Several changes to the county’s board of commissioners and planning board were brought in with the new year.

During the first meeting on Thursday, Jan. 5, Kerry Hill took to the dais as the District 1 commissioner, replacing Molly Cooper who did not seek re-election in 2022.

Board members also voted to elect District 5’s Laura Semanson to serve as vice chairwoman and District 4’s Cindy Jones Mills as secretary in 2023. The vote to elect Semanson was not unanimous with District 3 Commissioner Todd Levent and Mills opposed.

At a previous meeting in 2022, Chairman Alfred John was re-elected to serve his second consecutive year as chair.

Levent made a motion in the meeting to appoint Brian Schmidt, a Vickery area resident, to represent District 3 on the planning board of commissioners.

He said Schmidt was “a very well-balanced and very fair individual.”

Because district lines in Forsyth County changed, planning commissioner for District 4 Nedal Shawkat no longer lived inside the district he served. Instead, Hill made a motion for Shawkat to become her appointed planning commissioner, serving District 1.

Mills then appointed Adrian Flack, owner of Flackwell LLC, as planning commissioner for District 4.

She said Flack has also been a member of the board of directors for the Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Equalization with the county and the board for the Forsyth County Parks Foundation, Inc.

The county district line changes went into effect on Jan. 1, and residents can learn which district they live in and who their county officials are by using the county’s My Elected Representative tool.