Lunch with Ernest

Brandon's greatest booster

More than a quarter-century ago, Anne Nymark started Professional Accounting Services in Brandon.

Since then, she's raised her only daughter, nurtured her business, remarried and served as the president of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce.

Recently, we sandwiched talk of growth management and parenthood between slices of her life, while lunching at Della's Delectables.

Pull up a chair and join us.

Ernest: Do you enjoy being an accountant?

Anne: I love it. It's what I've always done. It's what I've always wanted to do. Actually, I went back to school when I was 30 and got my degree. When I was growing up, it wasn't a thing for girls to go to college. It wasn't encouraged and we were very poor. I didn't think I would ever be able to go. But I was always real good with numbers.

My boss was concerned that an accountant might not be a very exciting interview. Are accountants exciting?

I'm very outgoing, but I'm unusual. I've sort of been lucky that I have an outgoing personality, and it's really helped my practice.

Do you ever wonder why fate has made you one of the fortunate people?

I don't wonder; I know. I was the youngest of seven children. My mother raised us by herself. My dad was an alcoholic. I've had a lot of difficulties in my life, but the values she instilled in me helped me get through everything. I just saw her example, and that is what gave me the drive and the ambition.

What do you think of Brandon?

I love it. I don't ever want to be any other place. You know how you know when you've just found home? I love this place. To have as many people -- 165,000 people live in the Greater Brandon area -- and to still maintain that hometown feeling. It's great.

What are you passionate about?

I'm very, very passionate about the Greater Brandon area. I try to stay on top of things that affect us, like our infrastructure. I'm not a political person. I would never run for office. I don't have any intention of ever doing that -- I love my life, love my grandchildren -- but when it's about our community or an organization that I love, I try to help.

The Brandon Outreach Clinic: I love that organization. It saves lives. It does that by helping people like you or me if we had lost our jobs.

Anything out here in Brandon where I know the money stays here, I'm knee-deep in it.

Do you twist arms?

I just call them up. And they say, "All right Anne, how much do you want this time?"

You have lived in Brandon for 26 years. How do you feel about the changes?

I hate the traffic, but I believe the change is good. I think there has been very poor planning out here. The change is impacting our infrastructure. There was no planning done on the county level for the growth we've experienced out here.

Is there anything we can do to help the community deal with all the growth?

If we're ever going to control our growth, and I hate to say this, but I do believe Greater Brandon needs to incorporate. Greater Brandon is the largest unincorporated area in the state. We have the highest tax base in Hillsborough County out here, but we don't get our fair share of the services or the attention. We need to be in their face.

What would it be like to be incorporated?

What I would absolutely like to do is see the research about incorporation. Would it help Brandon or would it hurt Brandon? What would it do to the tax base?

Whenever you say higher taxes, it scares people.

But I don't know if that's true. I haven't seen a study on it. It wouldn't hurt to do the research to do due diligence. Think of how large Hillsborough County is and look at all the money that goes to the county. If we had our own city, if we controlled our destiny, we could get state money as a city for road improvement and infrastructure and you also could get federal money.

You said you dote on your grandchildren, so they think you're a good Grammy. But what does their mother think?

Sometimes she says, "Butt out mom." Amanda is disciplined, and when they go out in public she has taught the kids that they need to behave. We were somewhere and we had waited on dinner for a long time. So they got restless. She took Courtney outside and gave her a talking to and when she came back I said, "Amanda that was really unnecessary. These kids have been waiting for a long time." And she said, "Mom, I am raising my children exactly the way you raised me, so butt out."

How does it make you feel to hear your daughter say she's doing the same things you did?

It makes me very proud. There were some bad times, and I was always working when Amanda was growing up and I have a lot of guilt about that. When I hear her say things like that, I know I did something right.

What's it like when your daughter comes to you and says, 'I'm engaged. I'm getting married.'

First of all, you get scared for your kids because you don't want them to make the same mistakes you made. This is Amanda's second marriage, and when she got married the first time they were too young.

When your kids hurt, you hurt. Period.

Talk about being a woman in a male-dominated profession.

I believe I've had to work twice as hard as any man in my profession. When I came out here, it was just the good old boys, and they didn't have any tolerance for a woman. They called me a pretty bookkeeper, insulted me. You know what? I just kept my nose to the grindstone.

How did you keep going?

I just knew I had to.

DESSERT: A postscript from Ernest

The Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce feels like family to Anne, 52. She met her husband, Jeff Bleiweiss, at a chamber luncheon. Before she started her business, she worked three jobs, in part because her daughter needed braces. She's trying to convince me to attend one of her Brandon Rotary meetings -- at 7 a.m. Good luck, Anne.