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| What's On This Page: - The particularly cold winter did nothing to stem tide of mosquitoes, now out in full force - "Santa Fe River" singer/songwriter competition. - Three-day Back-to-School Sales-Tax Holiday is Friday, Saturday and Sunday - Trucks, trains and planes from integrated distribution centers in Columbia County will handle JaxPort world shipping |
Three Rivers'
ICHETUCKNEE VIEWS
About Fort White and County
| 8/12/2010 4:47:00 PM Three-day Back-to-School Sales-Tax Holiday is Friday, Saturday and Sunday Lake City Journal Florida’s three day sales-tax holiday runs August 13 through 15 on school supplies, books, clothing, and footwear. The tax holiday is expected to save Florida families $26 million. During the sales-tax holiday, Floridians will not pay sales tax on books, clothing and footwear that cost $50 or less, as well as school supplies that cost $10 or less. The exemption will still apply no matter how many items are sold on the same invoice to a customer. However, the exemption does not apply to books or to any item of clothing selling for more than $50, or to any school supply item selling for more than $10. School supplies means pens, pencils, erasers, crayons, notebooks, notebook filler paper, legal pads, binders, lunch boxes, construction paper, markers, folders, poster board, composition books, poster paper, scissors, cellophane tape, glue, paste, rulers, computer disks, protractors, compasses, and calculators. The term “book” does not include newspapers, magazines, other periodicals, or audio books. Clothing does not include watches, watchbands, jewelry, umbrellas, handkerchiefs, or sporting equipment. For details visit 2010 Sales Tax Holiday. Governor Charlie Crist signed House Bill 483, the Back-to-School Sales-Tax Holiday on May 26. "This tax break will enable Florida families to buy school supplies and clothing for the school year without the additional cost burden of state and local taxes," said Sally West, director of government affairs for the Florida Retail Federation. "The tax holiday will also provide a much needed boost to Florida's economy. We are thankful to Governor Crist for his longtime, enthusiastic support of this tax break." |
| 8/8/2010 10:42:00 PM Trucks, trains and planes from integrated distribution centers in Columbia County will handle JaxPort world shipping By Karl Burkhardt Lake City Journal Columbia County’s Catalyst Center and Plum Creek inland port on U.S. 90 East are part of a plan to enhance Florida as a global distribution center. When massive new ships begin unloading in Jacksonville in 2014, there will be more cargo than the port can distribute. Shipping containers will go directly from the ships to trucks or rail cars and then to distribution centers, including Columbia County’s inland port. The contents of each container must be sorted and redirected to cities across Florida and the Eastern United States. The Port of Jacksonville, already a major world shipping center, is expected to become much larger when the enlarged Panama Canal opens. Columbia County is part of the Jacksonville plan because partnerships can boost the economy of the entire state. The Columbia County Industrial Development Authority reports that the Catalyst Site, one of four authorized by the State of Florida, evolved from a Florida Rural Conference in October 2004. Florida created three regional areas of critical economic concern (RACEC) in 2003. Enterprise Florida and the Governor’s Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development (OTTED) coordinated meetings to select catalyst sites that would become central hubs for economic development. Rep. Debbie Boyd (District 11) championed a bill, passed earlier this year, allowing a rural catalyst site to be established as a Rural Enterprise Zone. It provides tax credits and incentives for businesses that locate in the area. The North Florida Economic Development Partnership (Baker, Bradford, Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lafayette, Levy, Madison, Putnam, Suwannee, Taylor, and Union) selected the site in Columbia County to serve as one of two catalyst sites for the North Florida region. Florida Gateway College hosted a meeting of regional business and government leaders on Friday to promote the project on Friday. “Where we want to be is a vibrant community with high-paying jobs and a global hub,” said Dr. Dale Brill, President of the Florida Chamber Foundation. “You are the epicenter. The eyes of the state are on you. The announcement and the traction you are getting in this area is leading the entire state. You are doing us all a huge favor as Floridians for that global competitiveness.” County Commissioner Stephen Bailey said, “The future of this economy is through globalization and we must not just be a part of the global economy, we must be a leader. With our partnerships we have positioned Columbia County to be that leader,” Bailey said. “I tell people, if you want to see a dynamic, growing area in the State of Florida, go to Columbia County,” said Sen. Charles Dean. New state legislation “eliminates much of the bureaucratic confusion we encounter in trying to establish rural enterprise zones,” he said. “Today is about a plan for sustained economic growth for our region.” The three economic drivers of the past, agriculture, tourism and construction, will remain strong, but they are not the drivers