Branford’s Bill Procko cuts the ribbon while family and town officials look on. The skate park is named after the Prockos.

Leo Walker

Little nine-year-old Leo Walker was found dead from accidental drowning Friday morning, Aug. 15, in a body of water near his home.The Live Oak boy with special needs was reported missing from his home shortly after 4 a.m. Wednesday morning, Aug. 13, in the 700 block of East Duval Street in Live Oak. 

Several law enforcement agencies including the FBI, FDLE, and FWC joined local law enforcement in the search for Walker, an autistic boy who, who was reported to have left home alone before, but was quickly recovered. According to LOPD Sergeant Justin Bates, the mother saw Walker around 4 a.m. that Wednesday; she fell asleep for about 15 minutes and when she woke up, Walker was gone. Authorities were called around 4:25 a.m.

Hundreds of volunteers canvassed Live Oak and surrounding communities by going door-to-door, searching woods and bodies of water.

Live Oak Police Chief Buddy Williams held community meetings following the tragic outcome to give more awareness to people with special needs. GPS tracking devices were talked about and reflective shirts were given out to community residents. 

Suwannee High School football makes it to state semi-finals

An exciting season of Suwannee High School football has come to a close, and it has left an unmistakable mark in Bulldog history as one of the most successful seasons of the past few decades. The Dogs took away 12 wins, a district title, and a regional title with only two losses, one of which came Friday, Dec. 5, to the Godby High School Cougars with a score of 48-14 in the FHSAA State Semifinals. The game marked the first time Suwannee had played in a state semifinal in 15 years, but, as head coach Jamie Rodgers said, the Dogs ran into a better team.

“In the end, only one team can come out on top,” said Rodgers. “This year it wasn’t us.”

This is coach Rodgers’ third year as the Dogs’ head coach, and in that time he has brought the team up from a 3-7 record in 2012, 7-3 in 2013, and now a standout 12-2 finish in 2014.

Rodgers was named Class 5A Coach of the Year by the Florida Dairy Farmers association.

Suwannee Valley Transit Authority

The Suwannee Valley Transit Authority was audited by the Florida Department of Transportation  upon request by the Florida Commission for Transportation Disadvantaged Commission upon concerns over labor and fringe benefit data reported to the Commission by the SVTA. It wasrevealed through a FDOT draft audit report that former Administrator Gwendolyn Pra received unallowed payouts of $125,036 on top of her $78,748.80 salary, and former Director of Operations William “Bill” Steele received $67,777 in unallowed payouts, aside from his annual salary of $71,427.20, between June 2012 and March 2014.

Pra took the reins of SVTA on Aug. 15, 2011.

The FDOT audit began Dec. 2, 2013.

The FDOT is also doing a second audit of expenditures made by SVTA of funds and resources provided by FDOT through their DOT District Two office in Lake City.

The next step in the first audit is specified by Florida Statute; they have to send it to the SVTA for a 20 day review and comment period.

It was also recently announced that SVTA is facing layoffs due to Medicaid reform in Florida which cut revenue to the agency. Suwannee and other counties gave SVTA a one-time financial boost to keep them afloat until they can restructure. 

Sabal Trail pipeline

The Sabal Trail Transmission pipeline project remains a great concern for many Suwannee County residents, citing environmental hazards and national economic stress as major downsides. Some residents confronted the Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) Tuesday evening, Sept. 16, re-iterating their concerns over the pipeline. A representative from Florida Power and Light (FPL) was also present to provide a counter-argument in support of the pipeline, which, if completed, will provide natural gas to FPL.

The Sabal Trail Transmission, a joint venture of Spectra Energy and NextEra Energy, seeks to construct a 470 mile natural gas pipeline starting in Alabama, passing through Georgia, and ending in Central Florida. If they can work out routing issues, construction could begin as soon as 2016 with the pipeline in operation in 2017.

The pipeline’s prospective route runs through both Hamilton and Suwannee counties, crossing over the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers. However, a geological survey revealed that the pipeline would endanger sensitive water areas both near and downstream of its crossing of the Withlacoochee. Hamilton County commissioners drafted a resolution in August telling Sabal Trail to steer clear of the Withlacoochee.

Now, citizens in Suwannee County are asking our commissioners to follow suit.

