This 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe SUV was totaled after the driver swerved to avoid hitting a deer and crashed into a tree along I-10 at the 222 mile marker, 5 a.m. Jan. 28.

Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Bill Grubbs reported that at 5 a.m., Thursday, Jan. 28, Christopher M. Maley, 22, of Pensacola, was driving a 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe SUV eastbound on I-10 at the 222 mile marker, traveling at the posted speed limit.

Anthony Scapecchi, 24, also of Pensacola, was riding in the back of the vehicle, asleep on a mattress.

Grubbs noted that it was still dark and there were spots of dense, patchy fog.

Maley reported that a deer ran from the median, southbound, into the path of Maley's oncoming vehicle. The driver took evasive action to avoid colliding with the deer, swerved the steering wheel to the left, he drove across the median and across both westbound lanes of traffic.

The vehicle traveled down into the tree line and the front of Maley's vehicle collided with a tree on the north side of the Interstate. The vehicle then spun 180 degrees counterclockwise and came to a rest facing south.

Maley was wearing a seatbelt, however, his face was severely lacerated when the air bag deployed. Scapecchi suffered compound fractures of the left leg, right knee and ankle.

Both were transported to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital for treatment of their injuries. The vehicle was totaled and no charges were filed.

Assisting FHP on the scene were Leon County troopers, Jefferson County deputies, and Jefferson County EMS. The vehicle was removed by County Line Towing in Greenville.

Members of the County Commission and the School Board meet in a joint workshop on Monday evening to discuss the county's possible lease of the historic A-Building.

Put it this way: At the conclusion of the two-hour meeting, a majority of the School Board members had expressed willingness to lease the A-Building to the county, provided that adequate compensation was made. At a minimum, the School Board agreed to discuss the issue again at its regular meeting on 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8, at the Desmond M. Bishop administration building on West Washington Street.

But mind, the School Board won't be voting on the issue, as it's not a listed agenda item. What's more, each of the boards is internally divided as to how best to proceed with the issue, and there is a wide gap between the two boards on the financial worth of the building.

More specifically, the School Board indicated that not only does it want about $2,000 monthly for the lease; it also wants a one-time back payment of $125,000 or so for the building, which could be paid in installments over a period of time.

And this was the position of School Board Members Marianne Arbulu, Charles Boland and Ed Vollertsen, the three who expressly support leasing the building. School Board Members Shirley Washington and Sandra Saunders held back on any pronouncements, although they generally indicated that they wouldn't necessarily oppose the measure.

Washington in particular wants to review the paperwork on the $2 millions worth of grants that was previously awarded to the community for the restoration of the building, her supposition being that the language in the grants may preclude certain uses. But over and above all else, Washington wanted it clearly understood that she would not be rushed into a decision, a sentiment she voiced forcefully and adamantly.

She noted the community pressure that had been exerted on the School Board several years ago to decide on the construction of the new high school, a decision that she maintains was not well thought out and that consequently has proved costly for the school district. And here most evidently was seen the traces of resentments and antagonisms that linger from that long-ago divisive and controversial issue.

"A burnt candle is afraid of fire," Washington said. "I like to do my homework. Rushing me into doing anything is not part of my character... So no one is going to rush me into making a decision. I'm not saying I wouldn't agree to this, but give me time to do my homework."

Washington's counterpart on the commission was Commissioner Felix "Skeet" Joyner, whose position revealed some of the internal tensions within this board and also put him in direct counterbalance to Commissioner Hines Boyd and Clerk of Court Kirk Reams, two of the strongest advocates of the county's leasing of the A-Building.

Like Washington, Joyner didn't see the need to rush into a decision that he said could prove a mistake. But more importantly, he opposes the idea of the county borrowing money to pay for the completion of the A-Building' renovation, an endeavor estimated to cost another $1.5 to $2 million. And this expressed reservation on Joyner's part was before Boland threw out the figure of $125,000 for back payment, a request that both Joyner and Commission Chairman Danny Monroe largely considered a deal breaker in effect.

"I'm apprehensive about jumping up and writing a bond," Joyner said more than once about the borrowing of money to fund the renovation. "I think the county can get the resources it needs to renovate the building without going to these extremes. I've been on this board for 10 years and we haven't borrowed. Borrowing is a last resort. The reason we're in the (financial) condition that we're in today is because we don't have a debt... We need to move cautiously. I'm optimistic that we can get it (renovation) done without borrowing. I'm a believer in paying as you go. That' why we're in the position we're in today."

Which prompted Boyd to comment that he and Joyner were on different horses.

"His horse is old," Boyd said.

To which Joyner retorted, "My horse may be older, but it's stable."

The horse metaphor aside, Boyd and Joyner represent opposing views of how to fund the renovation — views that may hint at larger political and philosophical differences between the two. But for the present, the issue on the commission's side is how to finance the renovation, in the event that the School Board were to be amenable to the lease and the details could be worked out.

Reams' plan, which he shared with both boards Monday evening and which Boyd enthusiastically supports, calls for using some of the fiscally-constrained money (of which Jefferson County receives about $700,000 annually from the state) and also pledging funds from the $30 surcharge fee on traffic citations to issue a bond that would raise another part of the $1.5 to $2 million needed for the renovation.

The urgency, as Reams and Boyd explained it, is that interest rates on loans are not likely to be as low as they presently are ever again, and the window of opportunity for taking advantage of these low rates is likely soon to pass.

At the same time, the two argue, construction costs will also soon not be as low as they presently are, given that contractors are "hungry for work" because of the recession.

