Alachua County Today File Photo

Teams face off at the inaugural tournament in 2012. Low team turnout and cancelled tournaments have been an obstacle for the park.

NEWBERRY – Over 160 teams have played on the baseball fields of Nations Park in Newberry over the last two weekends in two different tournaments. Both times, the park was under new management.

The Gainesville Sports Commission handled the operations of Nations Park during the last two tournaments, and a dialogue with the City of Newberry might lead to it being a permanent relationship.

The two entities are in talks to have the Gainesville Sports Commission (GSC) take over the park’s day-to-day management.

Right now, the city is waiting for the GSC to take the proposal to its board for approval. After that, the contract would have to be approved by the Newberry City Commission.

There are some snags, however.

“The city commission still has some issues with it,” said Newberry Mayor Bill Conrad. “They want $100,000 from the city. That’s not in our budget, so we got to work out where that’s going to come from,” he said.

The proposal will go before the Alachua County Tourist Development Council for approval. Though the Tourist Development Council doesn’t have to approve the deal, if it did, it could be a way for Newberry to get the $100,000 the GSC wants. The council could then give the Alachua County Commission a recommendation to approve money to help with improvements to the park.

The park was originally managed by Lou Presutti’s Nations LLC. Since it opened in 2012, cancelled tournaments and low turnout for teams have been a challenge for the facility.  

“They were doing fine, but I think there is a sense that it could be done differently and maybe even better,” said City Manager Keith Ashby.

“The Gainesville Sports Commission appears interested in doing that,” he said.

Presutti, founder of Cooperstown Dreams Park in New York, sent a letter to the Newberry City Commission in support of the GSC management takeover.

Assuming the contract is signed, Presutti would be a tenant of the park under the arrangement. The city would still work with him, and his organization would still hold tournaments in Nations Park.

Last weekend’s tournament saw 70 teams come to play, and the weekend before that saw 93 teams, Ashby said. The Gainesville Sports Commission ran both events.

“They’ve shown great resolve with the last two tournaments,” he said.

The city entered talks with the GSC because it couldn’t run the park itself, Ashby said.

“The city is not really in the business of operating sports facilities,” he said. Newberry, in order to satisfy requirements for state grants, must create a certain amount of jobs, but they must be in the private sector.

The vision is to have the 16-stadium park be mainly operated by the GSC, but to also be rented out to a variety of organizations, Mayor Conrad said.

Nations Park is meant to bring economic development to the area and get people to spend money in restaurants, hotels and gas stations, Ashby said.

The last two weekends have been good signs for the future of Nations Park, Mayor Conrad said.

“It’s been very promising,” he said.

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ALACHUA –A Georgia man was arrested in Gainesville after buying around $540 worth of merchandise from the Lowe’s in Alachua with fraudulent checks.

The Gainesville Police Department notified the Alachua Police Department about the arrest of Ricky Demond Dyer around a 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 19.

Dyer went to Lowe’s in Alachua and purchased $541.66 worth of items several hours before he tried to do the same at a Home Depot in Gainesville.

After Dyer tried to purchase $527.87 worth of merchandise at the Home Depot, store employees denied the transaction because the routing numbers on the check were fictitious.

Dyer tried to leave in a Chevy Malibu. Officer Pat Donnelly stopped him at 4400 NW 20th Street in Gainesville.

Dyer threw a wallet out of the car just before being stopped. It had four different Georgia ID cards with variations of his name and different dates of birth.

He was found in possession of several fraudulent Bank of America checks.

Items from a Sears in Valdosta, Ga. were also found.

Alachua Police Department public information officer Jesse Sandusky was unable to comment, since the investigation is still ongoing.

Dyer is being held at the Alachua County Jail, with a $50,000 bond, according to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office website.

He is being charged with four felonies related to counterfeiting and fraud.

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NEWBERRY – Cameron O’Byrn, 11, and around 800 other students came to the Easton Newberry Sports Complex on Saturday, Feb. 22 with a goal in mind.

“I was hoping to at least beat my personal record of 262,” O’Byrne said.

He did just that at The National Archery in the Schools Program’s State Tournament.

The event featured more competitors than ever.

“I am very pleased with the turnout,” said Steven Robbins, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission archery programs coordinator.

A member of the Viking archery team from Lakeland Christian School, O’Byrne shot his personal best.

“I got a 278, so I feel really cool about that,” O’Byrne said.

