An NIU student retained his DeKalb County Board seat while another student will be a newcomer at the table.

Republican Tim Bagby, 7th District and Democrat Thomas Gary, 6th District easily defeated their opponents, Thomas Elkins and Jodie English, respectively.

Bagby took 340 votes to Elkins’ 239. Gary snatched 281 votes to English’s 188.

Elkins, a mainstay on the NIU political scene, took the defeat in stride.

“I want to wholeheartedly extend my salutations and congratulations to my worthwhile adversary Tim Bagby,” Elkins said.

“I have no immediate plans to run for political office, but I’m not ruling it out for the future,” he said.

While campaigning, Bagby and Elkins wrestled with managing county waste and selling the DeKalb County farmland for development.

Bagby voted against a contract bid proposal to build a shopping mall by selling DeKalb farmland for $17,000 an acre. However, Bagby said he is not opposed to selling the farm but he didn’t want it sold at a “dirt cheap price.”

“Rather than talking about raising taxes, the county board ought to be more concerned with how to best use the county assets, such as the county farm,” Elkins maintained.

Some of the issues English and Gary focused on during the campaign were extending the rail line system in DeKalb and developing a civic center in DeKalb.

“I want to thank everyone who voted. They’re the ones (who) when it came down to it made the difference,” Gary said. “She ran a good race and I thought she did a trememdous job in registering people to vote.”