Another time-sensitive concern, they argue, is that the deadline for submission of an application for likely federal funding is Feb. 28. All of which factors argue for a speedy resolution of the matter, or at the least, the execution of a lease agreement in principle, with the details to be worked out subsequently.

Here then were the dynamics of the meeting: the perceived haste on the part of some juxtaposed against the perceived foot dragging on the part of others.

The back-and-forth discussion gave every indication of ending in a stalemate when Boyd challenged the School Board members to name a price for the lease as a starting point, rather than simply talking in generalities, lest "a golden opportunity" be missed.

That's when Boland suggested a $2,000 monthly lease, piggybacking on Vollertsen's earlier mention of that amount and adding the back payment as a stipulation.

"We were stalled," Boland said later of his proposal. "I just threw out a figure so we could get something started."

And that's about as much as can be said about the workshop's accomplishment: It resulted in the start of a dialogue between the two boards and the promise that they would meet again to address the issue in future.

Edna Bernice Henry, Title 1 Parent Involvement Coordinator within the public school district, was totally caught by surprise last week when she was named the Florida School-Related Employee of the Year.

Earlier in the morning, event coordinator Shirley Gilley had talked with Federal Program Specialist Gloria Heath and informed her of the decision. She advised Heath to have Henry called in for a meeting at the district office, which was not out of the norm. Shortly after arriving at the district office, Henry was met by Superintendent Bill Brumfield and quickly surrounded by co-workers, supervisors and district office personnel. Brumfield then presented her with the plaque naming her as the School Related Employee of the Year.

Heath then presented her with a beautiful bouquet of red roses, donned with yellow and red balloons, as well and a metallic congratulatory balloon.

Henry, being totally caught by surprise, became emotional and tearfully said, "I want to thank my Father and all of you. But what I do within the school system isn't about me, it's all about the kids." The crowd applauded Henry's accomplishment and her dedication to the children and the school district of Jefferson County.

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.

Triggering the School Board' review of the matter was a Jan. 29 letter from William Johnson, chairman of the Financial Emergency Board for the School District of Jefferson County (more typically called the oversight committee), questioning the School Board's decision to lease the property to the young couple for a five-year-period at a $1 a year. The Florida Department of Education (FDOE), keep in mind, appointed the oversight committee to help guide the school district through its financial crisis.

But first, it's necessary to step back in time and note that Jonathan and Juanita Jones first approached the School Board about the lease of the old bus barn on Water Street in 2007 with the stated intention of renovating and converting the building into a skating rink. And following the standard practice at the time, the School Board agreed to lease the structure for a 25-year-period at a $1 per year.

For whatever reason, however, the contract was never drawn or executed. The question of why the contractual agreement was never drawn or executed, however, was left hanging Monday night. Nor was it addressed why no one raised the issue again until recently when the district contacted the Joneses in the wake of city officials' expressed interest in buying the property. But the bottom line is that the lack of an executed contract put the Joneses' claim to the building at a definite disadvantage.

Four months ago, on Oct. 12, a majority of the School Board voted to amend the original agreement to reflect a five-year lease instead of a 25-year lease, and added the provision that within two years the Joneses would have to prove their financial ability to accomplish the renovation and conversion of the building into a skating rink.

Possibly, the latter action was taken to make the arrangement more palatable to the oversight committee. The action also was taken against the backdrop of at least one other party who is interested in acquiring the property and who has charged that the lease violates state statutes because it circumvents declaring the property surplus and opening it to the public for bidding. Notwithstanding the noted protest, the Joneses were scheduled to execute the amended agreement on Monday night, Feb. 8.

Then came the oversight committee's Jan. 29 letter raising concerns about the proposed lease agreement.

Specifically, Johnson' letter concluded: "The Financial Emergency Board (oversight committee) simply cannot sit idle and allow the School Board to enter into this transaction without at least explaining to us how it helps resolve this immediate financial crisis. Therefore, we are requesting your counsel's legal opinion ... and an explanation from the School Board as to why the lease agreement is a more prudent transaction than an immediate sale (of the property)."

As reported by School Board Chairwoman Sandra Saunders, who earlier had held a telephone conversation with Johnson, not only was the oversight committee aware of the pending lease, but so also were the Legislature and Governor. Which caused Saunders to express wonderment that the issue warranted such extraordinary attention, given that some of the district's "stickier situations" had never attracted such high-level interest. Her point, nonetheless, was that the lease had been pending long enough and demanded a resolution.

Saunders pressed for a legal opinion from School Board Attorney Buck Bird, whose advice was essentially a recap of the oversight committee's letter. He noted that the School Board had addressed part of the oversight committee' concern when it reduced the lease period from 25 to five years. But it was strictly up to the School Board to negotiate a monthly lease fee that was satisfactory to the committee. The other option, he said, was for the School Board to declare the property surplus, advertise for bids, and sell it to the highest bidder.

"The letter says you must come up with meaningful lease or sale," Bird said.

Saunders favored interpreting Johnson's letter to mean that the oversight committee was amenable to the School Board negotiating a higher rental fee for the building with the Joneses. But School Board Members Marianne Arbulu and Ed Vollertsen's interpretation was that the letter clearly called for the district to sell the property. Otherwise, how could the board explain that leasing the building was more financially prudent than selling it, given the district financial situation? Arbulu asked.

