Ponce Inlet, FL – A woman who was Ponce Inlet’s mayor and a Volusia County Council candidate decides to go for the former instead of the latter in this election cycle.
In a recent appearance on WNDB’s Marc Bernier program, Nancy Epps announced that she’s challenging incumbent Gary Smith in an election that will take place August 25th.
Seat 3 on the Ponce Inlet Town Council between incumbent Mary Hoss and Doreen McBride will also be on the ballot for that primary election.
Epps – who was Ponce Inlet’s mayor from 2005 to 2008 and narrowly lost to Josh Wagner in 2012 for the VCC’s District 2 seat – told Bernier that she didn’t feel like she could commit the time necessary to be on the VCC now that Wagner is prevented from running again in 2016 because of term limits.
“I am a very busy woman right now,” Epps added. “I really have a great job at DuvaSawko and if I’m going to run for County Council, I need to be able to do it 100%, which is the only way I like to do things.”
As of now, the only candidate who has declared for Wagner’s VCC seat for the November 2016 election is current Daytona Beach Shores Councilwoman Billie Wheeler.
Epps admitted that becoming Ponce Inlet’s mayor again if she wins the election was also going to be a challenge time-wise but insisted she could handle it.
A big reason Epps decided to run against Smith is because of the city’s ongoing lawsuit with Simone and Lyder Johnson, the owners of the Down The Hatch restaurant near Ponce De Leon Park.
That lawsuit – which has dragged on for nearly a decade and is currently under appeal after the Johnsons won an over $30 million settlement in court last November – could potentially force the city to dissolve and sell off its assets in order to pay that bill to Pacetta LLC, the company the Johnsons own.
In that lawsuit, the Johnsons claimed town officials encouraged them for many years to buy land around the restaurant so Pacetta LLC could develop a dry-storage facility for boats along the Halifax River as well as townhomes and a pier.
But by the time the Johnsons got around to moving forward with their plan – which would’ve taken up 16 acres near the city’s southernmost point – the city’s residents shot it down in a 2008 referendum.
It was soon after that when the Johnsons sued the city in court, claiming the project wasn’t economically feasible anymore. They’ve since offered to accept less money from Ponce Inlet if the city lets them go forward with their plans.
Epps said she was very concerned that Ponce Inlet as a town would be finished if the city is forced to pay the Johnsons, especially since the city’s yearly budget of around $5 million only covers roughly a sixth of what the Johnsons won in court.
“The state does try to prevent [bankruptcy] from happening to communities because, obviously, it isn’t in anyone’s best interest,” Epps stated. “We need to go in a direction that will save us from that possibility.”
Epps also felt she could help both sides heal together from the fight once things are settled.
Nancy Epps
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.