Local

SUZETTE COOK/Alachua County Today

Newberry Fire Rescue and Alachua County Sheriff's deputies responded to a two-car crash at the intersection of SR 26 and Main Street (SR 45) in Newberry on Aug. 22. According to Alachua County Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer, Art Forgey, the accident happened at 4:10 p.m. "Vehicle number one was traveling was eastbound," Forgey said. "Prior to the intersection, the driver made a u-turn from the lane intended for straight travel. This abrupt action occurred in front of vehicle number 2, which attempted to avoid collision. The driver from vehicle number 1 was taken by Alachua County ambulance to the hospital. Two children in the car were not injured. The driver of vehicle number two who tried to swerve out of the way, was unharmed. But the vehicle suffered major damage. SR 26 was closed for about an hour while emergency personnel from Newberry Fire Rescue prepared the driver for transport and waited for an Alachua County ambulance to arrive.

By C.M. WALKER

Today Reporter

HIGH SPRINGS – On May 7 of this year, the State of Florida Department of Legal Affairs (DLA) filed suit against former commissioner, Robert J. Barnas, in the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit, Leon County, Florida.  Barnas was served a summons notifying him of the suit and providing him with notice that he had twenty calendar days in which to respond in writing to the court. 

DLA filed the suit on behalf of Sharon L. Yeago, who had previously made a claim against Barnas in an effort to recover damages of nearly $47,000 in attorney's fees and expenses.  This was the cost Yeago and her lawyers incurred defending her against charges they felt were unsubstantiated, but were still brought against her by former commissioner Bob Barnas. 

Barnas originally filed his complaint against Yeago with the Florida Elections Commission (FEC) on April 1, 2013.  Noting that Yeago was acting as spokesperson for Concerned Citizens for a Better High Springs (a.k.a., Concerned Citizens), he filed it against her personally.  Barnas' complaint charged that the group was formed for the purpose of opposing a High Springs Charter amendment referendum and to support certain candidates running for commission seats in the Nov. 6, 2012 general election.  The charges were made despite the fact that the group clearly identified itself as a non-political group when it was formed.

Barnas further alleged that such activity had violated various provisions of Chapter 106, Florida Statutes, since Concerned Citizens did not register as a political committee or appoint a treasurer, a registered agent, file reports of financial expenditures, and did not keep records.

The FEC summarily dismissed Barnas' original complaint against Yeago as being “legally insufficient” and, in July 2013, Yeago filed a counter petition against Barnas to attempt to recover attorney's fees and costs challenging Barnas' tactics in filing his original complaint against her.  In Yeago's counter petition she argued that Barnas maliciously filed the complaint knowing that its allegations were false or that it was filed with reckless disregard for the truth. 

Lengthy hearings were held in Tallahassee to consider Yeago's petition to be reimbursed for attorney's fees and expenses for the legally insufficient case brought by Barnas against her.  Following those hearings, Administrative Law Judge Diane Cleavinger wrote a detailed 27-page Recommended Order (RO) in support of Yeago's claim against Barnas. 

After receiving the RO ruling in Yeago's favor last year, Barnas submitted 55 pages of exceptions and challenges.  FEC members reviewed all of Barnas' exceptions and objections in October and at yet another hearing in Tallahassee on Feb. 24, 2015.  Following this extensive review, the FEC in a 5-0 vote substantially upheld the RO and rejected the bulk of Barnas' exceptions.

As Barnas has not complied and paid the amount approved by the Administrative Law Judge and the Florida Elections Commission, the Department of Legal Affairs is authorized by Florida Statutes to take on the task of forcing compliance with the Administrative Law Judge's order, a process that will increase the amount owed with additional court costs and attorney fees.  Barnas has not yet filed an answer, but has asked the court to halt the action to enforce payment against him until his appeal of the FEC's order is over.  That effort to stay the DLA's case is still awaiting judicial action.  This case has been assigned to Judge George Reynolds in Tallahassee.

Photo by SUZETTE COOK/Alachua County Today
The Santa Fe High School Raiders football team got their first workout in on Aug. 25 since the completion of a state of the art 12 station workout room made possible by patrons. Nose guard Steven Williams, above, takes his turn.

BY SUZETTE COOK/Today Editor

ALACHUA – It is 8 a.m. and Building 25 at Santa Fe High School is about to fill up with the Raider Varsity Football Team.

Head Coach Bill Wiles has his list ready. Jog, Raider jacks, plank, side bridge, leg throw, bench bar, squat bar, shrug, iso neck with partner. 

This is the first full workout for the Raider team in the school’s new weight room that is about four times bigger than it was a few months ago. Walls are down and with the help of fundraising leader Faye Zuidema, local businesses and patrons stepped up to support the request for a better way for all Raiders to build strength.

