By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – The person who has been elected to take the helm of the Shelby County Probate Office beginning early next year has been nominated to fill the remainder of former Probate Judge Jim Fuhrmeister’s term, according to the Shelby County Judicial Nominating Commission.

Fuhrmeister retired from the position on Friday, July 20, although his current term is not set to expire until January 2019. Allison Boyd won the Republican primary for the position in June, and will face no Democratic opposition in the November general election, but her term will not officially begin until early 2019.

The Judicial Nominating Commission, which consists of Judge Hewitt Conwill, William Goodwyn, Margaret Casey, Rux Bentley and Douglas Clark, accepted nominations to fill the remainder of Fuhrmeister’s current term over the past few weeks, and ended the nomination period at 9 a.m. on Aug. 21. The Commission met to review the nominations the same day at 3 p.m., and only received one nomination to fill Fuhrmeister’s term: Boyd.

The Commission will meet on Sept. 6 at 1:30 p.m. to interview Boyd and receive comments from the public before formally submitting Boyd’s name to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey. Ivey will then have 90 days to fill the vacancy.

The Shelby County Probate court handles a wide range of items, such as marriage licenses, adoptions, land records and more.