By Megan V. Williams
Wilmington, NC – In Southport, who you support for mayor probably has a lot to do with what you think of the town's development over the past few years.
Alderman Paul Fisher was there for much of that development, since he's held a seat on city government for the past twelve years. Experience, Fisher says, is what he would bring to the mayor's job, not just from his time on the Board of Aldermen, but from a career before that handling budgets for the military.
"We have a very smooth running city right now," Fisher says, and a vote for him would continue those policies of controlled growth and infrastructure repairs.
Candidate Sandy Spencer couldn't disagree more.
Spencer says Southport's growth has gotten out of control, hurting the town's waterfront and crowding its roads.
If she's elected, Spencer already has her first act planned out -- she wants to get a clear picture of where every single new development that has been approved for Southport will be located.
"I would like to actually see those on a map... to get an idea of what is happening around our community," Spencer says, before she would back any new projects.
The candidate's differences extend beyond the town itself. Spencer is highly skeptical of the traffic and disruption the planned Brunswick port could bring the area, while Fisher says he's optomistic the terminal could mean new roads and even a rail link for Southport.