Local

L-R:  Standing in front of an assortment of guitars, Leon Barrows and Gene Menet view the Music Junction as a way to share their knowledge of music with the community.

ALACHUA – Leon Barrows was born into music.

Barrows’ father is an inductee in the Music Hall of Fame, and Barrows says his whole family is musically inclined.

“We didn’t have a choice,” he said.

Seven years ago, Barrow retired from his contracting job in upstate New York and moved to Florida. He says he always dreamed of opening a music store.

In 2007, his dream became reality. He called the store Music Junction and opened a shop in High Springs.  Less than a year ago, Barrows moved Music Junction from High Springs to Alachua. That was a good decision, as Barrows says business in Alachua has been better than it was in High Springs.

“Everyone in Alachua welcomed us with open arms,” Barrows said.

Music Junction, located at 14856 on Alachua’s Main Street, sells many instruments, but Barrows also focuses on offering music lessons to members of the community.  The store offers lessons for the banjo, guitar, dobro, piano and violin. Barrows said there will soon be lessons for wind and brass instruments as well.

Music Junction’s students range in age from 4 to 92. While Barrows has students from all walks of life, he said one of the store’s primary efforts is teaching children how to play musical instruments.

“I want to teach everyone who wants to learn,” he said. “Music is really important.”

Gene Menet, a friend of Barrows, helps run Music Junction and also teaches banjo. He emphasized the importance of learning to play music.

There’s nothing like having the ability to become one with an instrument,” Menet said.

Barrows said most people find out about his store from word-of-mouth. He said he thinks it’s important to buy instruments locally and keep money circulating throughout the community.

Barrows said he loves to meet different people and mingle with Alachua residents.

“Everyone who comes through the door is my family,” he said.

The Music Junction is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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Newberry’s sidewalk system headed for transformation

 NEWBERRY – More and improved sidewalks are in store for the City of Newberry, with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) scheduled to go to bid for the project’s construction in fall of 2013.

Jordan Green, a rural area transportation engineer with FDOT, said all bidders must be pre-qualified by the department, and that construction usually begins 90 days after the bid closes.

The sidewalk project now underway began in 2004 with an application to the transportation enhancement project program through the Florida Department of Transportation, with the Alachua County Commission acting as administrator, said Lowell Garret, planning director for the City of Newberry.

The initial proposal was for a bike and pedestrian trail through Newberry that would provide a way for children to avoid roads in their commute to and from school.  In its current form, it is a $900,000 project to pave new sidewalks to interconnect the city’s existing sidewalks.

“It became a continuous connective network project through the community with the primary emphasis on getting kids to school safely,” Garrett said.  “It’s nice because what it’s doing is augmenting the streets that were just improved.”

This project can be looked like a step on a staircase: first, the streets were improved, now the sidewalks. And in the future, maybe even streetlights, he said. The hope is not just that the community will appreciate the project, but that it will “maintain and revitalize a community to help out in these down economic times,” Garrett said.

Green said that the department will make efforts during construction to minimize any impacts to neighbors and people traveling.  He said that the FDOT wouldn’t be able to close a street without permission from the City, and mostly likely no work will be done at night.

“Obviously we have to keep traffic off of driveways and sidewalks we are building,” Green explained. In some areas, streets will be improved simply because they are involved in the sidewalk construction. Pavers will pour strips of concrete in areas between where the new sidewalk hits dirt, and where the dirt hits the road.

There will be periods of time where travelers are detoured, but the concrete strips are just as much functional upkeep as they are nicer-looking. They will minimize crumbling along the edges of the sidewalks and streets, providing a smooth transition for tires.

While the project may be regarded as simply a means of providing the facility for pedestrian movement, the FDOT solicits projects such as this because it will impact a large number of people. While there are far more proposals than available funds, the Newberry proposal was strong because of its local support.

The sheer number of project proposals means that applicants must reapply year after year, and all the while meet the FDOT’s qualifications. As the project moved along the long list, its importance grew along with the department’s available funding. The FDOT does evaluate cost and importance, but an appealing factor was the project’s comprehensive nature.

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According to a memo sent this week by High Springs Police Department (HSPD) Chief Steve Holley, the equipment needs to be purchased to ensure “[Florida Department of Law Enforcement] compliance as well as enhanced IT capability for HSPD Communications and FDLE.”

Among the list of items being requested for funding is some $8,000 to air condition the server room and a generator for the building, a new server operating system at $3,000 and other overlay software costing thousands more.

It was not clear as of Wednesday afternoon how much of the equipment would be required if the City opted to stay with the Alachua County Combined Communications Center (CCC) operated by the sheriff’s office instead of reinstituting its own dispatch service for the police department.

High Springs City Manager Jeri Langman said the requested upgrades have come as a result of an FDLE audit of HSPD.  “Some of the requirements are additional due to having dispatch here,” Langman wrote in an email.  Still, she said, “Many of [the requested upgrades] would have been required with or without dispatch.”

On Wednesday morning, Commissioner Sue Weller, concerned about the request for additional spending, asked City Manager Jeri Langman for a description of each piece of equipment and its purpose, which items are required for communications and why those items weren’t presented when the commission approved reopening its own dispatch service.  Weller also asked specifically if any of the items were required by law or regulation and if so, that those citations be provided.

The commission is scheduled to consider the funding request at its Sept. 13 commission meeting.  In preparing to reopen the dispatch service, the commission has spent some $90,000 so far this year and has tentatively budgeted $268,000 in the 2012/13 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

Funding for the dispatch has been a moving and growing target.  In a controversial and hotly contested move, the commission voted in July to reopen its own dispatch service.  That was after months of debate over whether or not it was more beneficial to stick with the CCC.

