City leaders discuss ‘State of the Region’

Elected leaders of all six municipalities in West Volusia shared their views of the “State of the Region” at a luncheon hosted by the DeLand Area Chamber of Commerce & Orange City Alliance.

Mayors Bob Garcia of DeBary, John Masiarczyk of Deltona, Bob Apgar of DeLand and Gary Blair of Orange City, as well as Vice Mayor Vernon Burton of Lake Helen and Town Council Chairman Samuel Bennett of Pierson, were panelists in the annual event March 22 at John Knox Village.

All agreed that state legislators were wrong to be trying to take away decision-making from locally elected officials.

“The government closest to the people governs best,” Apgar said.

“Home rule is very important to us,” agreed Blair. “It’s a power grab by [state] politicians that causes unwanted consequences.”

“It can be summed up by the phrase ‘unfunded mandates,’ such as their plan to increase homestead exemptions,” Burton said.

“The whole purpose of home rule is that we determine our fates,” Garcia said. “The buck stops here.”

The elected officials outlined how their cities try to balance the needs of business and residential communities.

Masiarczyk pointed out  that 70 percent of Deltona’s residents leave that city every day to go to their jobs, so it’s important to have businesses that can support that workforce as well as the residents who don’t commute.

Apgar said the balancing act also includes growth-related impact fees. If they’re too high, it discourages the construction industry while lessening the burden on residents. But if impact fees are too low, residents pay even more.

Blair said while 76 percent of Orange City’s property-tax revenue comes from commercial properties, the city still wants to attract more clean industries.

Burton and Bennett agreed that their residents wanted to grow while keeping the small-town atmospheres they have now.

All six officials touted recent successes.

Garcia said DeBary has seen many housing and apartment projects, with more in the pipeline, and more recreational trails coming online to bring visitors to the city.

For Masiarczyk, it was The Center at Deltona, the city’s new 30,000-square-foot event complex, that has “exceeded expectations.”

DeLand recently was named “America’s Best Main Street,” Apgar said, but the underlying community support is what really makes that designation important.

Blair said Orange City takes public safety, green space and parks very seriously, but it is also embarking on major improvements to its water supply.

Lake Helen is a small city and proud of that, Burton said, so residents want to keep it that way.

Bennett said back-to-back hurricanes caused havoc with the fern industry in the Pierson area, but the community “stepped up to the plate” and rebuilt the ferneries, and most of them are back in production.

The officials differed on what issue is their biggest concern.

Burton didn’t have anything that applied only to Lake Helen, but he said “Netflix binge-watching” was a personal issue.

Bennett said Pierson has long sought to have U.S. Highway 17 four-laned through the town. Widening the highway from DeLeon Springs to Barberville is scheduled during the next several years, but there are no plans to extend the work farther north.

Blair cited “what Tallahassee does to us,” and added he would like more recreation trails in Orange City.

Apgar said it was two four-letter words — “‘auto’ and ‘mall.’” He said DeLand and Lake Helen have a long history of working well together on many issues, but “we may have issues for that,” especially with how the proposed auto-dealership complex affects the quality of life for residents in his city.

Masiarczyk said it’s difficult to combat social-media posts that spread false information and inaccuracies, causing city officials to spend a lot of time and effort to correct them.

For Garcia, the most important issue is school safety. Arming teachers is not the answer, he said, and officials in Tallahassee need to work with cities to find solutions.

— Joe Crews, joe@beacononlinenews.com