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Three Sparta officials resign from office

Three members of the High Country town of Sparta’s local government have recently resigned, including the mayor.

The resignations of Town Manager Ryan Wilmoth and Mayor Wes Brinegar were announced at the March 5 council meeting

Brinegar read Wilmoth’s letter of resignation during the meeting. Wilmoth wrote that conflicts with unnamed council members had created “an environment of chaos” and that Sparta should hire a manager more aligned with the current direction of the council.

Near the end of the meeting, Brinegar praised Wilmoth before stepping down himself.

“I will stand behind him 100 percent," he said. "And after this meeting, you will have my resignation as mayor of this town. Good luck in doing the town business.”

Brinegar also read a message from Town Attorney Whitney Ivey, who had resigned in February. In her note, she did not give a reason for leaving but thanked the council for the opportunity to serve as its attorney. At a later press briefing recorded by FOX8, Brinegar indicated that Ivey had resigned in order to spend more time with her family.

Sparta is Alleghany’s county seat.

 

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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