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GAINESVILLE, Fl. — Starting Monday, Jan. 22, 2024, through Friday, Feb. 2, 2024, the Alachua County Property Appraiser’s Office is expanding its operations to the City of Newberry by hosting a mobile pop-up at the Mentholee Norfleet Municipal Building.

The popup will be located at 25420 W Newberry Rd, Newberry, FL 32669 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. each weekday.   During this time, the office will be available to assist with questions about homestead and other exemptions, agricultural classifications, title and ownership, property fraud detection and more. Appointments are not required and walk-ins are welcome. 

“Our office hopes for this mobilization initiative to be the first of many pop-ups,” said Property Appraiser, Ayesha Solomon. “With the continuous growth of the county, we must strive to be as accessible as possible.” 

The Property Appraiser's office said they plan to continue to collaborate with neighboring cities and government officials to help determine the best central areas to expand our services throughout the county.

"We prioritize community involvement," said Solomon. “Being community driven has always been a priority of this office as we want to ensure we are actively engaging with the communities we serve and gaining direct insight from residents.” 

This event is free and will be open to the general public. In addition, this event will be photographed and is subject to later use. 

The Alachua County Property Appraiser’s Office ensures that all taxable property in the county is assessed equitably and at its fair market value in accordance with Florida statutes. The Property Appraiser’s Office has two locations: 515 N. Main Street in Gainesville and 15010 N.W. 142nd Terrace in Alachua. For more information visit https://www.acpafl.org.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – North Florida Regional Medical Center, one of the state’s largest hospitals, is abruptly suspending surgeries for at least four days to deal with significant concerns about its processes to sterilize surgical instruments.

The suspension affects operations in Gainesville at one of the flagship hospitals for HCA Florida Healthcare, which has 510 beds, sources said. It treats more than 50,000 patients each year and has more than 1,000 employees.

The hospital announced its decision internally late Wednesday. A spokeswoman said in a statement Thursday the move was proactive and described it only as an unspecified “operational matter.”

“We are proactively addressing an operational matter at HCA Florida North Florida Hospital that resulted in the need to temporarily reschedule certain elective surgeries and have notified impacted patients,” communications director Lauren Lettelier said. “Our commitment has always been and continues to be to provide the highest quality of safe patient care to the citizens of North Central Florida and the surrounding area. We thank everyone affected for their patience and understanding.”

Lettelier declined to answer questions or provide any further information.

The hospital directed Alachua County Fire Rescue not to transport patients to the hospital for surgeries but told the agency to disregard that warning early Thursday, assistant fire rescue chief Misty Woods said.

The hospital’s concerns involve the activities of its Sterile Processing Department, the unit that cleans and sanitizes equipment, such as drills and other precision medical tools, that are reused after surgeries, sources said. Its chief medical officer told doctors and others the hospital wants to ensure it has sufficient numbers of instruments that have been sterilized properly before it reopens its surgical bays.

The hospital said it began diverting emergency surgeries to other area hospitals late Wednesday. Some cardiac surgeries were still scheduled to take place Thursday at the hospital. It said it hopes to resume all types of surgeries as early as the weekend and said it may only be functioning at half its expected capacity next week.

UF Health Shands did not immediately have any information on the transfer plans from the neighboring hospital, communications manager Peyton Wesner said.

Such suspensions are highly unusual but not unprecedented at U.S. hospitals coping with issues involving sterilization procedures and equipment. At least some surgeries were suspended for those reasons last year at hospitals in California, Texas, Massachusetts and Kansas. In southwest Colorado, patients in December sued Mercy Hospital, an 82-bed acute care facility, over allegations they contracted infections about the time that Mercy suspended elective surgeries two years earlier.

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GAINESVILLE, FL ‒ On Sept. 17, 2023, The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office responded to the area of 2315 S.E. 35^th Street Gainesville, FL, in reference to a shooting investigation.

