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CITY OF LIVE OAK
1. City of Live Oak Elections May7, 2024 (see article below)
2. City council votes 3-2 to keep fluoride in the water after 240 signatures against were presented.
3. City annexes 130 acres on the south end of town for a housing development of 300 to 400 homes. There were many citizens against this action yet the council approved it 3-2 .
SUWANNEE COUNTY
1. Project Wave breaks ground at the catalyst site. See article below
2. County being sued over RV Park near Dowling Park. The park was approved but citizens in the area were not aware. See article below.
By JAMIE WACHTER on Tuesday, April 30, 2024Subhead
Construction starting on Wave Armor facility at Catalyst Site.
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FALMOUTH — Three years of communication, hard work and persistence paid off Tuesday morning when 16 golden shovels hit dirt in western Suwannee County.
The symbolic groundbreaking marked the next step in the development of Rhino Inc.’s expansion into the southeast with its Wave Armor line of products. Joining Rhino Inc. owner Rick Johanneck, President Jennifer Johanneck-Eystad and a group of their staff were Suwannee County and state officials for Tuesday’s ceremony that was attended by more than 100 people.
“I’ll be smiling ear to ear all day because this has been a long time coming,” Suwannee County Economic Development Director Jimmy Norris said to kick off the comments at the ceremony. “This really is an exciting day.”
While Norris was thrilled for the Wave Armor project — Project Wave — to get to this stage, construction on the company’s 213,432-square foot manufacturing facility for floating docks and PWC and boat ports has already begun with site prep at the location at the Interstate 10 and U.S. Highway 90 interchange west of Live Oak, Sen. Corey Simon (R-Tallahassee) said the groundbreaking was not the end of the work to bring growth to Suwannee County.
“This is not the last of what we’re going to be doing here, this is only the beginning,” Simon said. “I stand on that. I really believe this place can really shift the entire region of this part of the state.”
That beginning — which includes a $17.125 million capital investment from the company and will create 50 new jobs when it opens — though, at times didn’t look like it would come to Suwannee County. After Norris and Suwannee County Commissioner Don Hale met with Johanneck three years ago to discuss his plans for expanding into Florida, Johanneck decided to instead make his future home in Columbia County at the North Florida Mega Industrial Park.
But with a relationship already built with Johanneck — whom Hale said hugged him after their first meeting — the Suwannee County officials didn’t give up. They stayed in touch with Johanneck.
In fact, Hale used a keepsake Johanneck gave him during that initial meeting — a Wave Armor cap — to continue pitching Suwannee County as a possibility and to let him know they were thinking about him. Wherever Hale went, he made sure to take a picture of the cap near a body of water, whether it be a river, lake or ocean.
“I never gave up and I knew you wouldn’t give up on us,” Hale said.
The persistence paid off. When the deal in Columbia County fell through, Johanneck reversed course and called Norris for a meeting with all the stakeholders involved.
Suwannee County delivered and kept on delivering, even providing storage for the building that Johanneck had already ordered and was soon delivered on 50 trucks.
“Of course I couldn’t say no,” Norris joked. “Once I had his building, we locked it down and tied it up and we weren’t giving it back.”
But that persistence and delivery from all parties is not unusual for Suwannee County, according to Jeff Hendry, the executive director of the North Florida Economic Development Partnership. Hendry repeatedly called Suwannee County the “model economic development county.”
He said that model starts with Norris and Charissa Setzer in the economic development office but extends to the commissioners, County Administrator Greg Scott, Development Services Director Ron Meeks and throughout the county’s entire staff, as well as other stakeholders, including RIVEROAK Technical College and Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative.
“It’s relationship building,” Hendry said. “The reason they get so many leads and so many projects is because they’re engaged in economic development.
“They do it better than anybody in our region.”
That support doesn’t stop at the county’s borders, though. Hale listed off more than $15 million in grant funding that the county has received for infrastructure at its Catalyst Site, which is adjacent to Wave Armor’s property and will help provide utilities for the manufacturing facility.
Jason Mahon with FloridaCommerce said that state funding, which he said Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed for, to benefit rural communities was designed specifically for projects such as Wave Armor.
Still, Mahon said it takes more than funding to make growth and development happen.
“It takes a vision,” Mahon said. “You have to have visionaries who say, ‘Here is what we’re going to do with it. Here’s what we want.’ And that’s what you really have here in Suwannee County.”
Those grant funds came, in part, due to the work of Simon, who said projects like Wave Armor and the jobs and support it brings to communities are what makes him passionate about his work in Tallahassee.
“It’s coming,” he said of the growth and development of Suwannee County and North Florida, admitting that it’s a phrase made famous recently by Deion Sanders at Colorado. “They didn’t win many games last year, but we’re winning here in Suwannee County.”
With those funds coming, so too did Wave Armor.
Hale thanked Johanneck, Johanneck-Eystad and their team at Wave Armor multiple times for being a part of Suwannee County.
“In rural America, Suwannee County, everybody’s family,” he said. “You guys are part of the family and we’re glad to have you.”
Johanneck-Eystad, Johanneck’s daughter, said Suwannee County has indeed become home for the company’s latest expansion. Based in Minnesota, the company her father started in 1996 has expanded 14 times, all on the same property. The company also produces temporary fish houses through Otter, hunting and waterfowl products through Beavertail and dispensing systems to support agricultural business and tire and lube businesses through Rhino Tuff Tanks.