Many who have advocated cutting ties with the CCC say they don’t want to rename downtown streets to make them compliant with the countywide grid-based street naming system, as would eventually be required under the CCC agreement.

Proponents for switching to the city-operated dispatch service have also pointed to more local control and what they believe will be long term savings.  Those savings, however, seem to be fleeting.

Based on the agreement with the CCC, the cost of dispatch for High Springs is $14.75 per call, but when the City reaches a population of 6,000, that figure would rise to $24.26.  The City expects to cross that threshold in the next five years based on census projections.  Even so, to operate its own dispatch service, the annual cost eclipses those of the CCC.

Some estimates project that reopening the city’s emergency dispatch center will cost in excess of $600,000 more than sticking with the CCC over the next four years.

The total cost of an in-house emergency dispatch service is estimated at $1.3 million through September 2016.  On the other hand, sticking with the CCC would only cost an estimated $653,000 for the same time period, including a higher per call rate for the last of those four years.  Those figures don’t account for what appears to be a rising capital outlay cost for equipment, from which the City is feeling the pinch today.

What’s more is that commissioners sent a letter to Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell, notifying the CCC of the City of High Springs’ intent to terminate the CCC agreement effective Oct. 1.  But as that date has drawn closer, the City has had to ask for an extension in the event the in-house dispatch center isn’t ready.

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HIGH SPRINGS – High Springs City Attorney Ray Ivey has made his departure from the City more imminent than it had been.  This comes on the heels of Ivey expressing doubts on Aug. 23 that the City would find his replacement in the coming weeks.

In an email sent to commissioners Sept. 10, Ivey informed the commission that he would officially and finally be calling it quits on Sept. 21, more than two months after he submitted his resignation on July 11.

An advertisement in August for Ivey’s replacement didn’t net any results, prompting his concern that the commission would have difficulty attracting applicants.

During the Aug. 23 meeting, Ivey said a lack of interest in the position is a “result of the things that are occurring [in High Springs] causes an attorney here considerable indigestion….the activities generating lawsuits.

“And when these meetings go far astray, it’s hard for an attorney to be prepared,” Ivey said.

“What I’m picking up is that attorneys are real uneasy… because of all of these problems.  There are too many bullets flying,” Ivey said, referring to impending lawsuits, among other concerns

He said one attorney who had previously applied for the position said he was intentionally not going to apply due the “hotbed that this is.”

Another attorney reportedly told Ivey that he couldn’t attend the frequent and numerous meetings called by the City of High Springs, because it would compromise his practice.

And it seems compromising Ivey’s other work is exactly what he is trying to prevent.  In the Sept. 10 email, Ivey wrote, “In order to be able to make other commitments and to be able to schedule other work, I must terminate my [employment] effective Friday September 21, 2012 at 5 p.m.”

Sources at the City of High Springs say the issue of advertising the position yet again will be up for discussion at the Sept. 13 commission meeting.

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Robert Allan Nodine, of High Springs, was found guilty of attempted voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on June 20, and on Sept. 4, following an investigation into his criminal and life history, Nodine was handed the prison sentence by Senior judge Maurice Guinta.

This sentence includes 15 years in prison for attempted voluntary manslaughter, 15 years in prison for aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer while armed, and two five-year sentences for possession of weapons on school property. The two possession charges will be served concurrently.

Despite his guilty verdict, jurors did not find Nodine guilty of two more severe charges being sought by the State Attorney’s Office: those of attempted first degree murder and attempted second degree murder.

Nodine was additionally convicted on two counts of possession of a weapon on school property, one for a firearm and the other for a knife.  He was also found guilty of trespassing on school grounds after being escorted from the premises by a law enforcement officer.

The shootout may have been triggered as a result of a reported investigation by the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), which asked the school not to release Nodine’s two grandchildren.  A 9-1-1 caller who was reporting the incident as it unfolded said DCF had not yet arrived at the school to deal with matters related to that investigation.

Responding to the school on May 18 were both Alachua County Sheriff’s Office deputies and High Springs Police Department (HSPD) officers.

Police say Nodine became irate while at the school, and while being escorted off the campus the grandfather was reportedly able to arm himself.

Nodine challenged a deputy and a police officer, according to reports.  The incident escalated and police opened fire on Nodine who was the only person injured in the exchange of fire.

The shooting occurred in a breezeway leading into the school office.  Meanwhile, the school was in lockdown for much of that afternoon as deputies restricted access to and from school grounds.

Most of the school’s children had already been released because of an abbreviated Wednesday schedule.  But some 170 students remained on campus for after-school activities when the shooting occurred.

HSPD officer Harper was placed on administrative leave, but returned to work in the week following the incident.

Nodine was initially taken to an area hospital for treatment, but was later booked into the Alachua County Jail.

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In a special budget meeting Thursday afternoon, Sept. 13, High Springs commissioners voted to immediately suspend High Springs City Manager Jeri Langman.  Langman will remain on paid suspension indefinitely.  Mayor Dean Davis, Vice Mayor Bob Barnas and Commissioner Linda Gestrin voted for the move after Gestrin and Barnas argued that Langman was obstructing the budgeting process.  Commissioner Sue Weller voted against the measure.  Commissioner Scott Jamison was not present because of scheduling conflicts.

Gestrin further pushed the matter by adding to the motion that Langman be ordered to take her belongings, turn in her city keys and have her city email account terminated.

The commission also has another meeting that begins 6:30 p.m.

As of 5 p.m., the commission had not picked a replacement to step into Langman’s position, although talks of appointing Fire Chief Bruce Gillingham or Jenny Parham were underway.  Reportedly, Parham has repeatedly said that she did not wish to fill the interim role as she had done before.   Gillingham said he would need to mull the prospect over with his wife.