“We had a vision,” said SFHS Athletic Director Michele Faulk. “It was going to cost about $52,000, and Faye Zuidema got a lot of community business leaders involved. In less than two months, we raised $62,000.”

On Aug. 21, patrons were invited to Building 25 to see what their donations turned into.

“You can do so many different things with this,” Faulk said and pointed to one of 12 universal workout stations that cost about $5,000 each.

Coach Wiles came in for a quick visit before kickoff and shook hands with platinum sponsors Greg Waitcus of Santa Fe Ford and Alan Hitchcock. He made his way around the room and greeted and thanked all of the patrons involved.

Faulk addressed the attendees, “We wanted you to see, this is what your money went for and our kids can’t stay out of here. This community amazes me beyond words. You are so giving in less than two months we raised this money.”

On the donor wall, plaques list the sponsors: Santa Fe Ford, The Hitchcock Family, Darrell Timberlake, Coach Warren Buck, O'steen Brothers, Inc., The Crane Foundation, High Springs Electric, Inc., Zac Zedlais, Bev's Burger Cafe', Rothseiden Family, Jack and Faye Zuidema, Cedar Lane Farms, Inc., Rembert Family Foundation, Inc., Hitchcock's Foodway, Santa Fe High School Advisory Council, Captial City Bank, Raoul Wallenberg, Reverend Hillery & Donna Bassriel, The Thomas Family:Clay, Kevin and Jackson, Renasant Bank, Custom Lighting, Inc., Bottita Family, Gussie M. W. Lee and Family, Main Street Pie Co., Mason J. Hancock, Alachua Farm & Lumber and Joel DeCoursey, Jr.

Former Raider athletes and coaches names are on the wall. Former SFHS Coach Warren Buck is standing next to one of his players who also donated to the project. Darrell Timberlake, class of 1989, broke the record in points in a game, Coach Buck says. Buck graduated from SFHS in 1964 came back to coach in 1974. “I coached for 30 years,” Buck said. “We’ve never had anything this nice before. I know they’ll utilize it use it real well.”

He pointed to Timberlake said, “He still holds the record 54 points in one game against Interlachen.”

Timberlake was a forward for the Raider basketball team, and he also helped support the expansion with a substantial donation.

“It’s fantastic,” Timberlake said about the facility. “We’ve been very blessed and very honored to help the school out.”

Principal Dr. Beth LeClear joked that the place “looks like a college locker room,” and added, “Our community knew that we needed something for our children, and look at what we got. It’s amazing. No other place than Santa Fe.”

Assistant Track Coach and Algebra Teacher Basil Wetherington said he is excited to get his athletes on the equipment.

 “These are half-rack multipurpose, so we can do all of the Olympic exercises, the traditional static, all the compound exercises, suspension training,” Wetherington said.

“You’re talking about complete 100 percent total body exercise, all confined in a small space that you can get 3 or 4 athletes at each rack. With 12 racks, that’s 48 to 50 athletes working out at once, plus excess space to do our other exercise.

Platinum sponsor Alan Hitchcock said he has always been a fan of the Raiders’ sports teams.

“It’s very exciting,” he said. “Because it’s really a state of the art, brand new, first class facility that I hope the kids will really be excited about building their bodies and making themselves into bigger stronger athletes.”

Hitchcock said he was a basketball player and that he continues to follow SFHS sports.

“I’m a big supporter of Coach Wiles,” he added. “And I hope this really helps him take us to the next level.”

Wiles knew exactly what to do with the new equipment as he took over the workout room on Aug. 25.

“Front plank hold for 30,” he shouted out directions. “On your front, 30, on your right, 30, on your left, 30. Make sure your body is straight.”

Then he introduced his athletes to the equipment. “Take those off, lay them on the floor,” he said about weights on the rack. “Put them on about two or three, there you go,” he instructed.

Clink clank clink clank, metal on metal sounds took over the room.

The players dug into the workout.

“It a good atmosphere, said Isaiah Cromarty, 16. “It makes me want to work out.”

Junior Tryston Dejesus agreed. “It’s really nice, way better than we used to have.

Senior Defensive Nose Guard Steven Williams said his exercise of choice is the bench press. “It looks good,” he said about the new facility and added what he plans to get out of it.

“A lot of strength, a lot of team building.”

At the end of the workout, the team gathered in the center of the room and built up to the same team cheer they execute before taking the field. “Raiders, Raiders, Raiders,” they yelled in unison.

They showed up for that first workout filtering in one by one, stopping at the sponsor wall and reading the names of the people and businesses that made the workout space a reality.

