Little Broken Hearts Suspension of Station
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No. 74: Woods surpasses Nicklaus in PGA wins /B1 MONDAY TODAY CITRUS COUNTY & next morning HIGH 92 Sunny to partly cloudy, LOW 10% chance of a thunderstorm. 70 PAGE A4 www.chronicleonline.com JULY 2, 2012 Florida’s Best Community Newspaper Serving Florida’s Best Community 50¢ VOLUME 117 ISSUE 330 NEWS BRIEF Patriotic Death at Evening July 3 Inverness 2012 Patri- otic Evening will run from 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, July 3, at Liberty and Wallace Brooks parks. speedway Free parking is available in downtown Inverness. CHRIS VAN ORMER Call 352-726-2611. injuries were reported. Staff Writer When Citrus County Sheriff ’s Of- fice Fire and Rescue personnel ex- INSIDE An Ocala man was killed Satur- tricated Whitehead from the wreck, day night in Inverness while in a NATIONAL NEWS: he was in the driver’s seat, re- sanctioned racing event. strained by his safety harness. He During a special figure-8 race of was pronounced dead at the scene. school buses at Citrus County The Medical Examiner’s office Speedway, 3600 S. Florida Ave., a from Leesburg responded to trans- bus driven by Charles “Chick” port the body for autopsy. Whitehead, 62, overturned about The sheriff ’s office is investigating 9:50 p.m. and landed on its roof. the crash. The case remains open Special to the Chronicle Another bus that was part of the and active. Due to circumstances, This photo, take by cellphone, shows emergency personnel responding to same race also struck Whitehead’s there will be no coverage of this the overturned bus Saturday night at Citrus County Speedway. The driver, July 4 travel overturned bus. However, no other week’s race. Charles “Chick” Whitehead, died at the scene. Midweek holiday causes travel mess./Page A10 OPINION: Fire The Little broken hearts suspension of station “this program ... is a blow to the raises low-income, “ elderly and heat disabled in the county. Nonprofits vie for ownership EDITORIAL, PAGE A8 CHRIS VAN ORMER LOCAL EFFORTS: Staff Writer Give blood Old Homosassa’s old fire Find out where the station was declared sur- LifeSouth plus property in April, but it Bloodmobile likely will never sit vacant: will be At least two groups are eye- parked for ing it. donations during Homosassa Civic Club upcoming and We Care Food Pantry weeks./Page A2 are trying to impress the Citrus County Board of Get food County Commissioners (BOCC) of the merits of their Area groups offer low-cost food options plans. A new possibility is if and free meals each both sides agree the fire sta- week./Page A6 tion could become a learn- ing center. Battle lines were drawn ONLINE POLL: DAVE SIGLER/Chronicle more than three months ago Your choice? Eight-month-old Blake Waters is in need of a heart surgery. Blake’s mother, Yahaira Waters, along with family and at the March 27 BOCC meet- Are you influenced by friends, are organizing several fundraisers to help the family pay for the impending operation. ing when Jim Bitter, who at the Super PAC that time was the president TV ads? of the civic club, described A. Yes, and a situation he said was I’m in total 8-month-old with hole in his heart undergoes surgery today upsetting. agreement “You start out to do some- with the way NANCY KENNEDY “ mon type of birth defect in the thing that you think is good, they characterize Mitt Staff Writer He doesn’t look United States, affecting nearly 1 and you end up being just Romney. percent of births each year, or castigated from all sides, ac- B. Yes, and I’m in total — INVERNESS sick, that’s the 40,000. cused of things that you agreement with the way t 8 months old, Blake Wa- VSD is the most common, al- have no knowledge of,” Bit- they characterize ters has places to go. “ thing. though the National Institute of ter told the board. Barack Obama. He hasn’t learned to Health classifies the condition as Bitter said he had been C. No. It’s a sham that A crawl yet, but when he’s Yahaira Waters “rare.” accused of inciting people special interests down on the floor he’ll get up on Blake’s mother. Rare or common, when it’s your against the food bank, squander millions of his hands and knees and rock. baby who has it, it’s a major which he denied. He said dollars for self-serving He wants to get moving. bottom chamber of his heart, so distortions of reality. concern. he found a leaflet in his Born prematurely at 36 1/2 when the blood is flowing it’s front yard describing com- D. No, but they are kind weeks’ gestation, at 7 pounds, 6 going the wrong direction,” said Mrs. Waters said except for hav- of funny. ing gestational diabetes, her preg- plaints about the food bank. ounces, Blake’s doctors said he Yahaira Waters, Blake’s mother. On behalf of the civic To