Andrea Grover, director, stakeholder outreach of Sabal Trail, told the Democrat the company is considering alternative routes in Hamilton and Northern Suwannee County.

New economic development director, chamber director

Economic development for Suwannee County has gained speed with the May hiring of Alvin Jackson as the county’s first full-time economic development director and the Chamber of Commerce hiring of Austin Richmond in February. 

The two hit the ground running with Richmond holding quarterly Chamber luncheons, several mixers so far and pulled off a successful 30th annual Christmas on the Square.

Jackson has met with numerous, potentially new businesses, created a new economic development website, floridasnewfrontier.com, and is very knowledgeable when it comes to economic development. 

Economic development

Klausner’s Thomas Mende, president of International Business Development for Klausner Trading USA, was beaming with excitement as he led Democrat staff through his new state-of-the-art project, located in Western Suwannee County. 

According to Mende, the log yard has only been open for weeks and there are already thousands of logs piling up.

People are already working on location as Klausner employees, including office workers, laborers, and managers, in addition to the 230 construction workers finishing up the site. Mende anticipates a full staff of 350 when all 88-member work shifts are implemented, which will happen as soon as the sawmill is steadily up and running.

“Our goal is to ramp up to multiple shifts as quickly as possible,” said Mende. “After all, it’s a big investment and our mills in Germany run four shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

The incoming Live Oak business operating under the code name “Project Mulch” has been identified as International Mulch, a St. Louis, Mo. based company dealing in recycled rubber products. The company recycles rubber tires and other rubber materials, chops them up, paints the chips, and sells the resulting mulch to retailers for landscaping, playgrounds, and other uses. International Mulch has other production and manufacturing facilities in Godfrey, Ill., Baltimore, Md., and Moreno Valley, Calif.

International Mulch has officially executed their lease and started to move into part of the 80,000 square feet former Badcock distribution center located on US 129 N near I-10.

Downtown revitalization

Take a look at downtown Live Oak, where the core of small businesses are located, and you will notice a big difference from the year 2013. Dilapitaed, broken-down buildings are gone, replaced with a very nice park now dubbed Festival Park. Business fronts are freshly painted and look better. Streets and rights-of-way look cleaner and sharper.

The city of Live Oak has recently approved road repair projects in phases.

The first-ever Jazz, Arts and Blues Festival was held at Festival Park in October and drew thousands of folks. Heritage Park is thriving and more events are coming together. 

Two banks robbed

Kenneth Lamar Ellington, 45, 37 Whispering Pines Lane, Quincy, is believed to have robbed TD Bank around 10:30 a.m. and First Federal Bank of Florida around 2 p.m. on April 9, by passing a note to a teller at each location. Evidence from the two robberies was submitted to the FDLE Crime Lab in Tallahassee for analysis. A match was made to Ellington. 

Marcus Cole cleared of two counts of capital first degree murder

A Live Oak man walked out of a Suwannee County courtroom Thursday evening, March 27, a free man after being on trial for two counts of capital first degree murder.

It took a jury nearly seven hours to render a verdict in the case of state of Florida versus Marcus Nathaniel Cole. The 12 member panel found Cole not guilty on both counts. Following the reading of the verdict, family members of the two brothers that were shot and killed by Cole were emotionally vocal to both jury and Cole.

Cole, 41, was hosting a party and cookout at his home on 225th Road on Jan. 26, 2013. At approximately 10 p.m., six of the partygoers got into a fight, according to reports from the Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office. 

Shortly after the fight had broken up, Cole went into his home and retrieved a 30.06 rifle and shot and killed Mike Williams, 46, and his brother, Abram Williams, 41, according to SCSO reports.  

Procko Skate Park opens in Branford

The grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony for Branford’s new skate park in Hatch Park was held Saturday, Jan. 25, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. attracting around 100 people with high spirits. These included several members of Branford Town Council, Suwannee County commissioners, town folks, out of town folks, a few onlookers and of course some serious skateboard enthusiasts whose wait is now over since the completion of the park’s Phase 1 on Jan. 18.

BHS and BES are ‘B’ schools

Branford High School improved its school grade from a “C” to a “B” grade despite ever-increasing state education regulations. Meanwhile, it was announced in July that Branford Elementary School improved its grade from a “C” to a “B”.