Storm Fee Getting the Boot for Good?
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A3 SUNDAY, JUNE 2, 2019 | YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1874 | $2 Lake City Reporter LAKECITYREPORTER.COM SUNDAY + PLUS >> Blueberries by Best of Stamp out the bazillion the Best storm fee ballot 1D for good inside TASTE BUDDIES Opinion/4A Wellborn’s annual fest/6A See 6B 4 months CITY COUNCIL and counting Storm fee for Hunter getting Burn victim Hunter Dover, 8, still can’t shake infection, other the boot ailments. 2A for good? COURTESY Greene: Take unenforced provisions off the books as ‘Don’t dream of a job, dream of a verb’ a precautionary measure. By CARL MCKINNEY [email protected] A stormwater fee enact- ed by the city two years ago — but never executed — is set to be offi- cially strick- en from the books to ease the business communi- ty’s con- Greene cerns about Photos by RAY CARPENTER/Special to the Reporter the controversial program Valedictorian Linash Thomas leads the student body onto the field for graduation Friday at CHS. resurfacing in the future. Lake City Manager Joe Helfenberger will ask the 446 claim diplomas at Columbia High City Council on Monday to rescind the the fee, which Newly-minted CHS would have funded storm- grads share their water improvement proj- ects throughout town. The visions of the future. fee never saw the light of day after officials discov- By CARL MCKINNEY ered practical issues with [email protected] collecting the money. Purple caps and gowns The city halted enforce- started trickling onto the ment and instead opted football field as the sun for a grant-based approach started to set Friday eve- to pay for the work. But ning. Four hundred and the mechanism to imple- forty-six soon-to-be minted ment the fee is still in Columbia High School place, causing unease alumni marched to the among business owners, sound of a roaring crowd. Helfenberger said. Some had big plans for “There was still concern college or careers, such as Breanna Copley, who that since these were on the books, it’s a few steps CHS continued on 3A A packed house awaits the start of CHS commencement exercises at Tiger Stadium Friday evening. closer to having a storm- water assessment fee,” Helfenberger said. “And since I don’t see the need Could new roadways bring commerce to county? for a stormwater assess- ment fee, I’m asking to By CARL MCKINNEY about whether the project will actually sor, Republican Rep. Jay Trumbull have these resolutions [email protected] deliver on proponents’ claims. of Panama City, has said the new rescinded. So you’d have A project to extend the Suncoast infrastructure will spark an influx of to start from scratch if Pitched as an economic boon for Parkway from Citrus to Jefferson economic activity, drawing parallels to anybody wanted to do that rural North Florida, plans are mov- County is one of three toll road ini- the interstate highway system. in the future.” ing forward for a new stretch of toll tiatives in a bill signed by Gov. Ron The Suncoast extension’s exact path road from the Tampa Bay area to the DeSantis in May. FEE continued on 5A Georgia line. But opinions are mixed The measure’s state House spon- ROADS continued on 2A Stewart Vol. 145, No. 57 CALL US: TODAY’S WEATHER Obituaries . 3A (386) 752-1293 Opinion . 4A SPORTS SUBSCRIBE TO Sports . 1B THE REPORTER: 96 71 Puzzles . 2-3B Reflections on a World Series, 1B Voice: 755-5445 Fax: 752-9400 Partly cloudy, 2A Life . 1D IF YOUR HOME COULD TALK WHAT WOULD IT SAY? 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Offer does not include protector. 2A SUNDAY, JUNE 2, 2019 LOCAL LAKE CITY REPORTER HUNTER DOVER QUICK HITS Scripture of the Day Healing comes slow for boy, “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the 8, still in a hospital burn unit place of my rest?” — Isaiah 66:1 (KJV) By CARL MCKINNEY “A couple of mornings, “Anything over 105 can He suffered third-degree Thought for Today [email protected] he woke up and he was real- cause brain damage to a burns on about 80 percent ly emotional,” said Hunter’s child,” she said. of his body after the inci- I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. Eight-year-old Hunter grandmother, Donna Pitts. When the medications dent led to Hunter being He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by