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HIGH SPRINGS – Representatives from Causseaux, Hewett & Walpole, Inc. (CHW), a Gainesville-based engineering and land planning company, requested a Site Review Committee meeting with High Springs city officials on March 6. The map they brought for review was of a potential site for a new Walgreen's Drug Store on U.S. 441 in High Springs.

The Site Review Committee is comprised of the city manager and heads of each department. The purpose of the review was to determine if the initial site plan for Walgreen's had any fatal flaws such as ingress/egress problems, or parking issues. The committee detected no major flaws in the design and gave CHW the “go ahead” to proceed.

City Manager Ed Booth displayed the site plan for commissioners at a workshop held later that night and said it would be located where Urban Threads and the gas station next door are presently, which is close to the CVS Drug Store location across U.S. 441.

However, in checking with Walgreen's home office in Illinois, nobody at that location was familiar with the proposed project. When contacted, Jerry Dedenbach, Director of Planning at CHW, seemed surprised that the possible location for a new Walgreens was known. The Site Review Committee is a public meeting, which Booth said led him to make the announcement when he did.

Dedenbach said his company searches across the state looking at hundreds of sites for their clients, but indicated that this site was only one of many sites they were reviewing.

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HIGH SPRINGS – The City of High Springs is looking into a more direct way to notify customers when a power or water outage occurs as happened recently when the water supply was cut to residents in the southeast area of the city.

City Manager Ed Booth said in a recent interview that although the city followed protocol with the water outage, he believes there may be a more direct way using the 911 system to contact affected residents by cell phone or with text messages.

“The city is looking into how we can make that happen,” said Booth. “We will also be notifying residents using our marquee and will record a message so people calling into City Hall will know what is going on and what they need to do," he said.

Meanwhile, the city lost 690,000 gallons of water when the water supply was cut at approximately 5 p.m. on March 20. The accident left homes in the southeast part of the city without water overnight. Water pressure was restored to most homes by 7 a.m. the following morning. But because water pressure was lost for more than two hours, the city was required to go through a mandatory “boil water to drink”" period.

City Manager Booth issued a press release on March 21, alerting citizens to the necessity to boil their drinking water. The Alachua County Health Department sampled water daily and alerted the city it could lift the drinking water ban on March 24.

The outage occurred when the driver of a company trimming trees for Duke Electric drove over a water hydrant at S.E. 7th Ave. and S.E. 3rd St. The truck was owned by Buford Tree Service and was driven by Jackie Carl Huggins according to the accident report.

City officials have contacted Duke Electric's insurance carrier. The city suggests that anyone who suffered an economic impact due to the accident save their receipts or document their loss in the best way possible and send the information to Duke Energy's insurance carrier, Sedgwick Insurance at 800-541-0139, Ext. 47114.

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ALACHUA – The City of Alachua’s financial report has received the highest audit opinion for the eleventh consecutive year.

Alachua received an “unmodified” opinion on the annual audit of its basic financial statements for fiscal year 2012-2013.

The results were revealed at the city commission meeting on March 24 by the city’s independent certified public accountants, Purvis Gray & Company.

There also were no recommendations issued for Alachua to improve financial management.

According to Ron Whitesides, presenter for Purvis Gray & Company, Alachua also had an increase in total revenues of approximately $1.7 million, due in large part to utility rate adjustments and federal and state grants received.

City expenditures also decreased by nearly $800,000, Whitesides said, in part due to lapsed salaries and road resurfacing projects being delayed to next fiscal year.

The entire report can be accessed online at the City of Alachua Website at www.cityofalachua.com, “Agendas & Minutes” under the “Quick Links” section.

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Ellen Boukari/Alachua County Today

L-R: Lowell Garret and Reuben Hamlin handled the fish frying duties for the Newberry Main Street Organization. The fish fry was a fundraiser to support the organization’s activities.

NEWBERRY – Hungry visitors stopped by the Newberry Municipal Building, 25440 West Newberry Road, on Saturday, March 15, to help their town economically and to also fill their stomachs with a yummy fish dinner with all the trimmings.

Newberry Main Street Organization, Inc. (NMSO) produced a dine-in-or-take-out dinner of mouthwatering fried fish, coleslaw, beans, hushpuppies, grits and iced tea as one of several fundraising events planned for this year.

To top off the tasty meal, baked goods were also available for purchase for those who had a little bit of room left for a tasty treat. The Newberry High School Baseball Booster Club sold brownies, cookies, cupcakes and more as their fundraiser in an admirable attempt to satisfy everyone's sweet tooth, while earning a little money for their club.

One of the highlights of the event was a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to Gander Mountain sporting goods and clothes store in Ocala. The winning ticket was purchased by Trenton resident Greg Landingham.

“We couldn't have done it without the help of Newberry's Backyard BBQ, Visit Gainesville and the City of Newberry,” said Barbara Hendrix, NMSO Director. “The turnout was great,” she said.

NMSO's Mission Statement, “Enhancing a downtown through sound economic development that promotes our future while preserving the past,” is embodied in the events and projects undertaken each year to attract visitors to historic Newberry.

