Cleveland elects incumbent, former town board member

Published 10:43 pm Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Two experienced candidates will take seats on Cleveland’s Board of Commissioners.

Incumbent John Bradford and former town commissioner Travis Summit were elected to the board’s two open seats on Tuesday evening. Bradford led three candidates with 81 votes, or 41.75 percent of all votes cast. Summit received 36.6 percent, or a total of 71 votes.

Summit’s brother, Gregory Summit, received 42 votes or 21.65 percent.

But Travis Summit, 41, says he feels good about his win.

“I’m tickled,” he said.

Summit works as the Captain for the Kannapolis Fire Department, and says he plans to pick up his previous work as a commissioner and to work to make sure that Cleveland is represented in the county. Summit was previously elected to the town Board of Commissioners in 2011 and narrowly lost the seat in 2013. While he served as commissioner, he fought to bring businesses to Cleveland and for improvements and necessities such as an EMS station.

Summit says he’s grateful to the people who voted for him, but wishes that Cleveland had a bigger voter turnout.

Bradford, 61, said he wants to continue building infrastructure in Cleveland and that he wants to focus on encouraging an economic boom. The contractor says he’s happy about his win, but he’d “hate to seem too happy.”

Danny Gabriel, running unopposed, won the position of Mayor of Cleveland with 95 votes.