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Local News

  • Some private transportation allowed for extracurricular activities

    The use of private vehicles to transport students during extracurricular activities, once a prohibited action, will be allowed on a case-by-case basis by individual schools, according to a policy change scheduled for approval Feb. 17.

    The new policy will allow athletic teams, especially minor sports like golf and tennis, to attend events otherwise unavailable to them due to transportation funding cuts.

    Small-group educational trips will also benefit from the policy change, making it possible for field trips too small to justify bus use to still occur.

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  • PE tells chamber solar power not an option

    Progress Energy wants residents to know it has considered using wind and solar power to meet customer’s needs, but that is not a viable option.

    That was the message of Denny George of Progress Energy and a director for the Chiefland Chamber of Commerce at its Jan. 23 meeting.

    George said Florida does not have the sustainable wind to power the large windmills that customers see in the commercials on television and cable.

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  • Fanning Springs Park gets Green Lodging certificate

    Sunscreen? Check. Bugspray? Check. Green Lodging designation? Ch— wait, what’s that?

    A Green Lodging designation, bestowed by Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), is a certification that states that hotels or other places of lodging have implemented a series of recommended practices designed to reduce energy and water use and produce less refuse.

    This past week, Fanning Springs State Park received this designation for its overnight cabins, which opened three years ago.

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  • God and politics blamed in firing

    Newly minted Levy County Property Appraiser Oz Barker says he fired a veteran employee on his first day in office because he did not have confidence or trust in her, but two leaders in the Tri-County NAACP said he told them God directed him to do it.

    And they think the reason is a little less divine — that Barker traded a promise to fire her in return for votes to help him win the office in the November election.

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  • Chiefland agrees to adult business restrictions

    Adult entertainment businesses locating in Chiefland will have to erect an 8-foot fence around the property and be at least 500 feet away from areas county-zoned residential areas and 1,000 feet away from city-zoned recreational, public, educational, day care and church sites.

    That was the decision of the Chiefland City Commission in its regular meeting Monday evening after commissioners viewed a series of maps showing the amount of acreage and the number of parcels available under several setback scenarios.

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  • City manager gets another year

    Chiefland City Manager Grady Hartzog will stay on the job another year after the city commissioners approved a new contract for his services.

    In a special meeting Monday evening, the commissioners unanimously approved paying Hartzog $70,968.85 annual salary.

    At the same time Hartzog said because he felt money was tight in the city budget he had the stipulation that the city pay $400 in annual Chiefland Rotary Club dues for him removed from the contract. Hartzog said he felt that the city already paying dues for two department heads for Rotary was enough.

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  • Teresa Watson gets FEMA to cough up money

    BRONSON — Teresa Watson is not the sort of person you should owe a debt.

    She will collect the money.

    The Board of Commissioners recently commended Watson, a financial clerk in Levy County Clerk of Courts Danny Shipp’s office, on Jan. 6 for getting the Federal Emergency Management Agency to agree to cover cost overruns at the Cedar Key dock rebuilding. The dock, which was reopened in July 2008, was damaged by tropical storms and hurricanes in the devastating 2004 Hurricane Season. The dock had to be replaced with a new stronger concrete structure.

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  • City wants to hear from skaters on park plans

    Skaters, mark your calendars! Three skate park designers and vendors will be at Chiefland City Hall on Jan. 26, looking for your input on the city’s new skating court, to be built at Delma Locke Park behind Chiefland middle and high schools.

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  • Three charged with abuse of mentally handicapped man

      BRONSON — Three people have been charged with mistreatment of a 51-year-old mentally handicapped man who was found malnourished and weighing between 80 to 100 pounds when found by deputies acting on an anonymous tip.   One officer who saw the victim said he looked like a prisoner of war.

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  • Amanda Gordon will see history in the making

    Amanda Gordon is just a small town girl, but for five days this coming week she's going to be amidst revelry, dignitaries and all the glitz the nation's capital has to offer.

    The seventh grader at Trenton Middle-High School will be there Tuesday when Barack Obama becomes the country's 44th president, thanks to a recommendation from a teacher two years ago that designates her as among the nation's brightest young people.

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