Children at the Alachua library raise their hands as they vow to be kind to all animals as a tribute to the memory of Catherine Hubbard, one of the Sandy Hook children for whom Catherine the horse is named.

HIGH SPRINGS – The Alachua Library, located at 14913 NW 140^th St., called upon the folks at Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses and asked them to join their staff on Thursday, June 13 to help kick off the library’s summer reading program.

The “Reading is Magic” program garnered such enthusiasm from area children and their parents that the library had to issue tickets and limit entry to 150 people in order to maintain fire code limits. Families who could not get tickets still waited patiently outdoors to see the little horses as they arrived and walked into the library building.

The “Reading is Magic” program included a video, a book reading and a visit from some of the tiny horses, along with their caretakers Debbie and Jorge Garcia-Bengochea.

The book talked about baby horses and included the introduction of a future therapy horse foal named Sweetheart, who went to the library with her mother, Vanny, to visit with the children.

A video about the therapy horses as they worked inside various children’s hospitals was also shown. The video was dedicated to Catherine Hubbard, a child lost in the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy and for whom one of the young horses was named.

Following the video, Catherine joined the group and visited with the children. “It was awesome to see the real, live horse after reading about her in the book,” said one young visitor.

The audience was told that Catherine was named after the little Sandy Hook girl after they heard her parents say she was always kind to animals. “We don’t usually do that [name a horse after a specific person],” said Debbie Garcia-Bengochea, “but we made an exception this time for this horse and this little girl.” After the children heard the story about Catherine, they made a public pledge to always be kind to animals.

This was the first public program the group has participated in since their return to the Alachua/High Springs area from Moore, Okla., where they were requested to visit and help the town heal from the devastating EF5 tornado of May 20, 2013. The group was forced to run for their lives while in Moore as a second tornado bore down on the area on May 31. The therapy horses and their caretakers returned to Moore again after the second tornado left the area and stayed a few more days to help those children and families who had suffered through two devastating tornadoes in nine days.

Each horse goes through a training program to learn to walk up stairs, ride in elevators, straddle tubes and wires and offer love and compassion to those people who need it most.

“Invariably, our horses will seek out the person in a room who needs them the most,” said Debbie Garcia-Bengochea. Not just any horse can be a therapy horse. “They are special horses chosen for their empathy and intelligence,” she said.

Donations to the Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horse program are needed to help keep the program active. While both of the Garcia-Bengocheas work jobs to help continue the program, “we are always in the red,” said Debbie Garcia-Bengochea. A 501(c)(3) tax deductible donation will help the organization continue their work visiting nursing homes, children’s hospitals, hospice facilities, and disaster areas where they are needed to help heal communities and bring a little joy into people’s lives. Contact can be made with the group online at http://horse-therapy.org/ or by a Google search for Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses.

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Eagle Scout Seth Montgomery led a service project of constructing planter boxes at Mebane Middle School that will be used to grow fresh fruit and vegetables for student lunches.

HIGH SPRINGS – On June 4, 2013, Seth Montgomery of High Springs Boy Scout Troop 69 officially completed the requirements for obtaining his Eagle Scout rank. 

Montgomery’s Eagle Scout Service Project was to plan, develop and lead others in construction of planter boxes for Mebane Middle School in Alachua.  The planter boxes will grow strawberries and cucumbers which will be placed on Mebane students’ lunch menu.

Kathy Schmitt, Manager of Food Services at Mebane, was the local representative heading up the Eagle Scout project. On April 6, 2013 the boxes were set up on school grounds. Schmitt has accepted the boxes as complete saying they are “wonderful.”

Prior to completion of his Eagle service project, Montgomery worked his way through five ranks of Scouting, earning the rank of Life Scout.  After completion of the service project he underwent his Eagle Board of Review on June 4, 2013 and earned the rank of Eagle Scout, a rank that on average, only about 3 percent of all Scouts ever achieve. Also completing his Eagle Board of Review on June 4 was fellow Troop 69 scout Layne Bloodsworth who has officially earned scouting’s top rank.

Throughout his venture, Montgomery completed and earned numerous merit badges and provided community service hours, among other requirements, in order to earn the rank of Eagle Scout.

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 Over a year later and with summer around the corner, Poe Springs remains closed as renovations and repairs have taken longer than anyone anticipated.

HIGH SPRINGS – It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to be responsible for picking up the trash in Poe Springs and making sure the restrooms work.

