Newberry mayoral debate highlights $80 million wastewater plan, growth and Springs County split

City Commissioner Tim Martin and former City Commissioner Joy Glanzer debated how Newberry should pay for a projected $80 million wastewater treatment expansion and manage rapid growth at a mayoral forum at Newberry High School. The candidates also offered sharply different views on community development districts, local school conversions to charter status and a proposed secession to form "Springs County."

The contest comes ahead of the April 8 municipal election. Both candidates framed infrastructure funding and growth policy as central to the city's fiscal future. "The citizens of Newberry ... are not going to be paying for that. Let me be clear. They're not going to be paying for that ... it'll be the connection charges," City Commissioner Tim Martin said, arguing that connection charges and fees from new development should cover the wastewater expansion.

Joy Glanzer emphasized the city's existing planning tools and the use of impact fees to reserve capacity for future development, noting specific fee amounts discussed by the city: "you have to pay the city $7,000 per house before you even start," she said, describing how impact fees are intended to fund upgrades such as sewer capacity. Glanzer said the city will be reviewing Land Development Regulations over the next two years and urged residents to take part in workshops on landscaping, signage and setbacks.

On financing and timing, both candidates said the project was imminent but differed on reliance on rates and fees. Martin said he expected state loan programs through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and charges tied to new connections to be primary funding sources, while cautioning that earlier comparable projects came in significantly lower than some estimates. Glanzer framed impact fees and builders' bonding as an established mechanism for reserving infrastructure capacity and said she wished impact fees had been enacted earlier.

Growth and zoning also animated the discussion. Martin defended a recent vote to rezone a 50-acre parcel to serve an adjacent ranch and said locating support services next to the site would reduce truck traffic on public roads. He described the decision as a case-by-case risk-benefit judgment. Several audience members and Glanzer questioned whether the site constituted spot zoning given other industrial land in the comp plan.

Community Development Districts (CDDs) drew direct disagreement. Martin said he opposed CDDs because they "grow government" and create additional oversight and administrative costs, while also arguing they split payments into separate bills for homeowners. Glanzer said she supports active local economic development tools — zoning, infrastructure and incentives — and pointed to recent ag-tech businesses and the UF/IFAS Extension relocation as examples of planning paying off.

Education and charter schools were another flashpoint. Glanzer said she would wait at least two years to see how the recently converted Newberry elementary charter performs before supporting middle- and high-school conversions, saying the elementary conversion had been divisive and needed evaluation on budget and promised teacher raises. Martin said he supports local control through conversion and the public charter model and said the city would have some vendor relationships with a charter school (payroll and retirement access), arguing that local decision-making could benefit Newberry students.

On the broader political question of seceding from Alachua County to create a new "Springs County," the candidates parted ways. Martin said he supports the concept and described it as a response to concerns about county governance, saying he had discussed the idea with state officials and supporters. Glanzer said, "No, I do not support Springs County," arguing secession would carry county debt and would be impractical to implement.

Other issues raised included whether Newberry should create its own police department — Glanzer and Martin both said they want to weigh cost and coverage; candidates cited studies estimating a local department would cost several million dollars versus the roughly $1 million the city currently pays under its sheriff's contract. Both candidates also discussed transparency around the commission's hiring of the city manager; Glanzer said she wanted more public clarity about the process.

The debate focused largely on the candidates' different approaches to balancing fiscal caution and managed growth. Martin repeatedly framed his positions around limiting government growth and protecting taxpayers from long-term debt, while Glanzer emphasized planning, community input and testing new approaches before wider adoption. The forum closed with reminders to vote April 8 and with each candidate making closing appeals to voters.