She moved to rescind the contract with the Joneses and start the process from scratch, a motion that then sat dormant for the better part of an hour before ultimately winning approval with the support of Vollertsen and School Board Member Charles Boland. In the interim, the discussions ranged far and wide.

In typical fashion, School Board Member Shirley Washington took up the Joneses' cause, questioning in the process both the oversight committee's sudden interest in the issue, its possible motivations, and past decisions of some of her fellow School Board members. She noted that the bus barn had gone unnoticed and unattended for years until the Joneses had had the vision to convert it into a skating rink, an idea that the School Board had endorsed three years ago. But now suddenly, the dilapidated building had become a make-or-break deal in the district' financial situation, she said.

She could see renegotiating the $1 lease, Washington said. But she could not, and would not, renege on the agreement. She particularly went after Vollertsen, whom she accused of embodying the board's past spendthrift attitude that had resulted in the district's current financial crisis.

"Ed Vollertsen, I'm surprised to hear you say that," Washington admonished Vollersen when the latter observed that if the board approved the lease, the FDOE would consider the district fiscally irresponsible. "Two years ago when I was trying to tell you that we were not being good stewards of the taxpayers' money, you were one of the board members who advocated us borrowing money."

The Joneses next got into the discussion, along with Michael Taylor, who introduced himself as the couple's "legal advisor". There followed a series of exchanges between the Joneses and Taylor on the one side and School Board members Arbulu and Vollersen and Bird on the other, with no little frustration on the part of the former and a bit of finger pointing in the process.

Taylor couldn't understand how the School Board could approve on agreement and then renege on it? Because the contract had never been consummated, was Bird's response. And whose fault was that? Juanita Jones asked, motioning toward Bird in frustration.

Jonathan Jones wanted to know why the bus barn was suddenly such a big deal to the School Board, given that it was a condemned building that the district had been glad to lease and get rid of it three years ago? Because the district had not been in the dire financial situation that it was in now, Arbulu responded.

"We have to deal with the here and now in today's environment," she said.

Taylor didn't see why the Joneses had to be penalized for a financial crisis that he said was the school district's doing.

"The problem is not with the Joneses, it's with the School Board," Taylor said. "It's because of bad business practices."

Bud Wheeler, who is interested in buying the property for himself and who has repeatedly challenged the lease as violating state law, flatly declared that the deal wasn't going to fly, based on state statutes and the oversight committee's expressed concerns. What's more, a skating rink was never going to come to fruition, given the building's poor condition and the unlikelihood that the Joneses would get a $500,000 grant to renovate the structure.

"No way you're going to convert that into a skating rink," Wheeler pronounced.

The back-and-forth exchanges continued until Saunders finally put a stop to them, observing, "This is not getting us anywhere."

"What do we need to do to get this resolved?" Saunders asked again.

To which Bird reiterated the lease or sale options and Arbulu reiterated her pending motion to rescind the agreement and start from scratch.

School Superintendent Bill Brumfield and Chief Financial Officer Marsha Willis now weighed into the discussion, offering their understanding of the oversight committee's position, based on the two's earlier face-to-face meeting with the committee.

"The committee's answer was, 'I'm sorry, but you have to do the right thing now'," Brumfield said. "They said you have to forget the lease and sell. They said that a moral obligation to the Joneses is not enough. They said we have no legal bonds to the Joneses."

Willis concurred.

"They want us to do what's in the best interest of the district, not in the way of a vision," she said, adding that the committee essentially wanted to see an indication from the School Board that it was modifying its behavior and becoming fiscally serious about generating revenue streams.

Which remarks caused Washington to question the consistency of the committee's rulings and to wonder who had its ears? She suggested that every story had two sides and the committee apparently was hearing only one side.

"There's so much inconsistency that I'm beginning to wonder what's going on here," Washington said.

There finally followed three votes in rapid succession. The first, to rescind the contract with the Joneses, passed 3-2, with Washington and Saunders in the minority. A second by Washington to renegotiate a new agreement with the Joneses failed 3-2, with Washington and Saunders again in the minority. A third, by Boland, to have the bus barn and surrounding two acres appraised, declared surplus property and put up for public bid passed 4-1, with Washington the lone vote.

Photo Submitted Dan Buchanan (right), Field Agent for Farm Bureau, inducts Rudy Hamrick into the Florida Agriculture Hall of Fame on Tuesday, February 9. Hamrick is a native of Monticello.

Hamrick was born in 1922 on a farm in Monticello, to a father who divided his time between farming and dentistry. He attended Monticello High School and the University of Florida, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in agriculture in 1944 and a master's degree in agriculture in 1950. He taught agriculture at vocational schools in Lake and Wakulla counties before joining the Extension Service as an assistant farm agent in Lake County. In 1951 he was appointed director of the Extension office in Madison County.

In 1964 Hamrick formulated a 10-year plan for agricultural production in Madison County. The goal was to double agricultural income. Committees were established for each major agricultural product. Members of these committees joined state and national associations and worked to improve both production and marketing. By 1974 Madison County had become the largest swine producer in Florida and one of the state's largest cattle producers. A peach industry had been established, while the poultry industry had quadrupled in size to become the county's single largest income agribusiness. In the end Hamrick's 10-year plan exceeded even the most optimistic expectations. It didn't just double agricultural income; it tripled it.

