Retired New Smyrna Beach firefighter Kirk Jones, P&Z's Steve Casserly running for city commissioner

Kirk Jones of NSB / Headline SurferNSB planning and zoning board member Steve Casserly / Headline SurferHeadline Surfer photos by Sera Frederick / New Smyrna Beach City Commissioner Lynne Plaskette is shown with Mayorr Adam Barringer (left) and Assistant City Manager Khalid Resheidatat a workshop session in 2011. Should Plaskette opt to seek re-election, she has ready-made challengers in retired firefighter Kirk Jones, and Steve Casserly of the Planning and Zoning Commission, both shown here, left to right, respectively.  
 
By HENRY FREDERICK
Headline Surfer

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Kirk Jones, a retired New Smyrna Beach firefighter, is running for the zone 4 city commission seat held by eight-year incumbent Lynne Plaskett.

Steve Casserly, a member of the Planning and Zoning commission, is seeking the seat as well.

Plaskett, however, has not said publicly whether she will seek a third four-year term on the commission, which has three open seats up for grabs with qualifying ending noon Friday: two commissioner slots and mayor on the five-member city commission. "I haven't really made up my mind either way," Plaskette told Headline Surfer. "It's something I have been going back and forth with. Eight years is a long time, but I'm just not ready to say either way."

Lynne Plaskett / Headline SurferThere are two annonced candidates for the zone 4 city commission seat held by Lynne Plaskett, but the eight-year incumbent has not said publicly, howver, whether she will seek a third term on the commission, which has three open seats up for grabs with qualifying ending noon Friday.

"I haven't really made up my mind either way," Plaskette told Headline Surfer. "It's something I have been going back and forth with. Eight years is a long time, but I'm just not ready to say either way."

Mayor Adam Barringer has announced his intention to run for a second term. The mayor's seat is for two years while the comissioner seats are for four years. So far, Barringer has no opponent. 

The other seat on the commission is being vacated by Jim Hathaway, the longest-tenured commissioner at nearly 18 years, who is running for retiring Volusia County Councilwoman Joie Alexander's district 3 seat representing Southeast Volusia. Hathaway's opponents are former elected school board member Deb Denys of New Smyrna Beach and first-term Edgewater City Councilman Justin Kennedy.

The only announced candidate for Hathaway's seat is his hand-picked successor, Jason McGuirk, chairman of the NSB Planning and Zoning Commission, who announced his intention to run last fall, but so far has stayed under the media radar.