Toni Striblin narrowly defeated Theresa Strickland in Tuesday night’s election and will represent post 5 on the Hogansville City Council.

Striblin received 263 votes to Strickland’s 243.

“This feels good,” Striblin said. “We did the regular routine of door to door, advertising and all the reports we had in the newspaper. I mean we had a legitimate campaign.”

Striblin said she had not been nervous throughout the whole process, even on Election Day.

“I was settled that I had done everything I could do,” Striblin said. “Whichever way it went, I would have been satisfied.”

Striblin said she is ready to start working on her goals, including the ones she added to her list from going door-to-door campaigning.

“Going door-to-door is a real eye opener,” Striblin said. “There’s some people that really need that weatherization program. Some of our seniors, I mean, they need it. These seniors really need some help, and I know where they are now.”

Starting from the beginning of the campaign season, she has wanted to work on infrastructure in the city.

“We’ve got to get that done and Mandy (Neese) is expert in that, so we’ve got to get those things done,” Striblin said. “We’ve got to get the trash up. Our houses, our town has got to be clean. I am going to be focused on people that are worried about anything from car theft to their houses being robbed. And I have all the faith in Police Chief (Brian) Harr, so I feel like that’s going to happen.”

She said she also wants to focus on economic development in the area.

“I want to see downtown totally filled with 100 percent occupancies for all of our businesses and even on our industrial road,” Striblin said. “We need to have people working, we need to have our businesses up and running.”

With three new members on the council, Striblin said she wants a united front.

“I want us to work on the things that we can work on,” Striblin said. “And the things we can’t, we need to put those down, unless they are absolutely necessary. We can put some things aside and get on the things that we can agree on, and move this town forward.”

Strickland could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.