Agriculture was the main industry in Madison County, but for many years the county lacked adequate facilities for agricultural meetings and other activities. Recognizing the need, Hamrick successfully lobbied the Legislature for funds to construct a facility that would provide a centralized location for all agriculture-related offices in Madison County. Completed in 1960, the Madison County Agricultural Building housed the county Extension office, Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) offices, and farm forestry offices. It was also the site of Farm Bureau meetings, 4-H meetings, feeder pig sales, quarter horse sales, and the annual North Florida Livestock Show and Sale, one of the largest livestock sales in Florida.

Hamrick always said the key to his success as a county agent was "liking people" and liking to help them. He believed in the power of education and in helping farmers help themselves. He spent most of his time and energy out in the fields, offering technical advice about both production and marketing. He knew how important it was to help farmers stay informed about the latest agricultural research findings, and he was known for his excellent teaching skills. Hamrick was the first Extension agent ever to be granted the status of full professor at the University of Florida, and he was also chosen by the university to train new agents.

It's not surprising that Madison County's 4-H Club flourished under the leadership of this gifted teacher. The program's popularity surged as it was expanded to cover a new diversity of subject areas, including wildlife management and entomology, as well as home economics, cattle production, and showmanship. Hamrick lobbied tirelessly for the improvement and enlargement of Madison's Cherry Lake facility, an outdoor classroom used primarily for 4-H summer camp programs. With its rustic cabins, open-air pavilion, and lush natural areas, Camp Cherry Lake continues to provide children with an opportunity for hands-on learning in the context of the real world.

Hamrick was recognized as one of the best Extension directors in the country. In 1964 he received the Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor given by the National Association of County Agricultural Agents. In 1971 he became the first recipient of the SHARE Award for Excellence in Extension presented by the University of Florida. That year he was also named the national winner of the Ciba-Geigy Leadership Recognition Award. The Florida Association of County Agricultural Agents honored him with the Search for Excellence Farm Income Award in 1973, and in 1975 he received an Outstanding Service Award from the Florida Farm Bureau.

For Hamrick, being an agent was not simply a 9-to-5 job. He was often at his office late into the evenings, and he attended many meetings at night and on the weekends. He was a member of the National Peach Council, the Peach Growers Association, the Madison County Farm Bureau, and the Florida Association of Agricultural Agents. He was an organizing member of the Madison County Swine Producers, the Madison County Milk Producers, the Madison County Cattlemen's Association, the North Florida Livestock Association, the Georgia-Florida Breeding Association, the State Feeder Pig Sale Committee, and the State Hog Cholera Eradication Committee.

Rudy Hamrick has two grown sons, Rudy Jr. and Bill, and four grandchildren. Myrtice, his wife of 58 years passed away in 2002. He and his wife, Ann, live in Madison.

Consultant engineer Frank Darabi, who currently holds the landfill monitoring services contract, speaks with Commissioner Hines Boyd following a meeting. Boyd is a vocal critic of Darabi.

That, at least, was the expectation last Wednesday, when the News spoke with County Coordinator Roy Schleicher.

Two issues apparently caused the last-minute withdrawal of the three contracts from the agenda on Jan. 21, when commissioners were scheduled to approve them. And while one of the issues appears has been resolved, allowing for the civil engineering services contract to proceed, the contracts for the landfill engineer and landfill monitoring services continue to experience complications.

The first of the two issues that stalled the awards of the contracts on Jan. 21 involved the accumulation of rainwater in several depressions at the closed landfill on Tyson Road following the recent heavy rains. Decomposition and settling of the buried garbage causes the depressions, technically called "differential settlement". Call them what youwill, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) requires that such depressions be eliminated, along with the resulting surface ponding of water.

The question that immediately arose upon discovery of the depressions and that Schleicher believes has now been satisfactorily answered was, whose responsibility would the correction of the depressions be if a new contract was awarded? In an abundance of caution, commissioners — especially Commissioner Hines Boyd — wanted to ascertain that the responsibility fell squarely on the current contractor, Darabi and Associates.

Schleicher said last Wednesday that he had in-hand a letter from Darabi accepting full responsibility for correction of the depressions, which the latter acknowledged had occurred on his watch.

What did the landfill situation have to do with the awarding of the contract for the civil engineering services? Nothing really, Schleicher averred. Except that Darabi is currently both the county's civil and landfill engineer, and commissioners — again in an abundance of caution — didn't want to change anything without clarity of responsibility on the landfill issue, he explained.

But now that issue seemed resolved, it was his belief that the civil engineer services contract would be executed Feb. 18, he said.

Not so for landfill engineering services and landfill monitoring services contracts, which appear mired in ambiguities.

The issue here is a problem that has developed with task 3 of the landfill-monitoring services contract, which specific task the commission tentatively awarded to Restoration Assistance, Inc. (RAI), on Jan. 7, based on its low bid of $27,000.

The commission, in fact, divided the landfill monitoring services contract into three parts, awarding tasks 1 and 2 to Darabi &Associates and task 3 to RAI. But it was the representation of Schleicher, Solid Waste Department Director Beth Thorne and RAI President Dean Gordon last Wednesday that a sticking point had developed when the two parties sat down to negotiate the specifics of the contract. That sticking point is essentially a difference of interpretation between RAI and county officials as to what exactly task 3 calls for.

County officials' position is that task 3 calls for the contractor to assume full liability for any mishap that may occur as a result of the latter's work, which involves grounds maintenance, such mowing and tree removal, and upkeep of the methane vent wells and groundwater monitoring wells at the site. (Tasks 1 and 2 entail the testing and monitoring of the gases and groundwater and surface water at the site, which Darabi & Associates is to do.)

