Christian County voters narrowly approve new sheriff

Christian County voters yesterday narrowly elected Brad Cole as sheriff.

A Republican, Cole won the election with 3,275 votes, or 32.8 percent, only four votes ahead of Ralph Phillips, an independent who received 32.7 percent of the total, according to the preliminary results from the Christian County clerk’s office.

The clerk’s office would perform a recount if a candidate successfully petitions the court.

Cole, who currently is the Christian County coroner, would succeed Joey Kyle, who resigned in May after pleading guilty to embezzling county funds and laundering the proceeds of a political supporter’s investment fraud scheme.

Also on the Christian County ballot yesterday, Nixa residents voted down a proposal to implement a park sales tax. Of the 3,026 votes on the issue, 1,523 people, or 50.3 percent, voted against the measure and 1,503, or 49.7 percent, voted in favor.

The 3/8-cent tax would have generated roughly $870,000 annually for parks operations, maintenance, acquisition and development, according to Nixa.com.