Alachua Sheriff’s Deputies discovered the victim, Johnny Walker, suffering from a gunshot wound. Walker was pronounced dead at the scene by medical personnel.

Alachua Sheriff’s Office Detective later identified Javon Barclay, dob 11/06/1994, as the suspect who unlawfully shot and killed Walker.

On Jan. 17, 2024, Barclay was indicted by a Grand Jury for first degree murder, grand theft of a motor vehicle, grand theft of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a felon, felony driving while license suspended, and fleeing or attempting to elude.

Barclay was remanded to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office Department of the Jail without bond on the first degree murder charge.

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Photo special to Alachua County Today

ALACHUA ‒The A. L. Mebane High School Alumni Association, Inc., recently recognized first term college students by awarding scholarships. The program was held Dec. 31, 2023, at Atlas A.M.E. Church/Monteocha Community in Gainesville.

The A. L. Mebane High School Alumni Association provides social services, cultural enrichment and scholarships. The Dec. 31 event marked the “Silver Anniversary” Celebration of the Alumni Association awarding scholarships to area youth. At the event, students were challenged by Mrs. Deborah Schumpert Harris, Educator/Trainer; DEI Director with a theme “Stay in Your Books.”

Scholarships were presented by the A.L. Mebane High School graduating classes of 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968 and1970.

Students receiving scholarships were Zakya Simmons, Trinity Johnson, Zelmarria Davis, Mayah Gainey, and Ke’Mari Howard, all of whom plan to attend Santa Fe College. Also awarded was Michaela Cromarty who plans to attend Claflin University; Don’Trell Jenkins, who plans to attend Davis & Elkins College; Auntrell Ross, who plans to attend Keiser University and Kyren Washington, who plans to attend Oklahoma University.

The Alumni Association expressed their gratitude to their many sponsors for continued support of first term college students by saying, “You Make It Happen!”

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GAINESVILLE ‒ On Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024, Assistant State Attorney Nicole Reed presented to the Alachua County Fall Term Grand Jury State vs. Amanda Marie Jazen.

On Dec. 25, 2023, the Gainesville Police Department responded to Walgreens 3909 N.W. 13^th Street in reference to a shooting investigation.

Officers arrived and observed the victims, Anna Haslup Terrill and Thomas Lepread Williams, in the parking lot suffering from gunshot wounds. Officers observed a fleeing vehicle that Amanda Jazen, dob 6/29/1985, was driving.

The Gainesville Police investigation determined that Jazen unlawfully shot and killed Haslup and attempted to unlawfully kill Williams.

While Jazen fled from the scene, she had five of her children with her as she led law enforcement on a 15-mile chase.

The Fall Term Grand Jury reviewed all the evidence and returned a True Bill indicting Jazen for first degree murder, attempted first degree murder, fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement, and five counts of child neglect.  

Jazen was remanded to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office Department of the Jail without bond on the first degree murder charges.

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NEWBERRY ‒ An 18-year-old Newberry man was arrested on Monday, Jan. 8, on a warrant for residential burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and charged with drug possession when arrested.

Edwin Lee Daniels was on pre-trial diversion for a June 2023 incident in which he was charged with possession of a firearm and a separate extended magazine after being convicted as a juvenile of a crime that would be a felony for an adult.

The Newberry burglary took place on Dec. 3, 2020, when Daniels was 15-years-old. It was moved to the adult judicial system in December 2023, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

When Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputies served the warrant at Daniels’ Newberry residence, they reportedly saw a bag of marijuana in plain view on the floor of his bedroom.

Post Miranda, Daniels reportedly said the substance in the bag was “weed” and that it was for his personal use.

Daniels has been charged with burglary, possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Daniels has juvenile convictions in 2019 and 2020 but no adult convictions other than the pending pre-trial diversion case.

Bail was set at $75,000 on the burglary charge, $1,500 on marijuana possession and $1,000 on drug paraphernalia by Judge Susan Miller-Jones

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