Gordon maintains that the language of the Request for Proposal (RFP) did not contain a requirement for unlimited liability; otherwise, he would have bid a higher price. He makes the point that two other of the four contractors who bid on task 3 were within $5,400 and $9,228 of his bid, which he interprets to mean that they also understood the liability to be limited. The exception was Darabi & Associates, which presently holds the contract and which bid $156,770 for task 3, a difference of $129,770 over RAI.

The issue of unlimited liability, and who assumes that liability in the event of a catastrophic event at the landfill, is one that has been at the crux of the landfill debate since the issue first surfaced more than six months ago. Darabi maintains that he presently assumes unlimited liability for anything that may go wrong at the landfill, a consideration that goes into his pricing calculations and that partly explains his $17,950 monthly charge, which amounts to $215,400 annually.

This argument, which at least three commissioners strongly support, is that absent total assumption of liability by the engineer, the county stands exposed and vulnerable. It' an argument that apparently continues to reverberate.

The counterargument is one posed by Boyd, a critic of the present arrangement and the strongest advocate for change of the contractor. Boyd argues that the risks of a catastrophic occurrence at the landfill are exaggerated, and moreover, that if one were to occur, no engineer is going to hold the county harmless, no matter whatever claims are made to the contrary.

It's an issue that has become invested with emotion on both sides and that involves personal, political and philosophical differences, as well as questions of trust, loyalty and other unquantifiable considerations.

It's also an issue that county officials have been wrestling with going on six months now and that continues to elude a resolution.

Schleicher offered on Wednesday that in the event that the differences with RAI cannot be resolved on task 3, the alternatives were to proceed to the next lowest bidder on the list or re-advertise the contract again.

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.

But it may be that Property Appraiser Angela Gray set a new local standard in the last election when she began her campaign well over a year in advance.

Whatever the reason, candidates are now stepping forward to announce their intentions much earlier. Indeed, one of them, Democratic candidate Betsy Barfield, has outdone Gray insofar as the early announcement of her intention to seek office.

Barfield, who is seeking the District 4 County Commission seat, pre-qualified on March 4, 2009 — the earliest pre-qualification that Deputy Elections Supervisor Lee Davis can remember in her 12 years in the office. Gray, by comparison, pre-qualified in September 2007 for the November 2008 election.

Scott Goodlin, another Democratic candidate for the District 4 County Commission seat, also pre-qualified early, on July 7, 2009.

And another who has pre-qualified early is Gerrold Austin, a former City Councilman who resigned his office in the last election to seek a School Board seat. Austin is seeking the Group 1 City Council seat.

But it's not just new candidates and former officeholders who are pre-qualifying early; incumbents too seem to be getting in on the act. It used to be an unspoken rule that incumbents typically played it close to the vest about their reelection plans, waiting until qualification time or very near it before tipping their hands.

But already, two incumbents have pre-qualified for the coming election. The two are County Commissioner Felix "Skeet" Joyner, of District 4, who is seeking a fourth term; and Commissioner Gene Hall, of District 2, who is seeking a third term. Both Joyner and Hall are Democrats.

Pre-qualification establishes an individual's intent to seek public office. It allows the individual to appoint a campaign manager, start a campaign account, solicit campaign contributions, and alert the public of the intent to run. It also allows candidates to solicit signatures, if they plan to qualify by petition, as the qualifying fees can be pretty hefty.

Qualification is when public office seekers formally sign the loyalty oath and pay the qualifying fee, if they have not pre-qualified by petition. The qualification for the coming election is noon Monday, June 14, to noon Friday, June 18.

The primary election is set for Tuesday, Aug. 24; andthe general election is set for Tuesday, Nov. 2.

The elections office reminds citizens that registration closes 29 days before each election and that a photo and an ID with signature are required at the polls. It further reminds citizens that early voting begins two weeks before each election.

For more information, call the elections office at (850) 997-3348 or email at soejeffersonco@aol.com.

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.

From what little was said at the School Board meeting on Feb. 8, the workshop will be a follow-up to the workshop held on Aug. 17 to address the several areas of significant concern identified by a team of experts that evaluated the charter school on July 21-22 of last year. The School Board wants to know what steps the charter school has taken in the interim to correct the identified deficiencies.

Those deficiencies — pertaining to the charter school's compliance with federal and state requirements and specific provisions in its contract with the Jefferson County School District — were contained in a 24-page report that the evaluation team submitted to School Superintendent Bill Brumfield, the School Board, and the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) last summer.

As Brumfield explained it to the Journal at the time, annual evaluations of the charter school are a component of the contractual agreement between the particular school and the School Board.

"The state holds us accountable for what happens at the charter school," Brumfield said.

Among the deficiencies that the report identified at the time:

* The charter school was essentially functioning without an operating budget. It was the evaluation committee's recommendation that the school prepare a five-year operating budget, a copy of which budget was to be submitted to the School Board.

* The charter school's last available financial statements showed a deficit of $92,192.08 and no financial statements were available for the two months immediately preceding the evaluation.

* The charter school needed to hire an auditing firm to perform the required fiscal audits and it needed to implement clear accounting procedures for the use of the petty cash and student activity funds.

The report noted that although none of the identified concerns rose to the level of serious health and safety issues that would support the closure of the school, the number and severity of the concerns "certainly supported a corrective action plan with school closure as a possibility if the necessary corrections were not made."

At the time, the report gave the charter school 90 days to correct the deficiencies and come into compliance, noting that the lack of timely financial information from the charter school stood to impact the School Board's ability to complete its state-mandated financial statement, cost report and other financial documents.

