The Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to appoint Llew Gilliam as the new Buffalo District supervisor on Tuesday night at the board’s regular February meeting. 

Gilliam, who was one of three candidates interviewed in a closed session earlier Tuesday evening, has been president of Mid-Atlantic Irrigation Co., Inc. since 2011 and an employee there since 1987.

Located at 1801 W. Third St. in Farmville, the business is described on its website as having proven “to be the premiere distributor and warehouse point for agricultural irrigation products throughout the eastern United States.”

The seat Gilliam was appointed to had been filled for the past five years by C.R. “Bob” Timmons Jr.

“Llew is a very successful businessman,” Farmville 701 District Supervisor and Board Chairman Jim Wilck said. “His business is all up and down the east coast. He even ships some things as far west as Texas and some to Europe. … I understand he’s almost tripled the business. So, Bob was good at that, and as a matter of fact, Bob was one of the people that recommended Llew Gilliam to me, and I’m just looking forward to getting that expertise in there because we’re going into budgetary times right now, and I think he’ll have a lot to add.”

At the board’s organizational meeting Jan. 8, Timmons announced he would be resigning effective Jan. 31. He was starting the second year of his second four-year term.

In a later interview, Timmons, 71, noted that he was stepping down so he could spend more time with his wife and largely return to his retirement. He said now seemed like a good time to do so, with the board in such a strong, stable position.

At the conclusion of his announcement Jan. 8, Timmons said, “And finally Mr. Chair, I move that this board continue to maintain control of its destiny by appointing my successor and authorizing the advertisement for my replacement.”

From the date the seat became effectively vacant, which was Feb. 1, the board had 45 days to appoint a replacement. If it did not make an appointment in that time, the decision would have fallen to a judge of the Prince Edward County Circuit Court.

Gilliam’s appointment will last for the duration of 2019. A special election will be held in November determining who will fill the seat starting in 2020 through the remainder of the active term, which expires Dec. 31, 2021.

Prince Edward County Administrator Wade Bartlett said Wednesday that Gilliam will likely be sworn in soon by the clerk of court.

“Mr. Gilliam was out of town on business today, so it could happen in the next few days …” Bartlett said. “As long as he does it before our next board meeting, that’s fine.”

The other two candidates interviewed in Tuesday’s closed session were Tony Williams and John Arsenault.

Prior to the interviews, a former longtime board member also offered his services.

“Buckie Fore also put his name in as a possibility if we needed somebody just to fill in till November,” Wilck said, “and I called Buckie, and I talked to him and said, ‘We’re in hopes that whoever we select will run again in November,’ and Buckie said, ‘Yeah,’ he understood that.”

Wilck later added that “both Llew and Tony said that, if selected, they’d serve definitely until November and look at it then, and depending on the time constraints and what they were able to add, they would consider running again in November. And John Arsenault, I believe, made a definite statement that he would run in November.”