Citizens braved a thunderstorm Monday evening to pack Newberry City Hall for the swearing in of Mayor Tim Marden and Commissioners Donald Long and Tony Mazon.
In the April 8 municipal election, Commissioner Marden defeated former commissioner Joy Glanzer by 97 votes with an 885-788 win.
Long, a Newberry planning and zoning board member, filled Marden’s open commission seat with a 1,018-610 victory over Steve Panaghi.
Mazon kept his seat on the commission and earned 69% of the votes (1,144-510) over challenger Rosa Marie Campbell.
The commission also appointed Mazon as Mayor Chairperson Pro Tempore to stand in for Marden if he’s ever absent and Commissioner Rick Coleman as Mazon’s alternate.
After a brief power outage, City Clerk Judy Rice swore in the new leaders, and Marden presented former Newberry mayor and new City Manager Jordan Marlowe with a commemorative plaque and gavel before kicking off his first regular meeting as mayor.
“I appreciate all of the citizens that showed up tonight in the rain,” Marden said. “I realize I have some pretty big shoes to fill over here. But I think I’m up to the challenge, and I think this commission up here is also up to the challenge to build on the foundation of the great people in the city of Newberry that have come before us.”
During Monday’s meeting, staff reported that the city is on budget through 58% of the fiscal year. The commission unanimously moved to amend the city’s budget revenues from $12,155,091 to $12,250,091 and expenditures from $12,000,465 to $12,971,232.
Staff said the sale of rights-of-way and the Veterans Memorial Park project are impacting revenues, while discrepancies in payroll and operating costs and the transferring out of reserves related to the prior year’s financial meal donations are the greatest factors for expenses.
The transfers out will reflect the largest expenditure increase, going from $642,043 to $817,373.
Due to Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton in 2024, the commission also unanimously approved a $1,532,617 Community Development Block Grant application. The grant would help a section of the city where at least 51% of the residents are very low to moderate income receive the necessary road paving and storm water drainage needed.
Grant plans include $1,183,628 for a new road and pavement covering 2nd, 4th and 5th Avenues, $54,400 for new sidewalks on one side of the same roads and $60,800 for new sewer lines and components.
City staff also announced the promotion of Jason Lyman to Newberry fire chief, who served as interim chief since February, and discussed the need to expedite the process for hiring a new city clerk.
Rice will retire this year after 35 years as city clerk, becoming Newberry’s longest-serving employee in city history. She informed the commission that although the clerk job description had been updated, the city is roughly four weeks behind from when it initially wanted to have the hiring process completed.
To keep from going past the 10:30 p.m. regular meeting limit, the commission resolved to hold a special meeting to vote on a new clerk. Coleman said he and other members of the commission already have someone in mind for the job.
“I don’t think that we need to spend the money to do a national search,” Coleman said. “I believe that we have somebody in-house that is capable of doing this job and doing it very well.”
The commission also appointed resident Jessica Carey to fill Long’s vacant seat on the planning and zoning board. Carey said she brings significant experience to the position from being heavily involved in the community over the past three years.
“I plan to help utilize my experience coming from a very small town that grew very fast to help guide this community,” said Carey, whose term will expire in April 2026.
The commission approved 4-1 term extensions through April 2026 for current planning and zoning board members Anne Polo and Kathi Thomas and through April 2027 for Mellina Parker and Naim Erched, with Commissioner Monty Farnsworth in dissent.
Commissioners Monte Clark and Coleman expressed dissatisfaction with traffic reconfiguration suggestions in compliance with Florida Department of Transportation standards, presented by Ali Brighton from engineering consultant Kimley-Horn.
Brighton showed research for the State Road 26 and Newberry Road intersection, as well as other rapidly developing areas in Newberry, that will feature a traffic light and could potentially benefit from designs such as eliminating the left turn lane.
Coleman said he believed this would only cause more problems.
“This particular one looks to me like it’s going to enhance problems instead of fix problems with U-turns that we have to go down the road [to do] because we can’t turn left,” Coleman said. “I understand [FDOT is] the guru, but this stuff don’t work and it ain’t everyday life.”
A few professors from the University of Florida attended the meeting to lead students in presenting their recently completed coursework on Newberry enhancements to the commission.
UF graduate student J.T. Girman shared a form-based code plan on behalf of the Urban Planning Students’ class project that would better accommodate the city’s rapid growth over single-district zoning.
Dr. Clarissa Carr of UF’s Historic Preservation Program also shared a new ArcGIS StoryMap of the city. The map aims to connect users to an interactive map of the city, which features the history of current and former buildings using various archival resources.
Marden also signed a proclamation to recognize May 4 as National Fallen Firefighters Day, along with the rest of the nation. Flags will be lowered to half-mast on all federal buildings and a bell will toll with a moment of silence as part of Bells Across America to honor fire and emergency personnel who died in the line of duty.