The charter school receives nearly $700,000 in state funding in the form of per student and capital improvements funding, all of which money flows through the Jefferson County School District and for which the latter is held accountable.

"If we're not talking to each other, we don't know what's going on," said School Board Member Marianne Arbulu in pressing for the scheduling of the workshop. "We need to get updates on the school's financial situation, its nonprofit status and such."

At which point School Board Member Shirley Washington interjected that if the issue was to be addressed in a workshop, nothing more should be said at the present meeting. Which comment pretty much ended the discussion.

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.

Research done by Road Department employee Henry Gohlke at the commission's behest, and which information he submitted to the commission via Commissioner Stephen Fulford in mid January, indicates that all 63 of the cemeteries listed on the county's maintenance schedule are privately owned by either a church, a group, an organization or an individual.

To determine the ownerships, Gohlke, who until recently supervised the prison inmate crews that did the mowing, took GPS coordinates of the cemeteries and then had the Property Appraiser identify each property owner.

The issue of the county's maintenance of private cemeteries is one that has periodically surfaced over the years and that commissioners have repeatedly sidestepped, essentially turning a blind eye to the practice, despite its inconsistency with the board's often-repeated policy of not committing public funds to repair private roads. Or better put, county officials have stretched the definition of public cemeteries to include any burial ground that permits public burials, regardless of ownership.

For decades, a Road Department crew was specifically assigned to maintain the cemeteries. Then with the budget shortfall of several years back and the laying off of nearly a score of county employees, the mowing was transferred to county-supervised prison inmate crews.

What happened recently is that Christopher Landrum, the new warden at Jefferson Correctional Institution (JCI), put a temporary halt to the use of inmate crews until it could be determined which were private and which public cemeteries. Landrum explained to commissioners on Jan. 21 that his wasn't a rash or arbitrary decision. Rather, it was one that stemmed from his desire to ensure that everything was done proper and aboveboard.

Landrum said he had no problem with inmate crews mowing public cemeteries and was more than willing to restart the serv-ice as soon as the county could show him that the cemeteries were publicly owned. Otherwise, state law prevented the presence of inmate crews on private property, he said.

"I'm for this, not against it," Landrum said of the mowing. "But I want to make sure that what we're doing is within the scope of what we are supposed to do. This is not a matter of new warden coming in and changing things."

Per the board's instructions, Commissioner Hines Boyd, County Coordinator Roy Schleicher and Road Superintendent David Harvey were to meet with Landrum and come up with a solution to the problem. As of Wednesday, Feb. 17, no such meeting had taken place, however.

One reason for the delay, Boyd said Wednesday, was that the issue was proving to be a more interesting and intriguing question of public policy than was originally evident. He said County Attorney Buck Bird was researching a state law that supposedly made the protection of cemeteries imperative, even if on private property. It seemed to be the commissioner's nascent argument that the protection mandate justified public maintenance of the cemeteries, regardless of ownership.

That, at least, appears to be one of the arguments that Landrum will hear when county officials finally meet with him.

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.

Equally noteworthy: Not only was the NFBA's grant application one of 2,200 proposals submitted nationwide to the US Department of Commerce (DOC), it is one of the largest awards of stimulus monies to Florida and possibly the first Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grant officially awarded to the state.

Funded to the tune of $4.7 billion, BTOP grants aim to foster the deployment of broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved regions of the country so as to spur job creation and stimulate long-term economic growth and opportunity, according to the DOC.

"This is an extraordinary accomplishment," said Jeff Hendry, executive director of the North Florida Economic Development Partnership (NFDP), which helped to spearhead the collective effort. "This initiative has the potential to be a cornerstone of the region's future."

The Authority notes that after taking stock of the combined assets of its member local governments, it was able collectively to offer $9 million in land, existing towers and other in-kind contributions, which amount exceeds by more than $3 million the grant's required 20 percent match. Besides overseeing the installation of the broadband system, the Authority will manage and own all its assets.

"This is truly a public/private partnership involving our regional local governments, our education, healthcare, public service providers, aligned private businesses and economic development interests," Hendry said. "As I and others involved in this effort have stated repeatedly, I can think of no more important investment for this region than broadband and high-speed connectivity infrastructure, the infrastructure of the 21st Century.

"It has the potential to create unique and significant opportunities for economic development, to significantly improve and advance education, healthcare and public safety services and standards, and enhance the quality of life for communities and residents throughout the region."

Monticello Councilman Tom Vogelgesang and Jefferson County Commissioner Stephen Fulford are the respective representatives of the city and county on the Authority.

"We still have a long ways to go," Fulford said on Thursday evening. "But thankfully, we had a lot of good people with a vision who worked hard to get the application done."

Fulford in the past has called broadband a revolutionary concept.

"Rural electrification was a turning point in my grandfather's day," Fulford said. "I believe that this will be a turning point for rural communities in the 21st century."

Monticello and Jefferson County on Aug. 4 and 6 of 2009 respectively approved broadband resolutions and interlocal agreements that allowed for the formation of the Authority, the entity that actually applied for the federal grant.

At the time, city and county officials were hopeful and excited about the prospective of getting the federal funding for a project that they view as having the potential to boost economic development and transform the way that the region conducts business and provides education, public safety and medical services, among countless other activities.

"This is an economic development issue," Hendry often says. "The first question I get from businesses looking to locate in the area is 'what kind of communication infrastructure do you have?'

