Staff bloggers

Today marks the one-year anniversary of My Nassau Sun.

My mother always used to tell me when I complained about this or that to think about how boring life would without challenges to overcome.

I have not been bored this year.

The change from the broadsheet format to a tabloid format, adding a Web site and even getting used to saying the paper’s new name — “Nassau Neig … er, My Nassau Sun” — were all challenges.

And a lot of fun.

Our goal at My Nassau Sun has been to take advantage of the new format to bring you sharp, concise stories of the news here in Nassau, crisp photos and graphics and in-depth looks at important issues.

We also continued our commitment to be a good neighbor — highlighting the accomplishments and good works of those who live here and celebrating that we live and work in such a beautiful county.

Perhaps the biggest change in the last year is the increased participation from you.
Features such as Spotted!, Pet of the Week, MyNassauSun.com Survey, Best of the Blogs all come from you via MyNassauSun.com.

We also expanded our roster of community columnists this year. Chuck Hall, Bob Howat, Maria Murphy, and the Nassau County Master Gardeners joined Charles Albert, Jim Johnson, Gill and Barbara Johnston, Mark Kaufman, and the Smackdown crew, Eric Corbett, Trey Dennard and W.D. Rodeffer, as regular columnists.
We’re always looking for more.

Now, after a year of My Nassau Sun, I’d like to hear from you about our paper and our Web site. What do we do well? What do we do badly? What could we do better? What do you wish we’d do?

You can post your thoughts here; write me a letter a 960185 Gateway Blvd., Suite 109, Fernandina Beach, FL 32034; or e-mail me at amelia.hart@mynassausun.com. And let me know if you’d like your comments published in the paper.

By WENDI ZONGKER

wendi.zongker@mynassausun.com

Eleven Nassau County residents were arrested this month for their involvement in a family drug ring discovered during a nine-month undercover drug investigation conducted by the Fernandina Beach Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency, according to a FBPD press release Tuesday.

The drug ring is believed to have sold as much as 6 to 10 ounces of cocaine per week in Nassau County.

Christopher T. Brown was arrested this month and is believed to be the ringleader of the organization. An arrest warrant has been issued for Brown's brother, Benjamin Simmons, according to the release.

Others arrested during the investigation include Angela Johnson, Anthony James, Leighton Morris, Ronald Morris, Leroy Perkins, Earl Coleman, Derrick Owens, Deatra Smith and Charlie Roberts.

Investigators said they were charged with a total of 57 criminal counts, most of which were for the sale and delivery of crack cocaine.

Investigators said William Hunt, Joseph Green, Nikita Geter, Edward Gainey and Tangela Williams were previously arrested for other offenses but will face additional charges related to the drug ring.

James Herring was arrested for disorderly conduct while investigators were trying to serve one of several search warrants.

The investigation is on-going and more arrests are possible.

For more on this story, see Saturday's My Nassau Sun.

Firefighters extinguish a truck that caught fire after an accident on Eighth Street Wednesday afternoon.

by KEVIN TURNER
kevin.turner@mynassausun.com

Two people were killed and four were rushed to Shands Jacksonville after a four-vehicle accident at 1:25 this afternoon on South Eighth Street.

Florida Highway Patrol Spokesman Lt. Bill Leeper said Donald Harrison, 65, drove a 2005 Chevrolet pickup truck the wrong way in southbound Eighth Street and killed Thomas Hooke, 68, of Yulee, when the truck hit his 1994 Mitsubishi pickup truck head-on.

The Chevrolet also hit a 2005 Ford Escape and a 1991 Dodge work truck before it overturned and burst into flames, Leeper said. It took firefighters about five minutes to extinguish the fire, Nassau County Fire Rescue Chief Chuck Cooper said.

James Cole, 48, and Paul George, 36, were in the Dodge and were injured. The names of two people in the Escape were not available at press time.

The wreck left South Eighth Street closed south of Sadler Road.

Fernandina Beach business and civic leader Paul Burns died Monday, May 5.

By AMELIA A. HART
amelia.hart@mynassausun.com

Paul Burns, a pillar of the Fernandina Beach business community, has died at the age of 86.

Burns, who founded Paul Burns Insurance and Real Estate in 1946, died Monday.

Burns went on to help found a number of business institutions, including the Amelia Island/Nassau County Board of Realtors, First Coast Community Bank and the Fernandina Beach Chamber of Commerce.

He served as a City Commissioner as well as with a number of civic organizations, including
the Jaycees, Kiwanis, Amelia Lodge No. 47, and the Shrine Club.

Before her death in 2004, Burns was married to Fernandina native Annie Partin for 61 years.

Funeral will be 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.

For more on Burn’s life and legacy, see Saturday’s My Nassau Sun.

by KEVIN TURNER

kevin.turner@mynassausun.com

A man and woman were injured after they fell three stories through a rooftop skylight to the ground floor of a downtown Fernandina Beach building early Sunday.

Steven Patrick Henderson, 32, of Yulee and Jennifer L. Lane, 43, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, climbed a fire escape on the Dickens Building at 207 N. Centre St. at about 1 a.m. Sunday, and onto the roof of the Chanderly Building at 4 N. Second St.