Everyone was feeling the heat under their bow and arrow.

“The hardest part was halfway through. I started sweating and shaking,” O’Bryne said.

Practicing archery for about a year and a half, O’Bryne said the tournament taught him a lot.

“I learned how hard it is to just keep calm and shoot better,” he said.

The event also offered the opportunity for shooters to practice 3-D Archery. Bear Archery, located in Gainesville, donated two bows as prizes for the tournament- one for the top girl and boy in the 3-D archery.

“That’s what they were shooting for,” Robbins said.

There were up to 24 shooters on a team, and four of the members had to be of the opposite gender.

“The trip here has been real exciting for us. Our kids shot real well. Archery definitely gives children who aren’t super athletic a sport that they can compete in,” said Julie Walker, a parent in the stands rooting for Price Middle School in Putnam County.

The top 12 scores in each team were counted as the overall score for the team. There were first, second, and third place trophies for the teams with the highest score in the elementary, middle and high school division. The elementary level only includes the fourth and fifth grades.

There were also trophies available for individual males and females in the elementary, middle and high school levels with the top scores. All of the trophies were decked out in this year’s logo – the bald eagle.

“Friends and family were all here to support the students,” Robbins said.

Before the top scores were revealed, the coaches from each team got to shoot against each other.

“There’s a lot of noise. Everybody has their favorite,” Robbins said.

This event gave the coaches something to look forward to during the tournament.

Robbins also said archery is a good way for students to stay motivated in school.

“I hear stories about students who weren’t doing well in school, but they love archery. They needed to keep their grades up to stay on the team. And, they did that,” Robbins said.

To Robbins, there is something special about archery.

“If a child cannot dunk a fast ball, or run like crazy, they can still walk out there and hit a bull’s-eye,” Robbins said.

To him, the sport of archery is open to anybody who wants to give it a try. It makes the students more self-confident, he said.

“It empowers them. Now, how does that sound?” he said.

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ALACHUA –When Alachua City Commissioner Gary Hardacre’s children graduated, they had to leave town to find a job, he said at an Alachua City Commission meeting. The next generation may be more fortunate, as another 164 jobs are coming to the city of Alachua.

Coqui Radio Pharmaceuticals Corp. selected Alachua as the site for a new facility for designing, constructing and supplying medical isotopes.

Over 10,000 hospitals worldwide use radioisotopes in medicine, mainly for diagnosis procedures, according to the World Nuclear Association. The isotopes are generally injected, inhaled or taken orally, giving off energy that can be detected and tracked by special equipment so doctors can learn more about what parts of the body are failing or diseased.

The 164 jobs will be created over a three-year period, said Assistant City Manager Adam Boukari at the Monday, Feb. 24 commission meeting.

They will range from unskilled jobs to careers requiring doctoral degrees, said Susan Davenport, vice president of economic development for the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce. About 87 of the jobs are unskilled or semi-skilled, she said.

Not only will residents of Alachua have more jobs available, but people from all around the area will too, Davenport said.

“It will be a great opportunity for people in the region,” she said.

It’s a time for Alachua to be on the map and shine, said Alachua Mayor Gib Coerper.

The new 100,000 square-foot facility, with a capital investment of $227 million over the next for years, is the only of its kind in the country and one of only three or four in the entire world, Davenport said. The average annual compensation for workers will be $70,000.

Because there is a shortage of one of the particular isotopes the company will create, Alachua will have a chance to have a major impact on global health, she said.

At the Feb. 24 meeting, the commission approved a motion to offer Coqui a Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund.

Coqui qualified for a $7,000 tax credit for each job that will be created, amounting to $1,148,000.

The program requires a 20 percent match from local government, meaning local government will provide $229,600. The City of Alachua will provide $114,800, with Alachua County providing the rest.

The program was set up by the state to make Florida an attractive environment to business.

In order to be considered, companies have to apply to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. There are six criteria. The company has to be in a target industry, demonstrate it will make a material difference in expanding the local community, create at least 10 new full-time jobs or expand an existing operation by 10 percent, pay an average annual wage at least 115 percent of the state or local wages, demonstrate the jobs make a significant contribution to the area and get a resolution passed by local government to commit to providing 20 percent of the refund.

Last year, Alachua-based Encell Technology, which designs high-efficiency batteries, received just a little over $1 million in tax credits from the program.

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