School board candidate has home annexed to run for seat

Sometimes the mountain does come to Mohammed, if the mountain is Dothan, and Mohammed is Harry Wayne Parrish.

Parrish, 60, wants to run for the Dothan City School Board chairman’s seat being vacated by Dr. Steve Stokes. Until last Tuesday, however, Parrish didn’t meet the residency requirement because his home on the 5000 block of Fortner Street was outside the city limits.

Parrish’s property was annexed into the city last Tuesday by the Dothan City Commission. The motion passed unanimously without discussion.

Parrish said Monday he submitted an application to the city clerk’s office for annexation specifically so he could meet the residency requirements to run for office.

“I wanted to be honest,” he said. “Nobody probably would have noticed, but I wanted to be honest ... I’m doing this as a service. I’m not a politician. I want to help the school system any way I can.”

Cassandra Milton, community relations specialist, said in an e-mail that requests for annexation are reviewed by the city’s planning department, and recommended to the city commission based on the financial impact of annexing the property.

Parrish said he was surprised his property wasn’t already part of Dothan because the surrounding properties were.

Candidates for the Dothan City School Board are required to live in the city for at least 90 days prior to an election. Parrish said the city’s annexation of his property last Tuesday will have him listed as a Dothan resident well before the residency requirement’s cutoff point.