Fernandina Beach Police reported that they didn’t know how the couple fell through the skylight.

As they fell inside the building, they broke three stairwell banisters.

When police arrived shortly after 1 a.m., they found Henderson injured and trying to break the glass out of a door with a fire extinguisher.

Lane was taken to Shands Jacksonville by helicopter and Henderson was taken to the same hospital by ambulance.

Lane was listed in good condition this afternoon; Henderson was not listed as being in the hospital.

You sure couldn't ask for better weather than what we got for the four days of Shrimp Festival activities.

And people took advantage to come to Amelia Island in droves.

Shrimp festival Executive Director Sandy Price reports that turn-out from Friday to Sunday is estimated to have been 130,000 people.

Not surprisingly, traffic was slow getting onto the island, but the Sheriff's Office said there were no major accidents and only a couple of fender-benders.

The new water taxi service from Fernandina Beach to St. Marys did well in its two-day trial run at the festival. You can read more about it in Wednesday's My Nassau Sun.

And if you want to see what the ride looks like, click on "Multimedia" in the menu at the top of our home page and then click on "Video." That takes you to our video page.

Once you're there, you can watch a video of a ride on the new ferry. We've also got a video from the Pirate Parade — music provided by the Fernandina Beach and Yulee high school marching bands — as well as a video of Sunday's blessing of the fleet.

And we've got tons of photos from the parade, the Miss Shrimp Festival on Friday, and from the festival on Saturday and Sunday.

Aargh! It was a great festival, mateys.

By KEVIN TURNER
kevin.turner@mynassausun.com

FERNANDINA BEACH — After more than $50,000 in fines for neon signs in their front windows and years of complaints about noise from a bar next door, the owners of the historic Florida House Inn bed and breakfast have filed a lawsuit against the city, its code enforcement board and one of its code enforcement officers.

As of Wednesday, city officials had not been served with the suit, City Clerk Mary Mercer said.

The lawsuit, filed in the U. S. District Court in Jacksonville last week , says the city has harassed, intimidated and unfairly treated inn owners Joe and Diane Warwick and has violated their First Amendment constitutional rights with its sign code that restricts neon signs in the city’s historic district.

Cincinnati attorney Jennifer Kinsley , who represents the inn, said Wednesday the city’s sign code is tantamount to censorship.

More on this story in tomorrow's Florida Times-Union and Saturday's My Nassau Sun.

By KEVIN TURNER

kevin.turner@mynassausun.com

FERNANDINA BEACH — Four months after a Fernandina Beach resident sued the city for denying her request to put silica composite siding on her home in the downtown Historic District, the Historic District Council on Thursday reversed its position and voted to allow it.

The City Commission, staff and the Historic District Council had blocked Amy Hubbard's plans to use a silica composite known as HardiBoard, saying it wasn't historically accurate.

Citing examples of other historic district structures on which HardiBoard has been used, Hubbard filed suit against the city in circuit court Dec. 19, saying the process through which her request was denied was unfair and selective.

For more on this story, see Saturday's My Nassau Sun.

It's impossible to understand the pain a family experiences when one of their own, bright and full of life, is murdered and suddenly ripped from their lives.

And days after Yulee resident Michelle Hainley was found dead in a Kingsland, Ga. hotel room Feb. 26, her mother, Linda Johnson, vowed she would not rest until she had answers.

On April 16, she let me know via email that's meant she's had to be patient.

"I still don't have any answers about Michelle," she wrote.

One thing the family can do is take care of her son, Keelan.

Proceeds from a party, called "Da 'Get Loose' & 'It's Whateva' Party, starting at 10 p.m. Saturday, April 19, at Kraft Ten Acres Athletic Club, 961023 Buccanner Trail, will benefit Keelan. Cover charge is $5.

The party will feature several rap bands from Jacksonville and Kingsland, Ga., and several DJs.

It gives Hainley's friends a chance to honor Hainley, whom they nicknamed "Baby Mama."

"We gonna mourn ya til we join ya," they wrote on a flyer advertising the party. For more information, call the athletic club at 261-3185.

By WENDI ZONGKER

wendi.zongker@mynassausun.com

YULEE - Nassau County, Sheriff Tommy Seagraves and one former and two current jail employees are accused in a lawsuit of "deliberate indifference" in the 2006 death of an inmate from Jacksonville.
The suit filed April 1 by the parents of Darren Magill says he should have been taken to the hospital after urine tests done at the jail showed he had cocaine, methamphetamines and marijuana in his system.

Magill, 28, was found slumped over in his Nassau County Jail cell by an inmate at 4:45 p.m. on Oct. 3, 2006, according to the Sheriff's Office incident report. An autopsy confirmed Magill died of a drug overdose from methadone, the anti-anxiety medication alprazolam and cocaine.

Seagraves and his attorney, John Jolly, confirmed they had received the complaint but declined to comment.

For more information on this story, see today's issue of the Florida Times-Union or see the story here.