By Terry Britt, Staff Writer

Bobby Chaney has a lot of time to prepare for his first four-year stint as Van Zandt County Precinct 3 Commissioner.

With no Democratic Party candidate for that office this year, Chaney won a four-year term starting in January by defeating fellow Republican Ronnie Cavin by 228 votes in Tuesday’s run-off election.

After the unofficial final totals were announced, Chaney reflected on the job he has ahead.

“I’m going to use this time to figure out what and where the most important work is that needs to be done in the precinct, and see how I can start to make changes for the better,” he said.

“I want to look for as much information and education on matters as I can find and make good decisions,” Chaney added.

After the polls closed Tuesday evening, Chaney got an initial bit of good news when he learned he held a 363-256 margin over Cavin in early voting and mail-in ballots.

With four election day boxes to determine the winner, Chaney said he knew he needed at least one of the two larger voter precincts to go his way.

One of those did. Chaney took voting precinct 3D, the county area around Edgewood, by a 301-109 margin.

That effectively nullified the one box that Cavin won, precinct 3C (north Wills Point), 288-152.

“Winning the early voting, I felt, gave me an early jump and was a good indication of how it would go. I knew if I won at least one of the Wills Point boxes, everything would work out for me,” Chaney said.

He expressed a great deal of gratitude for his support and vowed that he “will not disappoint the voters of Precinct 3″ when he takes office in January.

“It’s hard to describe right now the feeling of appreciation for the opportunity to be the Precinct 3 commissioner,” Chaney said. “I plan to work hard at it and earn the respect of the people of Precinct 3.”