A Tuesday morning crash resulted in two vehicles being totaled and the driver of one vehicle transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. [click for more]

Something seems to be brewing at the Jefferson County Public Library, although what it is isn't exactly clear yet, notwithstanding the accusations hurled at Director Serafin Roldan at the County Commission meeting on Thursday morning, Nov. 5. [click for more]

Almost a month after the Jefferson County Road Department began four-day workweeks, Superintendent David Harvey is giving the changeover high marks, within reason. [click for more]

Outgoing Chairman, Ed Vollertsen passed the gavel to Sandra Saunders, incoming Chair, at the annual School Board Reorganization Meeting, Tuesday, Nov. 17. Vice-Chair is Shirley Washington. [click for more]

Several Jefferson County property owners will be getting an early Christmas present of sorts in the form of a little tax relief in the coming weeks, compliments of Property Appraiser Angela Gray and the County Commission. [click for more]

 

Two local entities approached the Tourist Development Council (TDC) on Monday, Dec. 7, requesting a combined $5,000 in advertising money to promote their respective enterprises. [click for more]

An early morning crash left one Jefferson County resident critically injured and another seriously injured. [click for more]

A year and three months after tropical storm Fay hit the region in August 2008, county officials are still dealing with the storm-caused damage. [click for more]

With April only four months away, sponsors of the Southern Music Rising Festival have already begun lining up their acts for the 3rd annual celebration of bluegrass music. And leading the lineup this year will be the award-winning group, Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, scheduled to perform the kick-off concert at the Opera House on Friday evening, April 16. [click for more]

A month-and-a-half after the County Commission narrowly voted 3-2 on Oct. 15 to re-advertise the contract for the monitoring of the closed landfill on Tyson Road, county staff had yet to mail out part of the invitations for proposals from qualified contractors as of Tuesday, Dec. 1. [click for more]

Clerk of Court Kirk Reams' decision to hire an Information Technology (IT) person for his office stirred no little debate at the County Commission meeting on Tuesday morning, Dec. 1. [click for more]

Here's news: The Jefferson County School District is not only out of the budget hole that it found itself in at the beginning of the school year, it now actually has a sizable reserve fund and enrollment has increased for the first time in years. [click for more]

With the continuing inflow and infiltration project in the city, which began in Sept.,with the receipt of $4.1 million in federal stimulus funds for infrastructure upgrades, the City will also receive an added perk, with the paving of about three miles of city streets, which have been in dire need of repair for many years, at no added cost to the city or taxpayers. [click for more]

The Jefferson County Commission on Thursday evening, Dec. 17, selected Riley Palmer Construction Company to oversee the repair of the leaking roof and other needed work on the courthouse building. [click for more]

Now that Monticello has an ordinance to address derelict and abandoned buildings and other unsightly or unsafe properties around town, citizens want to see some kind of action taken. [click for more]

A resident driver was arrested and charged Monday, Jan. 11, by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, with manslaughter (culpable negligence), a second degree felony, after causing the series of crashes during the June 20, 2009 Watermelon Festival, which resulted in one county resident dying. [click for more]

Good news is coming from the state via Property Appraiser Angela Gray's office relative to the monies that Jefferson County will be receiving in compensation for lost tax revenues caused by the implementation of Amendment 1. [click for more]

Last week's torrential rainfall dumped throughout the area resulted in widespread damage to county roads, several stalled vehicles, and at least one hydroplaning crash within the county. [click for more]

Two men were seriously injured in an early morning single-vehicle crash last week. [click for more]

Take away the slight tendency of some to do a little posturing, the typical turf protections, the internal conflicts within the boards, the differing institutional interests of the two bodies, and the longstanding traces of antagonism among some of the players, and the joint County Commission and School Board workshop on the A-Building on Monday, Feb. 1, was relatively productive. [click for more]

Wednesday, Feb. 3, began as all other days for employees in the Jefferson County School District right up until the very moment of the announcement that Edna Bernice Henry, Title 1 Parent Involvement Coordinator within the public school district, had been named the Florida School-Related Employee of the Year. [click for more]

The resolution of a long-ago issue — i.e., the lease of a condemned school building to a young couple who envisioned converting it into a skating rink — took the better half of a three-hour School Board meeting on Monday night, Feb. 8, and in the process raised old skeletons and stirred anew longstanding antagonisms. [click for more]

Rudy Hamrick was inducted into the Florida Agriculture Hall of Fame on Tuesday evening, Feb. 9.Rudy Hamrick was a major force in North Florida agriculture for nearly three decades. As director of the Madison County Extension office from 1951 to 1977, his impact on the county's economy was dramatic. When Hamrick had first gone to Madison, the tobacco industry was declining all across Northwest Florida. Farm incomes were shrinking, along with the population in rural areas. But Hamrick was determined to try to reverse these trends. Under his leadership, Madison County became one of Florida's leading agricultural counties, a top producer of swine, poultry, and cattle. Hamrick was instrumental in developing the county's thriving peach industry, and by the mid-1970s there were over 2,000 acres in production. [click for more]

It appears that although the civil engineering services contract with Preble-Rish Inc. will come before county commissioners for approval on Thursday evening, Feb. 18, the related landfill engineer and landfill-monitoring services contracts will not. [click for more]

It seems counterintuitive to be doing an elections story in February, given that qualification isn't until mid June and that candidates traditionally haven't announced for elections until much later in the season. [click for more]

The Jefferson County School Board is scheduled to hold a workshop on the CARE Charter School of Excellence at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22. The workshop will be held in the Desmond "Dude" Bishop administrative building on West Washington Street. [click for more]

The issue of the county's proxy mowing of cemeteries with inmate crews apparently has gotten stickier, now that it has been shown that all the cemeteries on the county's maintenance list are privately owned. [click for more]

The word couldn't get out fast enough last week: After months of hopeful waiting, the North Florida Broadband Authority (NFBA), of which Monticello and Jefferson County are members (along with 20 other local governments in the region), learned on Thursday, Feb. 18, that it was the recipient of a $30.1 million federal grant for broadband and high-speed connectivity. [click for more]

In his short time in the area, Jefferson County High School Head Football Coach Willie Spears has lead Tiger athletics to great strides, restoring Tiger Pride at the school and in the community and Spears has become very greatly loved and admired in the community, but his time here, as it turns out, is short-lived. [click for more]

National news releases continue to add details to the story that "a demented Texas pilot crashed his small plane into an Austin office building after torching his house and posting a bitter Internet rant against the IRS and corporate 'thugs.'" [click for more]

After some seven months of wrestling with the issue, the Jefferson County Commission may finally be coming to a resolution on the landfill engineer and landfill monitoring services contracts, resulting in a possible annual savings of between $95,000 and $155,000 for the county. [click for more]

About 75 people turned out Friday morning, Feb. 19, for the reception that North Florida Community College (NFCC) held in honor of Congressman Allen Boyd at the Green Industries Institute off US 90, three miles west of Monticello. [click for more]