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Dec. 2, 2023
11:45 pm | 9 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – After half a year of
bad blood between the County 5 and the Town of
Fort White, The 5 did a 180 as Commissioner
Robby Hollingsworth opened the long-awaited
joint meeting between the County and the Town
with a monologue in which he came close to just
asking folks to join hands and sing Kumbaya.
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Nov. 30, 2023
12:05 am | 4 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL –
Finally, after months of huffing and
puffing, indignation, and finally
threats by the County 5 to end all
interlocal agreements and cooperation
between the County and the Town of Fort
White, the two governments are scheduled
to sit down in Lake City in the same
room at 6 pm Thursday. All the issues
brought up by the County affect the
folks in the South End of the County and
the Town. The County 5 adamantly refused
to meet with the Town in Fort White.
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November 27, 2023
10:10 am | 3 min read |
Part I |
Part II |
Part III
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL –
The Federally funded FSU-FDOT long-range
Columbia County Transportation study had
its final wrap-up sessions earlier in
the month on November 8. Even though it
was clear that all the interest for the
study was in the County's south end, the
Florida Department of Transportation
would not cancel the second Lake City
meeting, directing folks instead to Fort
White.
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November 24, 2023
9 pm | 9 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – During the November
Lake Shore Hospital Authority (LSHA)
Governor's Board meeting, after a year of
foot dragging by the Authority and, most
recently, Meridian, Meridian’s quality of
care finally became an issue.
.
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November 21, 2023
1:55 pm | 6 min read w/audio clip
FORT WHITE, FL – Last night’s Fort White Town
Council meeting once again had the infamous
County 5 pitted against somebody. This time it
was the Town of Fort White.
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The School District Was
Their Foundation of Self Governance. Now
There Is a Public Mess on Display.
Nov. 19, 2023
6:30 am | 12 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL –
At times during the November 16 meeting
of the County 5, it was difficult to
tell if the bimonthly meeting of the
governing body of Columbia County was a
campaign rally for Sheriff Hunter or an
official meeting of the County 5 – the
five men who govern Columbia County.
Columbia County is not high on electing
women.
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Nov. 8, 2023
02:00 am | 4 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL –
The FSU-FDOT Rural Transportation Team,
following up on its October 26 success
in Fort White, will return to town
tonight, 6:30-8:30 pm, at the Fort White
Community Center. The Team is inviting
everyone to Fort White to contribute
more new ideas and, with the community’s
help, will rank and rate the projects
that have been suggested.
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Nov. 5, 2023
10:00 pm | 10 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – The November 3 Columbia
County – Fort White joint meeting kicked off
with Fort White in Commissioner Ronald Williams'
prayers, "Father, we always need your help and
your guidance… We were hoping that the Town
Council of Fort White would be here." They
weren't, and the County knew that the Town
Attorney and Mayor would not be attending the
meeting. It did not make a difference. The
County 5 was marching on.
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Nov. 1, 2023
08:30 am | 4 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – The County Commission
(County 5) will be having a busy day today in
Lake City. At 2 pm, the County 5 and the
County's Tourist Development Council (TDC) are
meeting in the LC Holiday Inn for a “Meet and
Greet.”
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Oct. 26,
2023 05:55 am | 4 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – The Federal Government
is financing a Rural Regional Transportation
Plan (RRTP) grant to study transportation issues
in Columbia County. FSU’s graduate community
planning students are
doing the work and heavy lifting for the plan
development. The federal funding is being
funneled through the Florida Department of
Transportation (FDOT).
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Oct. 22, 2023
09:15 pm | 2 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Florida Gateway College
President Larry Barrett, Ph.D., decided this
afternoon (Sunday) that the College would
neither record nor broadcast the legislative
delegation meeting scheduled for tomorrow
morning at 9:00 am.
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Oct. 21, 2023
6:45 am | 1 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – This Monday, October
23, 9-11 am, the Columbia County Legislative
Delegation will be meeting in the Florida
Gateway College Board Room. This year, the
Delegation is chaired by Sen. Jennifer Bradley,
with Representative Chuck Brannan serving as
vice chair. Legislative delegation meetings are public
meetings that happen before the start of a new
legislative session. This year's legislative
session begins on January 8, 2024, and runs for
60 days.
