Jimmy Lee, a former Board of Commissioners member, and Eugene Hinton, a current member, will square off on Election Day in the race to be Micro's next mayor.

But the contest for Micro's three open commissioner seats is no longer competitive, as Matthew J. Seymour withdrew from the election. Commissioner Laura Grady is poised to keep her seat, while Johnny Dixon and Kenneth Holland will likely join the board.

This week, The Herald interviewed Jimmy Lee. Eugene Hinton did not respond to interview requests.

Lee, who is 59, served two terms on the board in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. He retired from Edgerton Feed Mill three years ago after a 34-year career there. Lee answered the following questions from the Herald.

What issue should be Micro's top priority?

Lee: "Not to raise the taxes on people, and to look after the elderly people more than anything else. You can't raise the taxes a mess on those people."

What, if anything, should the town do to attract more businesses and residents?

Lee: "We've got two railroads crossings; we've got CSX. ... We've got an opportunity there, for everybody." Lee said he would support tax breaks for new businesses, and he said the town needed to take advantage of its proximity to interstates 95 and 40. Finally, he added, more police patrols of rental areas could lower crime in town. "Take a look at the whole picture, all the way around," he said.

Should the town consider expanding emergency services? If so, how?

"If they expand it, they need to annex. They need to expand their annex, all the way down to Bagley to join Kenly. They need to get the tax revenue off of that. I don't care if it's agricultural or commercial or what. The next thing is, us and Pine Level need to get together -- we need our ETJ [extraterritorial jurisdiction] to reach to their ETJ. The services are fine, and a lot of our services are being abused [by people that don't pay taxes to the town]."

Should Micro annex land?

"Yes, if we go all the way down to Bagley. There's a subdvision built there; there's over right close to 200 people in there. We could get a tax base off of them. The police department goes down there, the rescue goes down there, and the fire department goes already."

Can the town reduce utility bills? If so, how?

"My opinion is, we need county sewer like we've got county water. If everybody got county sewer, like they got county water, everybody's rate would be reduced."

What, if anything, should the town do to improve its appearance?

"We've got some buildings that have been sitting down there over 20 years empty. The town needs to get with the people that own the propery -- either fix them up or tear them down, and then maybe someone would come in and build something on the property. They need to be took down and got rid of."

Should Micro try to grow larger?

"We have two [I-95] exits at Micro -- the only exits in Johnston County that don't have commercial building on them. There's a lot of property around Micro now, just for sale. If the opportunity comes around for the right person, and these people would let it happen, it would be a boomin' place."