They left Building 25 in a group, as a team and headed to class with more energy than they arrived with.

SUZETTE COOK/Alachua County Today

Rain interupted the 2015 World Series and forced games to move from Hal Brady Rec Complex in Alachua to Newberry's Champions Park.

ALACHUA – City of Alachua Recreation Director Hal Brady remembers the 1992 Babe Ruth World Series competition well because he said at least 20 inches of rain fell in less than a week.

The 61 teams who arrived in Alachua County to compete in the 2015 Babe Ruth World Series soon found out, that Brady wasn’t exaggerating. The teams faced persistent rain, lightening and flooding of fields but managed to battle through and play out their contests.

 And even though it may have felt like it, no record rainfall was measured during the July 31-Aug. 4 event  said WUFT Meteorologist Jeff Huffman.

 “No records have been set by the recent rain in our area that I’m aware of, but on Monday evening there were reports that as many as five inches fell in a three hour time…over two separate areas of the county (SW Gainesville and near Waldo).”

 “The recent flooding along the Nature Coast has been caused by a persistent area of low pressure sitting just offshore in the Gulf of Mexico,” Huffman added. “Thankfully, satellite and radar data has confirmed that it is finally moving to the northeast, and a more typical Florida summer weather pattern will ensue by midweek.”

 Back up plans went into effect early on in the series when teams scheduled to play in Alachua at the Hal Brady Recreation Complex were bussed down to Newberry’s Champions Park.

 Players and coaches said they had to make adjustment to the slick turf on the fields in Newberry often sliding sooner than usual to catch the bases.

“Best fields we ever played on,” said one coach about the Newberry diamonds. “Ten minutes after the weather, you can get right back out and play.”

Coach Jacques Harris of Gainesville Fast Pitch team said it was the delays that made this tournament difficult for his team.

“They cancelled all the games on Saturday,” he said. “Or there would be a 2-hour delay, 4-hour delay. His team made it to the last day losing to JPR West, the team from Jefferson Parish, Louisiana that went on to win the series in a game that played until 1:30 a.m. on the championship field in Alachua.

For the ground crew back at the fields in Alachua, they played their own game against the rain, rolling, tarping, spreading Turface and Game Saver to absorb water.

“We’ve been in a holding pattern the whole time,” said Coach Bob Bocock from Hamilton New Jersey. “It’s just been raining constantly.

“Some of them are playable and there are some puddles,” said his daughter Pitcher Becca Bocock of the 12U team about the fields.

Alachua sat empty all day on Aug. 4, until the championship game got to take the field.

 JPRD West (Jefferson Parish, Louisiana) took the World Series win away from Mount Olive in 6 to 3 contest.

The other contest winners were 8U: Mannasa, Virginia, 10U: Pitt County, 12U: JPRD East, 14U: JPRD West.  

John Parrish, task force member for Babe Ruth headquarters was holding down the empty fort in flooded Alachua on Tuesday as games played out in Newberry.

“We moved 12U to the turf fields because they drain faster,” he said.

“You don’t plan for a tropical depression to sit on top of you,” he said about this year’s series. “It’s one thing to have an afternoon thunderstorm blow out the fields and then we resume that night and play late. But we had three days of straight rain and you just do the best you can with it.”

While photographers from Glossy Finish wrapped gear in aqua tent bags or garbage bags and rubber bands at fields in Newberry, ground crew members and volunteers were raking water and rolling wet clay in Alachua.

“Thank God between the Newberry facility and ours,” Brady said.

Anthony Tucci, state commissioner for Babe Ruth Soft Ball in Pennsylvania played the role of meteorologist throughout the tournaments .

He had a screen tied in to a staff of meteorologists and monitored the rain and lightning.

“Meteorologists will give us an advance warning and they call us off the field,” he said. “We have their app through Weather Bug.

“Any time we get lighting within 10 miles of the complex we pull them off the field for 30 minutes.”

“We had a lot of weather,” Tucci said about the 2015 series.

“A lot of delays…in trying to facilitate games, we decreased time, limiting games to an hour and 15 minutes, our umpire crews have turned games , kept them moving along.”

Photo courtesy KIM WORLEY/Special to Alachua County Today
Left to right, Florida League of Cities President and Hawthorne Mayor Matt Surrency, Diana Davis, E. Harris Drew Award Winner Waldo Mayor Louie Davis, Florida League of Cities First Vice-President and Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie.

BY CAROL WALKER

HAWTHORNE/WALDO – Alachua County stood out this year as two local mayors were honored at the Florida League of Cities 89th Annual Conference in Orlando.  Hawthorne Mayor Matt Surrency was sworn in as president of the Florida League of Cities, which acts as a united voice for Florida’s Municipal Governments. 