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Oct. 20, 2023
7:25 pm | 4 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Last night's
Columbia County 5 (the County
Commission) meeting was going silky
smooth. After the meeting was gaveled to
order, The 5 approved the agenda with
one addition. During the proceedings,
Chairman Rocky Ford recognized those who
wanted to participate, and the speakers
were not interrupted by Commission
members. Then, 45 minutes into the
meeting, Chairman Ford threw The 5's
approved Rules of Procedure out of the
window.
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Oct. 17, 2023
5:15 pm | 2 min read
FORT WHITE, FL –
Last night, the Fort White Town Council,
acting as the Planning & Zoning Board
(P&Z), had only one item on its agenda:
the approval of the preliminary plans of
the Gwynn Farms subdivision. Gwynn Farms
is a 104-unit (117-acre) residential
subdivision being developed by County
Commissioner Rocky Ford.
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Sept. 23, 2023
11:55 am | 4 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – This past Thursday
evening, the Suwannee River Water Management
District (SRWMD), or at least one member of the
governor’s Board and the District’s PR guy,
showed up at a County Commission meeting to
discuss FEMA flood maps. It would have been nice
if folks knew they were coming and why.
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Sept. 22, 2023
6:40 pm | 2.5 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Columbia County was hit
hard by Hurricane Idalia. There wasn't a lot of
rain, but the high winds made fast work of
treetops, limbs, and branches. Last Friday,
September 15, FEMA's boots on the ground in the
south end of the County, Robert and Sterling,
after seeing all Idalia's debris, told you
reporter that they were going to recommend
extending the debris pickup deadline.
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September 11, 2023
3:50 pm
LAKE CITY, FL – Forward thinking by the
County 5 enabled it to arrange for
FEMA help in the
post-hurricane Idalia cleanup. Follow-up action
by Columbia County management will allow for
Lake City to be included in the FEMA
reimbursement plan. However, there is a caveat.
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Sept. 5, 2023
2:30 pm | 2 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – It was announced during
a County 5 Emergency Meeting at 10:00 am this
morning that FEMA will be paying for 75% of
Columbia County debris pickup from Hurricane
Idalia. Florida will pick up 12.5%, and the
County will be responsible for the last 12.5%.
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August 23, 2023
2:00 pm | 6 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Last Wednesday, August
16, 2023, at 8:30 a.m., County Chairman Rocky
Ford, Chairman of the joint Fort White/Columbia
County Utility Advisory Committee, resigned from
the Committee just after the meeting got
underway and illegally appointed Commissioner
Tim Murphy to fill his seat. Was Commissioner
Ford straight up about the reason for his
resignation? It didn’t look like it.
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August 19, 2023
10:30 pm
FORT WHITE, FL – Thursday evening, Town of
Fort White resident Jacqui Sulek hosted a
community meeting that brought residents
together from all around the municipality and
outskirts of Fort White. The subject: the
continuing saga of Columbia County Commissioner
Rocky Ford’s proposed subdivision which is just
inside the Town’s boundary line.
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August 11, 2023
06:20 am
COLUMBIA
COUNTY, FL – Florida Gateway College is
offering free childcare services for FGC
students, faculty, and staff beginning
this fall.
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August 3, 2023
8:35 am | 3 min read
Updated August 4, 2023 10:45 am*
Columbia County, FL – Florida's infamous
Columbia County 5 (County Commission) has on
today's docket approval of free land and
eight years of tax abatements for a company
that has barely started up.
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June 3, 2023 2:10 pm | 5.5
min read
FORT WHITE, FL – The planning of a new
109-unit subdivision in the Town of Fort White
continued on June 29 during a Town workshop held
for that purpose. Folks came from all over to
listen in and testify, packing the Fort White
Town Hall like sardines.
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June 29, 2023
8:15 am | 3 min read
FORT WHITE, FL – Tonight at 5 pm, the
Fort White Town Council is meeting to discuss
the planning of a 109-parcel residential
subdivision in the south end of Columbia County.
The Town Council's decision will be setting the
pattern of growth and development in the
County's south end for a long time to come.
Columbia County is testing the home rule power
of the little town.
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May 25, 2023
10:03 am | 4 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Yesterday morning in
Lake City, a group of representatives of North
Florida counties met for an hour to discuss the
idea of working together to form a regional
utility consortium. North Florida Professional
Services President Greg Bailey thought of and
organized the meeting.
