The good news for Mayor Dan Cougill was that he was successful in his bid for a third term at the helm of City Hall Tuesday night.

The not-so-good news is that he won by a narrow margin and did not win at all in precincts that are traditionally dominated by student voters.

This probably means that Cougill has some work to do in the next four years. The incumbent garnered 53 percent of the total vote. And of the two precincts on campus, Cougill received only slightly more than 27 percent of the vote.

Cougill may have won the office, but the vote shows he still has to win more than 47 percent of the city’s residents and the overwhelming majority of the campus’ voters.

Cougill has a full slate of items on his agenda for the next few years. Among them are continuing on with the five-year plan as well as completing the renovation of the water treatment plant.

The results from the precincts that are made up predominantly of student voters show that Cougill needs to expand his agendas to include issues that affect the city as well as the university that sits in the middle of it.

Perhaps this means taking more aggressive actions as a result of brainstorming with the External Relations Committee, or more face-to-face meetings with students, whether through forums or simply strolling the campus.

Cougill proved himself to be a successful leader in the past and emerged as the winner from campaigning that degenerated into mudslinging between himself and his opponent Clancy Pfeiffer, but in order to maintain his success, Cougill must continue to move Charleston forward, as his campaign slogan says he will.

With his win Tuesday night, Cougill became the first mayor since Bob Hickman, who served from 1973-1983, to win a third term. That shows Charleston voters have confidence in what he has done in the past. It also shows voters expect him to continue leading them down a path that has been largely successful.

This notable achievement is reflective of the confidence Charleston has in its leader, although the slim victory may suggest otherwise. Even so, that narrow margin should be kept in mind as plans and decisions are made in upcoming months.

Congratulations, Mr. Mayor. We all expect the next four years will fulfill the promise shown by the last eight.