Johanneck-Eystad said some of the Rhino Tuff Tanks products are already in use at places in Suwannee County and Live Oak.
The facility in Suwannee County will be the first move away from that site and will double the company’s space, she said. Wave Armor, which began in 2009, now represents half of the company.
“We want to become part of the South to better support the South,” she said. “We truly feel like we chose the right location and we feel like we have experienced wonderful southern charm and comfort and it does feel like home.”
Live Oak early voting begins Monday Staff report LIVE OAK — Early voting begins Monday in the Live Oak City Council election. The city Election Day is May 7 but registered voters in the city can begin casting ballots this week. Early voting is open from Monday through Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Judicial Annex, 218 Parshley Street in Live Oak. There are two seats on the City Council up for election. Tesie Allen, the District 5 councilwoman since being appointed in August 2022 to fill the vacancy left by her husband Don’s death, is running for re-election. She is opposed by Jeff Chaillou and Gladys Owens. There are two vying to be the next councilor for District 2 in Jacqueline Cherry and Vanessa Brown Robinson. David Alford was the lone person to qualify for the District 3 seat and won unopposed.
Suwannee County sued over RV park approval By JAMIE WACHTER jwachter@lakecityreporter.com LIVE OAK — The Suwannee County Commission is being sued over its approval last month of an RV park in western Suwannee County. Three days after threatening to sue the commission and the individual commissioners for approving the 139-camper site for Rusty and Vickie DePratter against its own Land Development Regulations, Ana Van Der Berg followed through Friday when she filed the class-action suit in Suwannee County Court against the board, Suwannee County Development Services Director Ron Meeks, commissioners Don Hale, Maurice Perkins, Travis Land, Leo Mobley and Franklin White and Vickie DePratter. In the suit, the plaintiffs seek a temporary restraining order against the county’s resolution approving the site, both a preliminary and, eventually, permanent injunction against the county approving future RV parks until the matter can be heard, an appeal of the resolution and damages to cover the cost of the action and court fees. “I’m going to sue you in your official and personal capacity,” Van Der Berg told the commissioners in their April 16 meeting, warning them she won the last case she pursued pro se. “I’m going to dig in.” The lawsuit claims that without a TRO, the affected property owners will suffer “severe and irreparable harm” through lower property values as well as negative impacts on the environment as well as the need for additional health and safety resources to care for the site. According to the lawsuit, as well as concerns raised during last week’s meeting, the approval granted to the DePratter RV park was granted against the county’s own LDRs, which state that no new RV parks can be constructed within five miles of another. It also states the new site is incompatible with the neighborhood and the established land-use pattern in the area. The suit states that Tresca RV Park, located at the Advent Christian Village, is 2.2 miles from the new site. Tresca RV Park has 15 sites available for public use, according to the lawsuit. In an April 8 memo to the commission, County Attorney Adam Morrison said the park is not for public use, but for people with RVs who are visiting family members at ACV to use. In choosing the approve the DePratters’ request, the suit claims the county “arbitrarily and capriciously chooses which individuals are allowed to open an RV park.” The suit also claims the 30-plus individuals already part of the class — while adding that there could be as many as 50-100 impacted — were not informed prior to the board’s action about the requested special exception for the new RV park, taking issue with the signage used at the site as well as not sending out letters to adjoining property owners, which the county’s building department website states it will do. According to Morrison’s memo to the commission, the language on the county website is outdated by more than a decade, noting the county ceased sending out letters after it was previously sued due to missing a property owner. The lawsuit also states the county has a moratorium in place against permitting individual RVs. That moratorium has expired. The county did implement a 90-day moratorium on RV campground special exceptions following the DePratter site approval that is still in effect.
218 Parsley Street, Live Oak
See above article
218 Parsley Street, Live Oak
218 Parsley Street, Live Oak
See Article Above
218 Parsley Street, Live Oak
101 White Ave, Live Oak
Agenda available on Suwannee County Page when available *** Meeting is at City Hall****
101 White Ave, Live Oak
101 White Ave, Live Oak
Details on Live Oak page when available
101 White Ave, Live Oak
101 White Ave, Live Oak
Agenda on Live Oak Page when available
101 White Ave, Live Oak
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Meets First and Third Tuesday of the month @ 5:30 PM / Annex 218 Parshley Street, Live Oak
Meets Second Tuesday of the month @ 5:30 PM / City Hall
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Meets First Thursday @ 9:30 AM & Third Thursday @ 5:30 PM / School Board Complex 372 West Duval Street, Lake City
Meets First and Third Monday of the month 6:00 PM / 205 N Marion Ave, Lake City
Meets Second Monday at 9:00 AM and Fourth Monday at 5:30 PM, Mayo City Hall 120 West Main Street RM 206
Meets First Tuesday at 9:00 AM and Third Tuesday at 6:00 PM, Boardroom, 207 N.E. First Street, Jasper
Town Council meets second Tuesday @ 6:30/ Town Hall
Meets 2nd Tuesday of the month 7:00 PM @ Town Hall
Town Council meets third Thursday of the month 6:00PM @ City Hall
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