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May 22, 2023 4:40
pm | 3 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – On May 17, 2023, the
Columbia County Sherriff’s Office refused to
knock on a door and ask if they could “come in”
into a residence where babies, children, and
adults were at risk. The landlord said, "The
smell was so bad you could cut it with a knife
from 20ft. away, and flies were swarming around
the place."
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May 11, 2023 2:20
pm | 3 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Yesterday morning, the
vestige of Columbia County's neutered Industrial
Development Authority (IDA), the now Economic
Development Advisory Board (EDAB), met for
another monthly meeting, which sometimes the
County holds – and sometimes, not.
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May 6, 2023
1:35 pm | 3 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – HCA's (Hospital
Corporation of America) Lake City Hospital, the
old LCMC, invested $36 mil in expanding its
emergency room. The addition adds 18 new private
emergency room beds.
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April 24, 2023
8:45 pm | 7 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Columbia County
recreation was front and center for
almost 2 hours last Thursday afternoon
at the County 5 (County Commission).
Years of County recreation flying by the
seat of its pants and ignoring waste,
fraud, and abuse floated to the surface
like flotsam and jetsam after a storm.
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April 21, 2023
06:15 am | 5 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – On Tuesday
evening, April 18, the Columbia County 5
(the County Commission) and the Lake
City City Council sat down for the first
time in fourteen months to discuss the
Richardson Community Center. Ill
feelings between the County and the City
over the downtown Lake City community
center had been festering for some time.
The local community, about two hundred
strong, attended the joint meeting.
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April 8, 2023
10:35 am
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – This past Thursday
morning, April 6, the infamous Columbia
County 5 met to do the County’s
business. Hidden away on the morning’s
consent agenda was a secret attack
against the iconic – in the heart of the
Black Community – Richardson Community
Center (Richardson).
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March 27, 2023
12:59 pm
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Paula Vann, Columbia
County’s Tourist Development Council Director
(TDC), is moving out of County government into
the corporate world. In 2014, Ms. Vann had a
shaky beginning, but her demeanor, good nature,
and education have helped turn Columbia County
into a sports tourism destination for the whole
Southeast.
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March 24, 2023
3:40 pm
LAKE CITY, FL – Monday’s City Council meeting
once again had the City pondering its
relationship with Columbia County, this time
about building ‘officialdom’: or, who is going
to inspect construction projects in Lake City.
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March 6, 2023
12:30 pm
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Controversial Lake City
City Manager Paul Dyal appeared before the
County 5 (Commission) last Thursday morning to
do damage control after unilaterally canceling
an interlocal agreement between the City and
County without legal authority.
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Posted
February 28, 2023 6:00 pm
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Chris Doolan has
been a household name in small county
governments for four decades. During the February 23, 2023, North
Central Florida Regional Planning Council
monthly meeting, after the elected and
appointed North Florida officials finished
their taxpayer-funded fried chicken dinners,
Mr. Doolan spoke about legislation affecting
small counties. Everyone listened.
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February 20, 2023 3:55
pm
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Beginning tomorrow
evening, February 21, and continuing on the
following two evenings, the Suwannee River
Water Management District will be meeting
and inviting the public to discuss updated
flood risk maps for the Santa Fe Watershed.
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Dumbing It
Down – Post Secondary Education – What’s That?
February 13, 2023
08:59 am
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – The infamous Columbia
County 5 (County Commission or "The 5")
demonstrated its lack of regard for higher
education during its last meeting when it
unanimously removed the requirement of a
bachelor’s degree of any kind for the position
of County Economic Development Director.
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Posted Jan. 16,
2023 9:00 am
Originally Posted Jan 17, 2011, in a more
civilized time for LC
LAKE CITY, FL – In 2011, the MLK day
celebrations were a celebration of a life well
lived. Today, Lake City is a City with the
"Scarlet Letter." It has gone backwards in time.
Had the Columbia County/Lake City community
heeded the words of Reverend Joy L. Gallmon,
Reverend J. T. "Billy" Simon, and Dr. King, Lake
City/Columbia County would not be where it is
today.
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January 6, 2022
01:59 pm
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Yesterday morning, the
County 5 reached an all-time new low in agenda
preparation and a new high in ways to disrespect
and mug the public. Richardson Community Center,
a bellwether of the Black community and a
historical marker of Columbia County, fell
victim to the chopping block of the infamous
Columbia County 5.
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County 5 – Town of Fort
White Utility Pow Wow. Com. Hollingsworth Does
Everything But Ask Everyone to Hold Hands & Sing
Kumbaya
