Covington County Elects New Sheriff
With no Democratic challenger in the upcoming November election, Covington County will have a new sheriff. Blake Turman received more votes than three-term Sheriff Dennis Meeks during Tuesday’s election.
When asked what it took for him to win the office, he answered, “prayer.”
Turman says there are changes he wants to make once he takes office in January 2019, like improving deputy patrol and the county’s drug task force.
“We need to work on our investigations,” Turman said. “There’s a lot of crime going on in Covington County right now and a lot of that crime is directly related to the drug problem here.”
Registered voters say they didn’t know which sheriff candidate would win.
“We thought it was going to be too close to call,” Voter and businessman Don Cotton said.
Cotton is a friend of both candidates. He says that while it was tough to see one friend’s term as sheriff come to an end he doesn’t see many challenges ahead for Turman.
“He was a state trooper I believe for 25 years,” Cotton said. “He retired as a state trooper. Great family, Christian man. He’s going to hit the ground running.”
Turman says he’s appreciative of everyone that exercised their right to vote.
“I want to thank everybody that came out and voted, even if they didn’t vote for me,” Turman said. “They actually practiced their right to vote in this country and I think that is a wonderful thing.”
We reached out to current Sheriff Dennis Meeks, but he refused to comment.