Last year, the City of High Springs came to the county with the idea of taking over management of the park's daily operations, a job that mainly requires keeping the location clean and maintaining the facilities. In return, the city would keep the revenue earned by the springs to pay for the cost of management, as well as the hope of attracting more visitors to High Springs to spend money in local businesses. Negotiations fell through, but the county is still willing to look at the prospect, said Mark Sexton, spokesman for Alachua County.

"The option is still out there," he said.

Currently, several members of the city government have said there are no plans at the moment to resume talks, but once the city's financial issues are addressed, that could change.

"We're just in the process of getting our budget straight," said City Manager Ed Booth. It will probably take about two years before the city would be in a position to take over, he said. Booth said the first step would be an extensive reevaluation of the costs and benefits of running the park.

Funding was the final straw that killed the original negotiations, but there were other factors, Booth said.

A major obstacle was the fact that the county had to perform heavy renovations to the park, and the completion date kept getting pushed back, said High Springs Mayor Sue Weller. When the county had estimated the renovations would be done by late last year, the city lost interest because it didn't want to operate the park for several months before it became profitable in the summer, she said.

The overhaul still isn't finished, but the current completion date is set to be within three to four weeks, said Robert Avery, Alachua County director of Parks and Recreation.    

The steps leading into the springs were breaking down, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection told the county they had to remove beach sand from the area to prevent it from getting washed into the springs, Avery said. A retaining wall also needs to be replaced. The cost of the renovations was originally around $86,000 Avery said, but has swollen to nearly $147,000.

When the park opened in 1992, Alachua County contracted the day-to-day management to the YMCA. In 2009, the private company Nature Quest took it over, but that arrangement ended in late 2011. Since then, the county has managed Poe Springs.

City Commissioner Bob Barnas was the biggest proponent of the arrangement, said Damon Messina, who acted as the director of Parks and Recreation for High Springs at the time of the talks. Barnas was the one who originally took a takeover plan to the county, said Alachua County spokesman Sexton. The original plan assumed High Springs would more or less break even on the cost of running the park with the revenue it would have made, but might see more economic activity in local restaurants and businesses, said Mayor Weller. Barnas declined to comment. Weller wasn't convinced the city would even make enough money to break even, and doubted the idea that people visiting Poe Springs would come into town and spend money.

"No program that was presented shows how we would get people from Poe Springs to come into High Springs."

The idea of raising prices and expanding the number of days the park is open is one possible option.

"The admission rate would probably have to go up," said City Manager Booth.

If the city hypothetically made enough money running the springs that it was turning a large profit, the county would renegotiate the contract, said Alachua Parks and Recreation Director Avery. It is unlikely that will happen, though, he added.

"The park has always been self-sufficient," he said, but "they'd be doing pretty good to just break even."

Though Booth estimates it will be about two years before the city's budget could realistically be enough to consider taking over Poe Springs, the possibility of opening up a dialogue about the idea could start much sooner, said Mayor Weller.

The High Springs budget for next year will be presented in July, and plans to look into the viability of taking over the park could be presented then.

"I haven't heard anyone discussing it, but I suspect there is still an interest," Weller said. "If it just came to a vote just to see if in fact it would be feasible for the city to run Poe Springs, I think that would be something that would probably pass."

If High Springs decides not to pursue a management takeover, the county could keep running the springs itself, said county spokesman Sexton.

"We're prepared to operate the park as part of the county park system," he said. The county might also look to contract with another company like Nature Quest.

Because High Springs has an immediate interest in making sure Poe Springs does well, he said it makes sense for them to take the park over. Once the renovation work is done, Sexton said it is his understanding there will be a renewed conversation with the city.

"The county is certainly open to the idea," he said. "It rests in the hands of the High Springs commissioners."

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Sonny Richards is still serving up local favorites from a menu of sandwiches and sweets at the eatery’s new Santa Fe Boulevard location.

HIGH SPRINGS – After nearly 12 years of operating out of a building near the railroad tracks, a familiar eatery has moved. The Station Bakery & Cafe moved to their new location at 201 Santa Fe Boulevard in early May.

The Station first opened its doors in 2001, after Sonny and Suzanne Richards, along with their daughter, Laura Janicki, came across the train station situated on Railroad Avenue. The family decided that it would be the ideal place to open a bakery.

As a family-run business, they came up with each of the menu items and soon became known for their assortment of sandwiches, cakes and éclairs.

Although they are no longer located in a train station, The Station will keep their name and the train theme. Railroad lanterns hang from the ceiling and model trains decorate the counter.

“We are still in the process of putting up the train pictures,” Janicki said.

The new location provides the bakery with a larger kitchen and double the seating. The family has also hired two new employees to help with the shop.

Janicki said that the new place is in a more convenient location for customers and that it provides a great opportunity for business.

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