TIFTON — The Tift County Board of Education will have a new face come Jan. 1, with Tift County voters casting the most votes for Shawn Utley in Tuesday’s General Election. Utley defeated Richard Golden, who served as chairman of the board until 2006.

Tuesday’s final voting tally is not official and excludes those votes cast provisionally and some votes cast by military personnel that had not been received at Election Central. Utley garnished 8,920 (67.25 percent) of the vote to Golden’s 4,336 (32.69 percent).

“I’m glad to be a part of a great school system and a great group of board members,” Utley said Tuesday night while at Election Central. “ I look forward to representing the community who elected me to the position. Thanks to all my supporters, especially Tommy Cottle, Frank McGill and Connie Bozeman who worked so hard for me.”

Utley and Golden could be seen all day Tuesday campaigning at the corner of Fourth Street and Tift Avenue.

Utley said he had relied on friends and family to get the word out and he and his wife went door-to-door listening to the concerns of constituents.

“I thought they would be worried about money in these economic times,” Utley said. “Most people expressed an interest in talking about how we could make things better as far as academics and student achievement.”

Golden said earlier in the day that he had also conducted a door-to-door campaign. He said many of those people he talked with expressed a concern with fiscal responsibility and issues they had with curriculum.

“We have a great school system, no doubt,” Golden said Tuesday afternoon.

Golden was not at the polls when the final results were posted and did not return a telephone call.

Golden removed himself from the list of nominees to serve as chairman of the board in January 2006. His last two years were marred with controversy after his 2004 arrest on charges of aggravated assault after he aimed a gun at a man who trespassed on his property to fish in a pond. Then in December 2004, he was cited for dumping commercial kitchen grease into a public sewer.

To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.