Unopposed candidates ready to serve

Published 12:30 am Thursday, October 18, 2007

VIDALIA — Just because a handful of candidates for the upcoming parish elections aren’t opposed doesn’t mean they don’t care deeply about their community, they said.

Monelle Moseley

For Incumbent Concordia Parish Assessor Monelle Moseley, this will be her ninth term in office.

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“I just want to serve the people,” Moseley said. “They’ve been most kind to me all these years, and I still want to serve them.”

As assessor, Moseley’s office keeps track of all transfers of property and makes the tax rolls for the parish and the cities, among other things.

Moseley graduated from Vidalia High School and Tyler Commercial College in Tyler, Texas.

Moseley said she doesn’t want people to be surprised when some see their property assessment go up in the near future.

“Water frontage is going extremely high,” she said. “Any lake property, anything on the water. Next year is reassessment year. It’s going to be higher than it has been before.”

But Moseley said she can’t pick and choose at what value land is assessed.

“The market value is what we’re based upon,” she said.

Deanie Roberts

Deanie Roberts, school board District 3, Place B, said she wants to continue doing what is best for the students.

After her husband Jerry, who was on the board, died in December, Roberts was appointed to replace him.

Now, she’s running for reelection unopposed.

“He had some great ideas,” Roberts said. “What’s important to me is the future of our children in Concordia Parish.”

Roberts, 41, graduated from LaSalle High School in Olla, La., and attended Northeast Louisiana University, now The University of Louisiana at Monroe.

She has worked as a legal assistant for nearly 10 years.

“I think I have the ability to represent the children of the parish, and I have their best interest at heart,” she said.

Finding and hiring a new superintendent topped Roberts’ list of priorities as a board member.

“Right now, our main goal is to get someone in that can represent this district,” she said.

Randy Temple

Incumbent Police Juror District 3A Randy Temple, 52, said he was honored and humbled to have the opportunity to serve another four years in office.

“My biggest thing as a public servant is to give the citizens of my district and Concordia Parish as good a quality of life as possible and improve the current quality of life, whether that’s improving infrastructure, drainage or recreation,” he said.

Temple lives in Vidalia with his wife and has three children. He graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Natchez and attended Louisiana State University.

Temple has served as police juror for two consecutive terms and from 1983 to 1987.

As tax collector in the school board’s sales and revenue department, Temple said his job helps him get a feel for what the parish needs.

“We collect licenses — occupational licenses, alcohol and beverage licenses — so I do have direct dealings with businesses on a daily basis,” he said. “I hear their concerns as far as what their needs may be and how businesses are doing. I think that gives me a true knowledge of the economic state of our parish that I can use.”

Coroner incumbent Sarah Lee could not be contacted.