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