ALACHUA ‒ People shopping at Alachua’s Hitchcock’s grocery store may be in for a surprise. The store’s parking lot may appear typical with its marked off parking spots and cart corrals. But for those taking a closer look, an array of shiny almost sci-fi-like white structures dotting the perimeter of the store’s property along U.S. Highway 441 says otherwise.

Blame it on rising gas prices or concerns about climate change, but there is undoubtedly an increasing demand for hybrid and electric cars. With An average EV car getting about 250 miles on a full charge, and with the burgeoning sales of EV cars, a growing problem is the limited number and availability of public charging stations.

And that’s where Hitchcock’s, Tesla and the parking lot sentries enter the picture. As the largest manufacture of EV cars, Tesla has created a network of 35,000 Supercharger stations to support their vehicles. The stations are located on major routes near convenient amenities and gas stations to create a network to support longer travel and road trips.

Tesla had already built stations in Gainesville and Jacksonville, but not to the north in rural Florida, leaving drivers in North Central Florida with the only option of driving to major hubs when not charging at home.

Hitchcock’s owner Carlos Alvarez is also a Tesla owner, and he saw a need for a supercharging station in the Alachua/ High Springs area and the surrounding rural communities. Alvarez believed the location of the store, close to I-75 and along U.S. Highway 441, offered an ideal spot for a station. It took over a year of negotiations, but Tesla finally agreed to build a station at Hitchcock’s and cover all costs. The City of Alachua provided access to the City's power supply, and two months ago, 12 stations of Supercharger stalls were installed along the north perimeter of the Alachua Hitchcock's parking lot.

Daughter of Carlos Alvarez, Giselle Alvarez says, “We saw a need for the station for the community and travelers, so we made the offer to Tesla. In our opinion this was a good concept and has proven to be very successful with multiple cars there every day.”

Using the Tesla app, Tesla owners can view Supercharger stall availability, monitor their charge status or get notified when you’re ready to go after charging. For trips, they can enter a destination on the car's touchscreen and the Trip Planner app will automatically calculate the route with Superchargers along the way. However, the key to the whole system is providing stations along the way.

While Tesla provides the station for their car owners, the charging stations are not free, but offer a much lower cost than gas, especially with this year’s surge in prices. Electric vehicles are less expensive to fuel than gasoline powered vehicles. The average person drives between 10,000 and 15,000 miles and spends between $1,400 and $2,100 on gasoline per year. In comparison, the cost of electricity to power a Tesla over the same distance is up to four times lower.

Over the six-year average length of car ownership, that's between $6,600 and $9,600 in gasoline savings. The average Supercharger cost of $0.25 per KW to fully recharge a Tesla or other EV car for 250 miles of range costs approximately $22. The stations are free to any Tesla owner who bought their car before 2018.

The Supercharger network allows EV drivers to plug in at a convenient location, take a break, do a little shopping or get a bite to eat. “This station not only benefits the citizens of Alachua and High Springs, it also provides travelers on I-75 a chance to explore our community and businesses after using the station,” said Giselle Alvarez.”

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ALACHUA ‒ It was a star-spangled extravaganza Monday as live music, food trucks, and kids’ activities set the stage for a dazzling fireworks show. For the 22^nd year, the largest small town fireworks show in America lit up the skies on July 4^th at Legacy Park to a crowd of thousands.

This is the first year since 2019 that featured all the activities that are traditionally scheduled for this well-known event. Along with celebrations nationwide, COVID shut down local get-togethers entirely in 2020. And in 2021, the City of Alachua limited the event to an abbreviated celebration with just the fireworks display and social distancing among the crowd due to the continued threat of COVID.

This year, local officials brought back the event in full form with the help of 14 sponsors that provided funding and services to ensure that the show would go on. The gates opened at 3:30 for families to enjoy an afternoon in the park, including a kids corner with numerous free activities for children and a variety of food trucks and beverages.

Over the course of the evening the crowd filtered in, filling the field by showtime. The 10-piece band, Uncle Morty's Rhythm Cream, provided two long sets of music featuring a variety of popular songs from R&B and Funk and Rock. At one point, Alachua Mayor Gib Coerper joined the band on stage playing guitar for one song.

Despite some concerns for the dark clouds that drifted in near showtime, there was no rain, just nature adding its own fireworks with occasional lightning and thunder in the distance.

The band stopped playing at 9:20 p.m. to allow Antionette Hunt to sing the National Anthem and a tribute song to America as the crowd stood and held up cell phones, creating a cell phone light show filling the dark field with thousands of pinpoints of light.

Event emcee Ben Boukari, Jr., and Alachua City Manager Mike DaRoza spoke briefly, thanking the many event volunteers and sponsors and introducing the fireworks show put on by Kynexplosions Inc.

Boukari also spoke about how the show has become so popular and well known that people come from all over to see it and asked the crowd where they were coming from. In addition to people from the Alachua County area and surrounding counties, people came from Alabama and Georgia and one couple was visiting from Canada.

Promptly at 9:30 p.m., the sky lit up as the fireworks began, building to a climax at 10 p.m. that did not disappoint.

“We celebrate this event every year both for the community and to honor the founding fathers’ creation of our country. It is also dedicated to the men and women who have help preserve and maintain our freedom through their bravery and sacrifice,” said DaRoza. “Because of them, we ae a blessed nation where the freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of press are among the countless other freedoms so many of us take for granted every day.”