In addition to providing visitors with a Tourism Information Center, NMSO also produces the Newberry Farmer's Market on a monthly basis throughout the growing season, the Newberry Spring Fling Festival in early April, the Fall Festival in October, the Festival of Lights in December and provides a free website for others to advertise local events. All of these projects help boost tourism, increase visitors to the downtown business community and provide a central online location for residents and visitors to discover other community events.

In an attempt to balance their budget this year, the city reduced their contribution to NMSO from $40,000 to $25,000 in an across-the-board budget reduction. The funding change left NMSO with a $15,000 shortfall. “While we do fundraising every year, we are beefing up our efforts this year to help make up for those lost funds,” said Hendrix. “We want to continue to bring new people into Newberry to see what a wonderful town we have and to meet our friendly residents and business people,” she said. The NMSO Board thought this type of fundraiser would serve two functions...to bring residents a great meal and also help make up for some of the funding shortfall, she said.

In addition to the city's funds, NMSO receives revenue through memberships, donations, festivals, sales of artwork through the Newberry Firehouse Gallery and through the Farmer's Market.

NMSO has also written grants which have led to funding of some events. “Every one of those grants requires us to make reports back to the funding group to prove that the money is actually bringing people into Newberry,” said Hendrix. “It takes some time to do all of that, but it's well worth it when I hear business owners say they have made enough money in one day [in tandem with one of our events] that they were able to pay their bills for the month,” she said.

Anyone interested in becoming a member of the organization or learning more about the events and programs sponsored by NMSO, may stop by the Newberry Fire House Gallery, 25435 W. Newberry Road, call 352-472-2112 or check them out online at NewberryMainStreet.com.

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ALACHUA – The gymnasium at the Hal Brady Recreation Complex will be getting a new roof and improved front.

The Alachua City Commission approved replacement of the existing 45-year-old roof and a front façade treatment at its March 10 meeting.

A budget amendment was approved at the March 24 commission meeting in order to fund both projects, which are scheduled to be completed by May 15.

Scherer Construction of North Florida, LLC will be overseeing the roof replacement for a proposed $76,085, while Hoffman Construction, Inc. is coordinating the façade improvements (a front elevation enhancement to the gym to include a stucco wall system) at a base bid of $80,380.

Commissioners had allotted $100,000 for the roof and façade improvements as part of the city budget, but the two bids that were accepted totaled $156,465.

The Commission approved a budget amendment that transfers $56,465 from the General Fund Contingency budget to the Parks and Recreation Department budget in order to pay the balance.

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Carl McKinney/Alachua County Today

Professional racecar driver Tanner Foust rolls through Main Street in High Springs, leaving a trail of smoke behind him as part of a stunt. For several minutes after he drove by, onlookers were coughing and covering their noses and mouths to protect themselves as air cleared.

HIGH SPRINGS – Main Street in High Springs was lined with onlookers. Some of them knew why, but some of them only knew something interesting was about to happen.

“All I know is it’s some TV show called ‘Top Gear’,” said a man sitting on a bench in High Springs’ historic downtown area.

The History Channel’s “Top Gear,” a show exploring car culture, made a stop in High Springs on Thursday, March 13 to film part of an episode focusing on the history of drag racing.  

After filming in Gainesville and Micanopy, the crew chose High Springs next because it kept in line with the theme of the episode, said Tabitha Lentle, co-executive producer of the show.

“It has that gorgeous Americana look that goes with the muscle cars we have,” she said.

High Springs represents what America looked like when these cars were made, she said, with high streets and little stores.

Around 5:30 p.m., the film crew and producers started arriving. Ambulances, police cruisers and fire engines got into positions.

As one producer talked to High Springs Mayor Byran Williams, he explained what the episode would be about.

“It’s about how drag racing evolved in America,” he told Williams.

Bystanders, many of them wearing Gatornationals gear, the annual National Hot Rod Association drag racing event held every March at the Gainesville Raceway, waited for something to happen.

As City Manager Ed Booth stood on a corner, he said the traffic was unreal. On the bright side, he said, it seems to have brought a lot of business to the local shops.

Three muscle cars drove through Main Street, one for each of the show’s hosts.

Actor and comedian Adam Ferrara drove a 1972 Dodge Charger. Professional racer and stunt driver Tanner Foust drove a 1967 Shelby Mustang. Fox Sports racing analyst Rutledge Wood drove a 1968 Chevrolet Camaro.

For about two hours, they drove up and down Main Street shooting various scenes. Even the audience watching didn’t seem to know what the hosts were doing.

When Alan DeVaney was asked if he could tell what was going on, he responded with “not a single idea.” Devaney had been following the filming of the episode on social media all week, he said.

They drove around the block a few times. As the hosts raced past cars on Main Street, multiple cars with a device attached to them had their alarms set off.

Each of the three cars drove from one end of the street toward Railroad Avenue in an apparent stunt where the back tires appeared to be smoking.

Host Rutledge Wood didn’t want to spoil exactly what they were doing or how the finished episode might look, wanting to preserve the element of surprise for the viewers at home. He did say they were not drag racing.

“We were flexing the muscle of some muscle cars,” he said.

Wood stuck around to pose for photos and converse with fans.

The smiling kids watching the filming with their parents was one of the coolest parts, Wood said.

“Everyone could not have been nicer,” he said. “It reminds me so much of my home town.”

The episode is expected to air sometime around late May.

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