Dover is only conscious for “And tears rolled through wear off and Hunter wakes doused with gasoline when night. — Henry Ford, 1863-1947, U.S. auto maker about 10 minutes at a time, his eyes. But he knows up for a few minutes before one of the other children his grandmother said. He’s where he’s at, and he tells the next round, he often kicked the can, according to been hospitalized since us he’s not scared.” seems lost in his own world, a Feb. 3 Columbia County Winning Lottery Numbers February, when he suffered Hunter is in intensive Pitts said. Sheriff’s Office report. Pick 3: (Friday p.m.) 1-9-1 third-degree burns on most care at a Shriners hospital “He can look at you, he While hospitalized at Pick 4: (Friday p.m.) 6-3-3-2 of his body in an incident in Boston. can answer UF Health Shands in Fantasy 5: (Friday) 4-8-14-22-31 at a rural Columbia County His condition Hunter Dover you — his eyes Gainesville, Hunter devel- home is classified as was badly are wide open, oped sepsis in late April or involving life-threatening, burned in but it’s like early May and was flown to See an error? children Pitts said, but February, but he’s looking Boston. The Lake City Reporter corrects errors of fact in news items. If you have a concern, question, or suggestion, playing doctors have infections and through you Columbia County dep- with gaso- indicated the or looking past uties want Hunter’s state- please call the editor. Corrections and clarifications will other complica- run in this space. Thanks for reading. line around boy will pull tions have slowed you,” Pitts said. ment about the incident, an open through. Pitts, the only Pitts said. fire. Eventually. the healing family mem- “However, that’s impossi- Hunter The “The doc- process. ber currently ble at this point,” she said. Submissions The Lake City Reporter accepts photographs and caption wounds aren’t healing tor yesterday with Hunter in Pitts has set up a fund- information to run at the discretion of the editor. If you would well in some places, and told me it’s going to be a Boston, said she will likely raising effort for Hunter like to see your organization in the newspaper, send the picture one of his heart valves has long, hard road,” Pitts said have to find a job in the city. on Facebook, and is asking and information to [email protected]. stretched out. Friday. “I’m living day by day,” anybody wishing to donate A cardiologist is set to Skin grafts are unlikely to Pitts said. “Just keep pray- to do so through there and examine Hunter on Monday start for another two weeks ing, that’s all I do. I pray.” nowhere else. to see whether further sur- due to the fever, Pitts said. Hunter’s mother is try- The fundraiser page can Lake City Reporter gery is necessary. When doctors are finally ing to make arrangements be found at facebook.com/ HOW TO REACH US BUSINESS ........... 754-0419 Main number ....... (386) 752-1293 Meanwhile, doctors are able to start, they will be to travel to Massachusetts donate/2239863882930343/ CIRCULATION trying to keep the child’s limited to small patches at with her other children now — but for convenience, the Fax number ............ 752-9400 Circulation............. 755-5445 Home delivery of the Lake City Reporter fever under control as he a time. that the school year is over, Lake City Reporter has used Online .... www.lakecityreporter.com should be completed by 6:30 a.m. struggles with an enlarged “Right now, we’re kind of Pitts said. a link-shortening service to The Lake City Reporter, an affiliate Tuesday through Friday, and by 7:30 a.m. on Sunday. liver and difficulties digest- at a standstill until he can In February, Hunter was create an easier-to-type web of Community Newspapers Inc., is published Tuesday through Friday and Please call 386-755-5445 to report any ing food. get better,” Pitts said. playing with two cousins, address. This is not a sepa- Sunday at 180 E. Duval St., Lake City, problems with your delivery service. FL 32055. Periodical postage paid at Hunter can’t talk, but he On Thursday, Hunter’s ages 9 and 12, at a home rate page, but a shortcut that Lake City, FL, Member Audit Bureau of In Columbia County, customers should can mime words with his temperature clocked in at in rural Columbia County, redirects users to the original.