Arlington’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen will have at least one new member this summer as Position 2 member and former mayor Russell Wiseman has confirmed he doesn’t intend to run for reelection.

Three of the town’s six alderman seats will be on the ballot for the Aug. 1 municipal election, including Position 2, the seat held by Wiseman to past four years.

Wiseman won the seat in 2019. His term ends Aug. 31. He has told friends recently he does not intend to run again.

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Two candidates have already stepped up to challenge for the office. Dwight Barker and Jordan Hinders, both will make their second attempt at alderman.

Barker has served on the Arlington Planning Commission since 2018 and on the town’s Industrial Development Board since 2020. He ran for alderman Position 2 in 2019, losing to Wiseman.

“It was a learning experience for me and a great experience,” he said.

Barker grew up in Cleveland, Mississippi, and earned a degree in political science from Southern Mississippi. He is a project manager for Rand Management and runs his own consulting business for small- and mid-size companies.

“I’ve always been interested in serving in whatever community I’ve been in,” said Barker, a member of the Southaven Leadership Foundation and a resident of Arlington the past 12 years.

“I just felt that I wanted to do even more for the town,” he said. “My goal is just to continue to push Arlington forward as an incredible community. I want to keep the Arlington charm while we have a Smart Growth process.”

Hinders, who works as a deputy for the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, ran for alderman Position 4 in 2022, losing to incumbent Oscar Brooks.

He says he felt emboldened to run again after the board approved two new apartment complexes as part of large mixed-use projects about six months after the last election.

“I saw the residents were very unhappy with not only that they’re putting in another apartment complex, but they’re putting one in in the back of a neighborhood,” said Hinders, who attended the University of Mississippi and joined the Army after graduating from Arlington High.

“One of the reasons I was running in the first place was to show responsible growth and make sure that as we expand our community it’s not at the expense of the citizens that are already there,” Hinders said. “Growth is good, but rapid growth is not.”

He sees two new apartment complexes adding thousands of residents, putting increased pressure on the security of the town.

“The Sheriff’s Office is run thin,” he said. “They do their best to take care of Arlington’s safety needs, but at the end of the day, they can only do so much with what they have.”

He tips his hat to Wiseman and his efforts throughout the years to serve the town.

“I knew that if he or (Larry Harmon) were running for their positions again, I was not going to run against them because I appreciate all that they’re trying to do for the town,” Hinders said.

The town’s Alderman Positions 1 and 3 will also be up for a vote in August with only the incumbents Larry Harmon Jr. and Jeff McKee pulling petitions so far earlier this month.

Arlington Mayor Mike Wissman has also pulled a petition to run for a fourth term. No challengers have stepped forward yet.