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Local News

  • Mural project nears end

    Two years ago, the Williston Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) had an idea to decorate the Heritage Park gazebo with art depicting Williston life. Monday night that idea came one step closer to reality with the acceptance of hand-painted pictures that will be enlarged and hung.

    Artist Judy Kemp presented the CRA with her finished work and said her job is now complete.

    Next the CRA will contract with someone to photograph and turn the canvases into panels for the gazebo.

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  • TRIM notices coming

    The TRIM – Truth in Millage – notices are at the printer and will be dropped in the mail to property owners on Aug. 19 according to the Levy County Property Appraiser's Office. 

    Oz Barker, Levy County Property Appraiser, said there is noting new in the TRIM notices this year, except the taxes being levied by taxing authorities. 

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  • School millage rate to see slight decrease

     By Sean Arnold

    Staff Writer

    The Levy County School Board passed a unanimous motion on Aug. 2 to tentatively approve the advertised rollback millage rate, which means a 3.32 percent drop in millage for Levy County property owners.

    The tentatively adopted rate is 6.89, down from last year’s 7.12. 

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  • No Zika in Levy, but mosquitoes are being tested

    After the daily thunderstorms pass through Levy County residents need to go on patrol outside their homes and empty every container that has water in it. 

    That’s because the mosquito that carries the Zika virus is a container-grown pest, it does not breed in open ditches and ponds, said Matt Weldon, Levy’s Mosquito Control Department director. He made the plea to empty containers after every rainfall in a report on the virus to the County Commission on Tuesday. 

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  • Williston tentatively sets millage the same

    Williston Council members were faced with its annual dilemma Tuesday night: raise the taxes or keep them the same.

    Florida law dictates that once a tentative rate is set it cannot be raised, but it can be reduced. Some government bodies opt to set it at the higher rate while budget preparation continues, knowing it can be lowered at the final public hearing.

    But Williston councilors appeared content with both the budgeting process and the city's current millage of 5.8627.

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  • Levy braces for teacher shortage

    Candy Dean, the Levy school district’s personnel director, said the teacher shortage in the county is the worst it’s been since she’s been in the job.

    And the problem isn’t isolated to the county. 

    The district still had 33 teaching positions listed on its job openings site two weeks before students return to class. Other counties in the region, like Citrus, Columbia and Hernando, are reportedly facing just as steep – or even steeper – shortages.

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  • School bells will ring Wednesday

    Students return to school a week earlier this year in Levy County, meaning they’ll be back in class on Wednesday, Aug. 10.

    Drivers are encouraged to be cautious of lower speed limits near schools as well as students waiting at bus stops.

    Schools are holding open house events for parents to meet their children’s teachers in the days running up to the start of school. 

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  • FBI makes arrest in 39-year-old crime

    Over 39 years ago, Mary Gene Bailey French and her husband, Royal, were ending a beautiful vacation in the Hawaiian Islands.

    The splendor of the trip was marred in the days ahead by a story shrouded in mystery, deception, betrayal and murder.

    Mrs. French's father, Gene Bailey, and three of his friends, were bushwhacked eight miles from Williston as they drove home from Ocala after having dinner.

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  • Property values not rising quickly enough

    Usually when Levy County Property Appraiser Oz Barker says property values – and hence property taxes – are rising folks are not happy. 

    But public officials are facing a different dilemma. While property values are going up in most of Levy County, they are not rising as fast as the cost of goods and services the county must provide. And there are an increasing number of exemptions that take property off the tax rolls or minimize the taxes they must pay. 

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  • County offices to be filled Aug. 30

    It's a funny thing, but usually candidates for local office square off in a party primary and then face their opponents in the other party in the general election. 

    Not so this year in Levy County where the Republican Party is dominating local elections and the Democratic Party candidates are nonexistent.

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