This year's conference, “Florida Cities – A Public Conversation,” drew a crowd of approximately 1,000 city officials from across Florida.  Participants gather to share ideas, attend educational workshops and sessions, discuss strategies for Florida's future, determine League policies and visit the Municipal Marketplace.

The League's goals are to serve the needs of Florida’s cities and promote local self-government.

Surrency became second vice-president of the Florida League of Cities in 2013 after campaigning throughout the state.  In 2014, he became first vice-president of the organization and this year will serve as president.

Each year a presidential initiative is proposed for the League.  “This year, we're organizing throughout the state and promoting cities to work together on regional issues to solve issues state and federal government agencies are usually responsible for solving,” said Surrency. 

A good example of that is the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact.  “A federal grant was available to deal with sea level rise.  Instead of three or four cities in southeast Florida competing for the grant funding, the cities worked together as a unit to compete for the grant for the city that would benefit the most from winning it.  Because of the joint effort, it threw a lot more weight behind one community fighting for the grant against the rest of the country,” he said. 

Surrency was elected as commissioner in Hawthorne in 2009, elected as vice-mayor in 2010 and has served as mayor since 2011.  When he is not serving the needs of the people, he is in sales at Florida Septic, a local concrete manufacturer in Hawthorne.  He and his wife met in high school and have three sons.

Waldo Mayor Louie Davis also was honored as he received the prestigious E. Harris Drew Award during the League conference.  The award, sponsored by the Florida League of Cities, recognizes and honors a local elected official who has made a lasting and worthwhile contribution to the citizens of Florida through their efforts and dedication in the performance of their duties on the local level, thus fulfilling the FLC’s motto, “Local Self-Government - Keystone of American Democracy.”

“This is pretty much a Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Ben Boukari, Alachua City Commissioner.  “It's a really great honor to win this award.  We are very proud that this year's recipient is from Alachua County,” he said

Each year an honoree is chosen from nominations received by the three-person selection committee appointed by the League's president.  Mayor Davis’s name will be added to the permanent plaque located at the FLC's office in Tallahassee.  Davis has served the City of Waldo for 33 years, 29 of which were as mayor. 

During that time, Waldo has seen many changes, some more positive than others.  “One of the best things we did was to get a branch of the Alachua County Library in Waldo,” said Davis.  Another issue he feels has improved service in Waldo is that the city “went with the county for fire/rescue services.  I think we are experiencing better service now.” 

Davis also sees the development of the recreation parks in the city as a wonderful change.  “The city established the Sid Martin Park in the 1980s.  We decided to name the park after Sid Martin since he helped us to get it,” he said.

Some of the less than desirable changes he's seen during his tenure include the closing of the train station in Waldo, closing of the police department and the closing of the school.  “We're hoping to get another school here at some point,” he said.

Davis became Waldo's mayor in 1985 and has remained in that position ever since with the exception of two years serving on the council.  He also has served as a member of the Volunteer Fire Department and acted as Fire Chief for a while.  “I grew up in Waldo and I have enjoyed serving the public for a lot of years,” said Davis.

He says he is thankful to his wife, Diana, and his family for their support throughout the years.  He proudly announced, “We will be married 50 years this December.”  Of his family, he just as proudly said, “We have two girls, six grand kids and two great grand boys.”

While also serving as mayor, Davis also worked for the University of Florida as Facilities Director for the Department of Zoology for 35 years.  Although he retired from that position seven years ago, he still can't seem to sit still.  Currently, he is working as purchasing agent and maintenance manager for Ray's Metal Works in Alachua.

“I am honored to receive this recognition from the Florida League of Cities. Throughout my career I have worked closely with the Florida League, as well as the Alachua County League of Cities and the Northeast Florida League of Cities to try and make Waldo a great place to live, work and play,” said Mayor Davis. “I am grateful for the help and support I’ve received along the way from Florida League staff, the Alachua and NE Florida League of Cities, the City of Waldo, my wife Diana and family. We’re all in this together and together we can accomplish great things.”

There is only one thing Davis would like to have changed about his lifetime of work and service.  “I wish I had kept a journal all these years so I could write a book about small town politics,” he quipped.  “That would have been a real barn burner.”

ALACHUA – According to Art Forgey at the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, these two horses were found wandering in High Springs and were called in to the High Springs Police Department on Friday, Aug. 21. Then they wandered away and the ACSO found them ans transported them to the Rural Service Livestock Impound area in LaCrosse where they wait to be claimed by their owners.

One is a sorrel colored gelding and the other is a black and white gelding. Call the Rural Services deputy with any questions or to report details baout these two horses. If unclaimed, they will be auctioned off. 352-955-1818