluded, will be key in rebuilding trust with the people of Swansea.

“I promise to do all the work that I can do to make Swansea better,” McDaniel said. “Everything is total transparency.”

In Springdale, Ricard won the race to replace retiring Mayor Michael Bishop. The current mayor pro tempore did so by a comfortable margin, grabbing 362 votes to fellow Council Member Viki Fecas’ 157.

“I was really, really happy and it was humbling to get that kind of support,” Ricard told the Chronicle. “We got great folks in town and I look forward to working with the community and with our council to continue working together to keep the ball moving.” He said his first priorities upon taking of

He said his first priorities upon taking office will be figuring out what to do with the federal COVID-19 stimulus money coming to Springdale through the American Rescue Plan and to begin working with the City of Cayce, which handles the town’s water and sewer services, to begin identifying and tackling some needed sewer projects.

Ricard also said another priority will be continuing to encourage and manage development along the Platt Springs Road corridor, where 189 homes are slated for a new residential community and Lexington School District 2 is building a new combined district office and performing arts center.

A more long-term concern for him will be getting to some sidewalk projects.

“We’re so fortunate in town — or I am, I guess — to come into a council that works really well together and a town that’s in really good shape, both with staff and finances,” he said. “We have one of the best police forces and administrative staff and council that I know of. So there won’t be any big changes. I’m gonna just try to stay the course. A lot of this stuff we’ve been working on for a number of years.”

Reeder, who owns a construction business, took nearly half of the 93 votes cast in Gilbert’s mayoral race, beating fellow challenger Fred Taylor (23 votes) and the incumbent Cason (22) with 46 votes.

“I’ve got a good bit of the vote and people are really on board with kind of what I’m seeing, and what they’ve been telling me around town that they just want some things changed,” Reeder told the Chronicle. “And so I’m hoping now that we get a council that can help us get some things changed.”

He said he wants the town opened back up, reasoning that while some are still scared of COVID-19, Gilbert has people who want to get out and enjoy things there.

“They just want their lives back basically,” he said of the consensus he’s hearing among his constituents.

Among his priorities are getting the one man working at the town’s street department some full-time help with cutting grass, edging sidewalks and pruning trees, as well as seasonal projects like getting up Christmas decorations. He also said that the town needs to access funds to upgrade some of its equipment.

“Don’t wait for it to break before we decide to do something,” Reeder said.

Before unseating Cason, Reeder told the Chronicle that he held no ill will toward him, and that he didn’t know the incumbent was running for another term when he decided to file.

“Donnie’s just a good man, period. I hope he stays involved somehow,” Reeder said after winning the race. He particularly praised Cason’s ability to work with the county and the state Department of Transportation to address the needs of the small hamlet in the middle of the county.

“I want to keep that relationship going with those people, that we can get in touch with them quick,” Reeder continued. “Out in a rural place like this, we have trees near our power lines that, they’re dying, and we need people to come out quick and take them down. And he was just really good at stuff like that.”