Former police chief voted Southport mayor

SOUTHPORT, NC (WWAY) –The city of Southport has a new mayor. With incumbent Robert Howard not running, the race was between Jerry Dove, who retired as Southport’s police chief earlier this year after 21 years with the department, and Dosher Hospital ER Dr. PJ Hatem.

People waited anxiously as the results began to come in for Southport mayor. It was a close race, as Dove edged out Hatem by 72 votes.

Dove recently retired from law enforcement after about 50 years. Now he has a new job and new tasks to get done.

“Proceed with some of the problems that were brought by our citizens, and some of the issues that were brought up by some of our citizens, and get some real good solutions for that,” said Dove.

Dove says he is looking forward to getting to work, as mayor but first, he’s going to take a few days off.