of the future, said Mark Morton, Senior Vice President, Lykes Land Investments. To bring new businesses to the area, “We have to provide a business solution to a company, a manufacturer, a shipper. It’s got to be smarter faster, cheaper than another competitor,” he said. The RACEC Site, in the middle of Plum Creek’s 2,590 acre Hurricane Bay development in Columbia County, will do far more than bring distribution centers and high-paying jobs to the area, it will drive the economies of the 14 counties, Morton said. “The wisdom of what you have done, as a region, taking individual community assets and collectively marketing them to the world, is really the smartest move in respect to increasing your likelihood of success in encouraging business location and expansion,” said Crystal Sircy, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Florida. “Some of the communities in the RACEC, although they might not house the catalyst site, have already benefitted because they have created an inventory of available sites in their own communities and collected information about a response to needs that a business has. Everyone in the region will share in the rewards, including increased tax revenue and job creation.” Jim Poole, Executive Director of the Columbia County Industrial Development Authority, noted that Columbia High School has 44 students for a distribution and logistics academy. “Students will be working in a logistics and distribution center, thanks to the Banner Center, with a contract to receive and deliver 250,000 textbooks this year. “Students starting in their freshman year will have certification to work in distribution centers when they graduate,” Poole said. Companies that will establish distribution centers will need skilled employees and will offer high- paying jobs to people with training. Other workers will be trained at the Florida Gateway College’s Employ Florida Banner Center for Logistics and Distribution. Today, the goal is to create "a mega facility of shovel-ready sites for businesses that want to come to Columbia County," said Todd Powell, Director of Real Estate Plum Creek Florida. Plum Creek officials have been working on the project for two and a half years. By developing Hurricane Bay, Plum Creek is eliminating the long process of acquiring land and obtaining permits for businesses. In Phase 1, Hurricane Bay will offer 3 million square feet for industrial development and 10,000 square feet of commercial space. Morton said Florida is ideally suited to be a major distribution hub, linking goods from Asia that will come through the expanded Panama Canal and from South America with manufacturing and consumer centers in the eastern United States. He noted that Florida is becoming the third most populous state. “Now is the time to diversify, to take advantage of the (economic) pain, because pain gets us to a need for a solution and the solutions are within reach,” Brill said. “I’m pleased to be part of the team that is waiting to serve you, not necessarily to tell you what to do, but to help you along the way.” He recommended a Website, The Florida Scorecard, for people and companies seeking information about the state’s economy. |
| The particularly cold winter did nothing to stem tide of mosquitoes, now out in full force By Stu Hutson For The Herald For Floridians hoping that the record-breaking cold of this past winter might have stemmed the number of pesky mosquitoes, University of Florida entomologists have this message: the mosquitoes are out in full force, and so are the diseases they carry. While the freezes may have killed a number of wintering adult mosquitoes, the insects’ eggs are capable of withstanding bad weather -- meaning that it’ s as important as ever to take proper precautions this summer, said Roxanne Connelly, an associate professor of medical entomology with the UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. “The mosquitoes are back -- don’t think that the cold this winter did much to stop them,” Connelly said. “The disease season seems to be off to an early start.” That early start includes dengue fever. Recently, eight locally acquired cases were reported in Monroe County at the southern tip of Florida. Last year bore witness to the first cases of dengue contracted within Florida in more than 50 years. The disease is rarely fatal, but causes high fever and severe headaches, as well as joint and muscle pain. “We were hoping that it wouldn’t be very prevalent this year, but the number of cases are starting to add up,” said Coleen Fitzsimmons, a biologist with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District. The District conducts door-to-door home inspections throughout Monroe County and coordinates other large-scale control efforts, such as spray trucks. At the moment, dengue is isolated to Key West, but that doesn’t mean that individuals throughout Florida shouldn’t take proper mosquito precautions, Connelly said. The most recent mosquito-borne disease risk assessment from UF’s Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory reports four major areas of concern for St. Louis encephalitis and West Nile virus this year: Pinellas and Hillsborough counties; Polk, Hardee, Manatee and Sarasota counties; Hendry and Collier counties; Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties. For the rest of the story, go to: http://www.highspringsherald. com/articles/2010/08/19/news/news05.txt |