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GAINESVILLE – Alachua County Library District added 100 more WiFi2Go mobile hotspots for check out on Tuesday, July 5 thanks to another donation from the Alachua County Library District Foundation.

The Library District launched the WiFi2Go collection in April 2021 with 100 hotspots funded by a $36,000 donation from the Foundation. Alachua County library cardholders can check out a hotspot for seven days and connect up to five devices to the internet at once with no fees or data limits.

In July of last year, the Foundation’s board members donated another $36,000 to double the WiFi2Go collection.

This June, the Foundation’s board members again donated $36,000 to add 100 hotspots to the WiFi2Go collection, bringing the collection’s total to 300 WiFi2Gos.

These additional 100 hotspots will be WiFi2Go Sizzlers, items that are not holdable and are available on a first-come, first-served basis at each branch.

Alachua County library cardholders can reserve regular (non-Sizzler) hotspots using the online catalog by searching for “WiFi2Go” or by calling any branch. Patrons can return WiFi2Go hotspots to any library branch.

“We are thrilled to expand this important service and grateful for the Foundation’s support,” said Library Director Shaney T. Livingston. “The WiFi2Go program is a huge success, and these additional hotspots will allow us to connect even more patrons with reliable internet access.”

This year, Alachua County Library District is a recipient of the 2022 Wi-Fi At Work Award: Community Connectivity Superheroes for our WiFi2Go program.

The Wi-Fi At Work Awards were created by WifiForward to highlight the good that Wi-Fi does across the country and honor individuals and organizations who use Wi-Fi to bring connectivity to their communities during the pandemic.

In addition to WiFi2Go, the Library District offers computers with Internet access for public use for free at all 12 locations. Free WiFi is also available at all library locations.

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ALACHUA ‒ Sitting on Main Street in Alachua, a stately Victorian house reminiscent of San Francisco’s finest Victorians on Postcard Row, is Teatime, Tranquility and Treasures at Willow's Rest. The charming tea house with steep, gabled roofs, decorative woodwork and a turret offers fresh pastries and sandwiches in a relaxing setting that beckons back to yesteryear.

For owners Louis Blair and wife Yvonne Fort, the tea house is the realization of a dream. Blair has been nurturing the vision of a tea house for 30 years. But his life went in a much more dramatic and stressful direction.

Blair spent almost two decades as a flight paramedic on helicopter life flights in Colorado, saving lives of critically injured patients and surviving two helicopter crashes in the process. The couple eventually moved to South Florida where Blair was the patient access manager for an emergency room and Fort ran a geriatric care center they founded.

Six years ago, the couple left the drama of emergency care and retired to Ocala with thoughts of raising and training race horses on their own farm. But fate stepped in, when on June 1, 2016, Blair suffered a massive heart attack. This was a wakeup call for both of them, and they moved to small town life in Alachua and finally opened that tea house they had dreamed about for so long.

“When we first decided to open the tea house, we were very interested in the Manor,” said Blair, referring to the name of the building’s former business. “But it wasn't available at the time, so we opened in a smaller space on south Main Street.”

Blair says they wanted to create a special place where people could come for tea, pastries or sandwiches. “In our endeavor to calm our own lives, we determined that maybe there are others who long for that break in their hectic, pressured life, and take a few moments to slow down and enjoy a special time that we can disconnect and just breath,” said Blair.

His strong interest in antiques led the couple to incorporate a store within the tea house stocked with a variety of items ranging from fine China and pottery to sunhats, antiques and linens. Most are for sale, but some are just to create a relaxing environment and ambiance.

“I like going to auctions and antique sales and have collected all these over the years,” said Blair. “We decided to name the store ‘Teatime, Tranquility and Treasures’ to represent all the aspects of our shop.”

But Blair says the space had its limits and was at the far end of Main Street with less foot traffic. “We still wanted to add the Victorian feel to the tea shop and kept our eye on the Manor.”

When the “Manor” house was offered for lease, the couple jumped at the chance. “We saw our original vision for the tea shop become a reality,” Blair said. While maintaining the Teatime, Tranquility and Treasures name, Blair has renamed the building “Willows Rest.”

“This gives us the ability to expand the business and offer other services as well,” said Blair. The downstairs area features a variety of rooms where people can meet for tea and food. Each room is separated, offering a sense of privacy for gatherings. “We offer a variety of fresh pastries and sandwiches as well as displays of our antiques and pottery, most of which are for sale,” said Blair. “The Victorian décor of the house adds a quiet ambience to the rooms.”

Blair and Fort have plans to become an event venue for weddings, celebrations and business meetings. The upper floor will be used as guest rooms for wedding parties and business meetings along with a library where customers can relax with a cup of tea and read as well as an expanded store. Blair says that for weddings there are also the outdoor garden and gazebo for the ceremonies.

Teatime, Tranquility and Treasures at Willow's Rest opened to the public two weeks ago and is already so popular that the owners suggest reservations during the lunch hour. “We have been swamped in the two weeks since our opening with almost five times the business than at the previous store,” said Blair. “But being that busy is a good thing, and we believe we made the right choice.”

The tea house will be offering a version of a British “High Tea” which features a three-tier tray featuring tea and sandwiches on the bottom level with scones and specialty pastries on the other two. “However, since each High Tea is unique and made to order, reservations are required,” Blair said.

The Teatime, Tranquility and Treasure at Willows Rest is located at 14603 Main Street, Alachua, and is open Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.to 4 p.m. Additional information or reservations can be made by calling 386-243-9199.

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