He points out that Jefferson and other counties in the region have miles upon miles of fiber-optic cable running through them. The problem, he says, is that these counties presently have no way of tapping into this resource. What the grant will do is allow installation of the "middle mile project" that will serve as a bridge to allow the member counties access to the high-speed Internet connectivity that is already in place but just beyond reach, or "on the other side", as he calls it.

The broadband system that will be put in place will not be proprietary but will be available to every provider.

"This will be completely opened access," Hendry says. "Any major player can tap into the system to provide service. This will create competition. Anybody who pays the fee will have access."

Once the first phase or middle mile bridging system is in place, the Authority plans to seek additional federal funding to enhance the system to the second and third levels.

"We're talking of upping speeds thousands of times," Hendry says.

Indeed, providing high-speed connectivity to remote areas of the member counties via wireless and the use of towers is a definite goal of the initiative and one of the components of phases two and three. But the first and foremost component is getting the basic bridging system in place, for which Authority now has three years.

Members of the Authority include Madison, Suwannee, Taylor and Wakulla counties and the cities of Cross, Lake, Perry and White Springs.

On Monday March 1, Spears will take over the football program at Suwannee High School in Live Oak Florida, leaving Jefferson County after less than a year.

"I did not apply for this job," said Spears. "I have been blessed to receive calls about different jobs and after turning this one down twice, I felt the need to entertain the idea."

Spears addressed how his leaving would impact Jefferson County and the players he coached. "I teach our players to change the temperature in the room when they enter a room," said Spears. "I'm sure my absence will be felt, just like my presence was felt. Our slogan is to get better everyday. That was my goal, and I believe we did just that. I believe I left Jefferson County football better than it was when I arrived. That includes morale, discipline, facilities, academics, and exposure. I did my best everyday and tried to bloom where I was planted.

Spears spoke about the players. "Our team is a family, so whenever a family member leaves its hard, but they are still family. The players all have my cell phone number and I will always be in touch. This has been the best year of my professional life yet the worst year of my personal and spiritual life," said Spears.

"Due to the demands of this job I have slacked as a husband, father, and man of God. It's all my fault," said Spears. "So on the outside I looked real good, but in my heart I knew that all my energy was put into the program, my priorities are all wrong."

Spears said things would be different for him and his family at Suwannee County. "For one thing I won't have the stress of finances. My wife and I will make $25,000 more," said Spears. "This is a huge burden that will be lifted. I will do much less work and therefore spend more time with my family. I will only coach football. My staff and I at Jefferson did the job of ten coaches; there were five of us."

He said his staff would remain the same in his leaving. "My staff will stay in Jefferson County. If we all were leaving I would not leave, I believe the players deserve better," said Spears. "I believe the Superintendent will hire one of the coaches and that is the best thing he could do. People believe that the players in Jefferson have experienced great turnover. That is not true for the kids we have now. 75% of our team didn't play varsity before we arrived, so I have been their only varsity coach."

So how does Spears feel Jefferson would do without him at the helm? "Coaches Bolware, Brown, and Duke are better football coaches than I am," said Spears." I believe I may be a better leader, because I go to leadership conferences and I read a lot of leadership books, but they are better Xs and Os coaches than I am. So I predict that if Mr. Brumfield and Dr. Ryan hire one of them they will have a better season than we did this past year," said Spears. Superintendent Bi8ll Brumfield said that Dr, Rodney Ryan would hire withi9n, naming one of the three football coaches presently on staff at Jefferson.

Spears' message to his supporters; "I would say to the community, parents, and teachers that I hope they were supporting students not me. Please keep supporting the students," said Spears.

He wished to thank many who have been working side by side with him in the betterment of Jefferson County High. "I thank them often. These people will continue to make the ship float: Mr. Brumfield, Dr. Ryan, Mrs. Thompson, Coach Brumfield, Coach Brown, Coach Bolware, Coach Duke, Christina Brown, Mrs. Mack, Mrs. Roberts, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Footman, and our great booster club and parents.

In conclusion, Spears said, "I want to be the real deal in every area of my life. I haven't been. Pray for me."

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.'"

The black glass Echelon Building in the state capital housed a 200-employee IRS office.

A suicide note he left included the following:

"Nothing changes unless there is a body count," software engineer Andrew Joseph Black, 53, wrote. He further attacked the Catholic Church and Wall Street.

He added, "Violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. I know I'm hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand."

"Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well," he went on to say.

It was signed, "Joe Stack (1956-2010)."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/02/18/2010-02-18_small_plane_crashes_into_building_in_austin_texas.html#ixzz0fzaKv15K

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.

So established the presentation of Jefferson County Coordinator Roy Schleicher to the County Commission on Thursday evening, Feb. 18.

But first, and related to the landfill engineer and landfill-monitoring services contracts, the commission on Thursday evening awarded the civil engineering contract to Preble-Rish Inc., a panhandle-based company with a reputation for quality engineering work. Preble-Rish takes over the road and other civil engineering work previously done by Darabi & Associates.

Per the terms of the contract, as Schleicher explained it, the county will designate the projects, Preble-Rish will determine the project's cost based on contractual and other prices, and county officials will decide whether to proceed with the work.

"We will know per job what it will cost upfront," Schleicher said.

Preble-Rish, what's more, has committed to opening a local office within the next 60 days and staffing it with a receptionist and an engineer.

"It will be a different operation than we've had," Schleicher said.

Relative to the landfill engineer and landfill monitoring services contracts, Schleicher reiterated the reason that the two contracts — as well as the civil engineering contract — were pulled from the agenda on Jan. 21, when commissioners were originally scheduled to approve them.

