Recently, just before the NC General Assembly voted to allow developer David Couch to de-annex nearly 1,000 acres of his land from Summerfield in order to build a housing development with a density higher than the Town Council would allow, Summerfield Mayor Tim Sessoms said he planned to resign from that job.

However, on Thursday, Aug. 8, Sessoms told the Rhino Times that after more consideration – and after hearing from others in the town – he had decided to stay in that job for the remainder of his term, which ends in December of 2025.

Sessoms said earlier this summer that, for years, the citizens of Summerfield and the town’s leaders had worked hard to make it a great place to live, but he added that the current four-person majority on the Town Council was threatening the very existence of Summerfield.

The mayor also said Summerfield “is a premiere town in the state of North Carolina” and that It may very well be the best town in the state –  however, he said that a four-member Town Council majority was “ripping it all apart.”

“I’m heartbroken for our town,” he said earlier this summer.

Sessoms also told the Rhino Times at that time that he intended to resign as mayor.

“I don’t want to resign, but to be the master of ceremonies over this Ringling  Brothers circus is pointless when I can’t do anything about it,” he said in June. “I’m growing weary.”

This week, however, Sessoms said he’d had a change of heart after hearing from the town’s people who were concerned that, if he stepped down from that job of running meetings, the residents would be less informed as to what was going on with the town’s government.

 Sessoms and Town Councilmember John Doggett are the only two members of the Town Council who were willing to work with Couch in order to stave off de-annexation of the vast swath of land and the two have disagreed with the four-person majority on a number of other key issues as well.

In Summerfield, the mayor doesn’t get a vote on town matters except in the case of a tie, and, since four of five council members wanted former Town Manager Scott Whitaker gone, that drove the entire Town of Summerfield staff away as well, and there was nothing Sessoms could do about it.  That was one major issue that caused him to want to resign.

“It’s very frustrating,” Sessoms said.