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Herb Hendrickson describes what it's like to be an elected county water and soil conservation supervisor.

Power? "Not much,'' he says. Pay? "Nothing," other than occasional expenses, he says. Large attendance at monthly soil and water conservation board meetings? "Not really,'' he says. "We are one of those boards that works in high obscurity."

Even the filing fee to run for the office amounts to pocket change: $5.

The board startles Guilford County voters each election. Most have never heard of it, much less the candidates. It becomes a matter of a coin flip.

The five-member nonpartisan panel - three elected, two appointed - dates to the dust bowl days of the 1930s when farms experienced widespread soil erosion. While other obscure races have long been removed from the ballot - Guilford used to elect a county coroner - soil and water conservation supervisors have stayed put.

Hendrickson, a retired UNCG biologist, is the only incumbent up for re-election this year. He won four years ago unopposed.

This year Hendrickson faces four opponents: Andrew J. Courts Jr., Scott R. Herman, Kirk Perkins and Jack Wyatt.

One of them is doing what's almost unheard of: Courts is campaigning. His name stands huge on green yard signs. At the bottom, in small letters, it says "elect soil and water conservation commissioner." (Officially, the title is supervisor).

Lewis Brandon, a retired science teacher and longtime board incumbent who won unopposed two years ago, says he has perhaps handed out a few fliers before. But he never planted yard signs and doesn't recall anyone else doing so. Hendrickson says he's never had a campaign budget or a campaign handout.

Courts, a real estate broker and environmental consultant, denies he's a big spender. His campaign budget, he says, totals $200.

With it, he paid $150 for 55 yard signs. If it seems as if he has more, he says he moves them around. He knows name recognition is a must to separate him from the field. He hopes a voter will see his name on the ballot and remember seeing it in someone's yard.

The signs get attention, he says, "because I'm hearing from people I haven't talked to since high school."

Another soil and water conservation board candidate betting on name recognition is Perkins. Not the Kirk Perkins who is chairman of the much-publicized Board of County Commissioners. This is another Kirk Perkins. County Commissioner Perkins has chosen to list his name on the ballot as C.F. (Kirk) Perkins III to distinguish himself from the soil and water conservation supervisor candidate.

The soil and water board, which meets monthly, isn't without some clout. It votes on grant applications from farmers and the general public to finance soil stabilization and clean water projects.

Last year, Hendrickson estimates the board received more than $100,000, mostly from the federal government, for grants. It gets more requests than it can fund.

Hendrickson says even with the ability to hand out money, no one lobbies supervisors or invites them to lunch to curry favor.

"There is no financial incentive to run,'' he says, "absolutely none."

But Brandon, who's not running for re-election, points out that the board benefits Guilford County financially by attracting federal grant money. He believes, as does Hendrickson, that the board has improved soil and water conditions in the county. Brandon says the board's obscurity here contrasts with rural counties where farms remain plentiful.

"People really get into the election,'' he says. "It's a big thing."

Hendrickson isn't sure how he'll counter Courts' yard signs. He would like to continue serving on the board.

"But I would not spend several hundred dollars,'' he says, "to make sure I get elected."

Contact Jim Schlosser at 601-9879 or beale1@clearwire.net