That reason involved the discovery of accumulated rainwater in depressions at the closed landfill on Tyson Road, caused by the settlement of the compacted and buried garbage. The state requires that such depressions be corrected.

"We were concerned that in the transition of the contracts the deficiencies might fall to us," Schleicher said.

Meaning that county official wanted assurance from Darabi & Associates, which presently holds the contract, that it would accept responsibility for the repair of the depressions under the current contract, even though Darabi & Associates is slated to be the county's landfill engineer of record and assume part of the responsibility for the monitoring of the closed landfill under the new contracts.

Schleicher shared with commissioners that he had a letter from Darabi & Associates dated Feb. 5 promising to correct the problems at the landfill under the existing contract.

"Darabi will make the deficiencies right under the current contract," Schleicher said. "That closes that door."

What's more, responding to Commissioner Hines Boyd's stated concerns, Darabi had agreed to forego the monthly charge of $17,950 for February, Schleicher said.

Schleicher proposed that the commission approve the landfill engineer and landfill monitoring services contracts with Darabi & Associates and Restoration Assistance Inc. (RAI) pending final negotiations with the two contractors. Specifically, one contract calls for Darabi & Associates to be the engineer of record for the landfill and the second divides the monitoring services by assigning the water and gas testing tasks to Darabi & Associates and the grounds maintenance and general site upkeep to RAI.

"Under the new contracts, instead of paying $17,950 monthly, we'll have nothing in the way of engineering costs unless Darabi does something specific at $200 hourly," Schleicher said. "We may have 10 hours monthly as opposed to $17,950. As for the gas and water monitoring and the maintenance, we now have annual rates at much reduced prices."

Bottom line, the monthly cost to the county would likely be $5,000 or at most $10,000, resulting in an annual cost as low as $60,000 or $120,000 at most, as opposed to the $215,400 the county has been paying.

"This is the significant reduction that Boyd has been talking about," Schleicher said, a recognition of Boyd's long and uphill struggle to get the contract reevaluated.

Schleicher added that County Attorney Buck Bird had reviewed and given his blessings to the two contracts.

"I think we have some good agreements," Schleicher said, adding that it was the staffs' intent to have the negotiations completed and the contracts finalized and ready for the board's final approval by the March 4 meeting.

With that, the commission voted to approve the two contracts, contingent on the staff working out the details and Bird's reviewing the final product.

GII Director Patricia Garner presents the Boyds with framed commemorative photomontages of the soon-to-be Boyd Garden. From left to right are Commissioner Hines Boyd, Congressman Allen Boyd, Garner, and NFCC President John Grosskopf.

Boyd, along with sister-in-law Janegale Boyd, formerly a state representative herself, were instrumental in the creation and funding of the Green Industries Institute (GII), an entity that has undergone various transformations through the years but that remains at core dedicated to the promotion of agriculture and now also green self-sustaining resources.

Speakers at the event included Boyd, NFCC President John Grosskopf and GII Director Patricia Garner, with the numerous elected and other officials from the city, county, college and associated school districts giving a good representation of their constit-uencies, along with a significant number of regular citizens.

Grosskopf in his opening comments lauded the two Boyds for the initial commitment that made the GII possible and praised Allen Boyd in particular for his unwavering support of the institution through the years. He also briefly touched on the innovative technologies that NFCC is employing to deliver educational programs in is service area.

Garner's presentation focused "on the exciting things happening at GII", calling it a vibrant and dynamic student-centered facility dedicated to providing "quality teaching, learning and sustainable community stewardship to rural north Florida." She touted the institute's offerings, which she said included flexible schedules, state-of-the-art technologies, dual enrollment courses, academic classes and community outreach programs, among much more.

Noteworthy is the observatory that Garner said GII will feature as part of an astronomy program in the near future. The audience got to learn via Smart Board and web-conferencing software about the 25-inch Obsession Dobsonian telescope that the observatory will house. A unique addition to this region, the telescope will allow for the viewings of deep space. The observatory also will house a 16-inch telescope that local and other north Florida residents will be able to access and control via the Internet.

Following Garner's presentation, Larry Teague, of Zamia Design in Gainesville, presented an overview of the master plan that his company is developing for GII in preparation for the future growth and development of the latter's 64-acre property.

Boyd, for his part, expressed gratitude and appreciation for the great strides that NFCC was making toward the realization of the original vision of making the institute a vibrant and viable entity. He touched on his involvement with the center, dating from 1994 when he was a freshman representative in the Florida Legislature.

Made aware that the University of Florida planned to move its local IFAS center to Quincy as part of a consolidation effort and furthermore knowing that he couldn't buck then powerful Senator Pat Thomas, who wanted the center moved to Quincy, Boyd said he did the next best thing. Which was to cobble together a coalition that included UF, FAMU, NFCC and Jefferson County in an effort to keep the center alive and vital. It had then fallen to Janegale Boyd, who followed him in the Legislature, to secure the funding for the facility, he said.

"I'm excited by what's happening and by John and Patricia's enthusiasm," Boyd said, referring to Grosskopf and Garner.

Garner next presented Boyd and Commissioner Hines Boyd (standing in for his wife, Janegale) each with a framed photomontage commemorating the beginning of what is to be a Boyd Garden at Green Industries.

Following the presentation, the group stepped outside into what will soon be a landscaped garden in honor of the Boyds and partook of ice cream and strawberry shortcake.