PUNGO — A businessperson who runs an Oceanfront restaurant has joined the race to challenge a fellow Pungo resident, long-serving Virginia Beach City Councilmember Barbara Henley, in the new District 2.
And, as the Tuesday, June 21, filing deadlines nears, it is a crowded contest — as it was in 2018 when Henley was reelected in the former Princess Anne District by defeating three candidates, including one who dropped out but stayed on the ballot.
This year, restaurateur Michael Mauch is the fifth candidate seeking the seat covering the southern city. The new district covers much of the rural area and, generally, is similar to the former Princess Anne District.
The other candidates in District 2 are Elaine Fekete, a realtor from Sandbridge, Nanette Miller, a Navy veteran with a leadership role in the city GOP committee, and Matthias Paul Telkamp, a technology consultant from Indian River Woods.
Mauch said he became interested in public service after volunteering with the Atlantic Avenue Association, a community welfare organization. He is now its vice president, and he also is the treasurer of the Virginia Beach Restaurant Association and a member of the Resort Advisory Commission.
“I’m running because I think I can bring a new perspective to office,” he said, adding that he appreciated much of what Henley has done during her time on the council.
“I really do feel I can make a difference,” he said. “I think City Council is lacking in vision and that youthful exuberance and really searching for something that can improve the quality of life for everybody instead of being comfortable with what we have and not open to looking at different ways to change and make things better.”
Mauch, who with his wife co-owns the Oceanfront restaurant Harvest, is a Pungo native who briefly moved to the resort before returning to Pungo.
“I moved away for six months down to the Oceanfront and needed to find my way back to Pungo so we bought a house,” he said.
He was educated in city schools, graduating from Kellam High School before studying at Radford University, though he did not finish his degree.
“That was a realization point in my life where you’re going to work really hard to get where you need to be or go back to school on your own dime,” he said.
So he started a business remodeling kitchens and baths before working in the tourism industry, first at souvenir shops before opening an ice cream store around the same time his wife opened another business. She had the idea for Harvest, which they ultimately opened in April 2019 – less than a year before shutdowns related to the novel coronavirus battered the tourism industry and restaurants throughout the city.
“The community really came out strong and kept us going until we were able to get some PPE money and get back on track,” Mauch said. The business expanded by offering rooftop dining, and he said it allows him the chance to work in the community.
Mauch said he has worked on issues at the Oceanfront by chairing a committee to make the resort more ecofriendly, among other efforts, and his priorities for the council and in the district include transportation, addressing recurrent flooding and limiting development in rural areas of the city.
“I think priorities, since I am from Pungo, are making sure the Green Line stays intact,” he said, “and making sure within the entire district that there’s a balance between development and making sure communities stay community.”
He said he supports continued beach replenishment in Sandbridge and the extension of Nimmo Parkway to the residential resort community, calling it “long overdue.”
Additionally, Mauch said he supports farming and the agricultural reserve program, which purchases development rights for agricultural properties so they can continue to be actively farmed.
“I think it serves a purpose, and it needs to definitely stay as a dedicated source for preserving farmland,” he said. “If you have a dedicated funding source, my personal opinion is that money go to what it is dedicated for and not be used for other things. The program needs to be monitored and we need to make sure the money appropriated is the appropriate amount of money.”
Henley learned about her newest challenger from a reporter this past week.
“The more the merrier,” she said.
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