vote, visit www. was the biggest preemie they’d nancy was normal. chronicleonline.com. Currently, Blake and his parents club, Bitter had been in ever seen. live in Alachua County where “When he was born, and the pe- talks with county staff to Click on the word diatrician did a routine check and “Opinion” in the menu Even today he’s chubby and Blake’s dad, Jefft Waters, is a fire- take ownership of the fire heard a heart murmur,” she said. to see the poll. dimpled — and all smiles. fighter and an EMT. station, which had been Results will appear But he’s a sick little boy. Mrs. Waters’ family lives in Cit- “Then when he went in for his leased to the civic club. next Monday. Find last Born with VSD (ventricular sep- rus County. first checkup, they noticed the Then he said he found out week’s online poll tal defect), Blake faces open-heart According to information from murmur was louder, so they re- the food pantry had applied results./Page A4 surgery today, July 2, at Shands the Centers for Disease Control ferred him to a cardiologist.” for it, too. He said if the Hospital in Gainesville. and Prevention (CDC), congenital civic club owned the fire COMING UP “He was born with a hole on the heart defects are the most com- See HEARTS/ Page A5 station, it could lease the property to the food bank. TOMORROW: “We do a tremendous Hot dogs amount of good down there, The summer heat is and, all of a sudden, we are hard on people, but bad people,” Bitter said. “I what about man’s best Taxable values drop 3.7 percent resent that.” friend?/Tuesday County Administrator Brad Thorpe answered that percent less this year as reached a high of $12.38 INDEX the Old Homosassa fire sta- Property appraiser releases compared to 2010. So the billion. tion had not yet been de- Comics ....................B7 leveling off of decreasing The 2012 taxable value clared a surplus property, Crossword ................B6 values we started to see for schools is $9.69 billion, which the BOCC basically Editorial....................A8 preliminary data for county last year is continuing in down 3.9 percent, which is give to a nonprofit Entertainment ..........B5 2012.” the same as last year’s rate organization. Horoscope ................B5 CHRIS VAN ORMER property appraiser, who on The 2012 preliminary tax of decline. “All agencies have a right Lottery Numbers ......B4 Staff Writer Friday issued the 2012 pre- roll reflects a total Non- “As part of the certifica- Lottery Payouts ........B5 to ask for its use,” Thorpe liminary certification of School Taxable Value for tion of the preliminary tax told the board. “You will Movies ......................B7 The taxable values of taxable values to all Citrus Citrus County of $8.98 bil- roll process, this tax roll has Obituaries ................A6 have to make a decision properties continue to County taxing authorities. lion reflective of current also been submitted simul- TV Listings................B6 about the best use for that sink, but at a slower pace. Classifieds ................B8 “This is supported by ad- market conditions. This taneously to the Florida facility.” “For these last two years, ditional analysis of the represents a 3.7 percent de- Department of Revenue The fire station was de- the numbers suggest a change in real property crease in values from 2011. (DOR) for review and ap- clared surplus property slowing in the decline in taxable values alone,” The downward trend in proval,” Greene said. April 10. values,” said Geoffrey Greene said. “The decline values continues from the Greene, Citrus County in real property was 2.7 peak in 2007, when values See TAXABLE/ Page A2 See STATION/ Page A4 A2 MONDAY, JULY 2, 2012 LOCAL CITRUS COUNTY (FL) CHRONICLE SUMMARY OF GROSS TAXABLE VALUES — JULY 1, 2012 well. New construction in TAXABLE 2011 was $55.9 million and For All Citrus County Taxing Authorities this year we are at $49.0 mil- Continued from Page A1 lion,” Greene said. “There Taxing Authorities 2012 2011 Annual Percent are several new projects in This preliminary certifica- Preliminary Tax Roll * Final Tax Roll ** Change Change the works around the county tion of taxable value estab- at this time — that gives me lishes the basis of budget ■ BOCC and Other $8,977,977,542 $9,324,931,060 (346,953,518) -3.7 reason for some preparations and 2012 tax Taxing Authorities (Library, Mosquito Control, Hospital Board, SWFWMD) encouragement.” levy proposals by local taxing Greene reminded resi- authorities. This is the first of ■ New Taxable Value $49,005,670 *** $55,954,014 *** (6,948,344) -12.4 dents that, “Value refine- three certifications of value ■ Fire District $8,538,802,733 $8,864,099,375 (325,296,642) -3.7 ment is a year-round process required of the Property Ap- ■ and so values are not final- praiser’s office each year.