Workers measure the windows at Planalto Palace the day after it was stormed by supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. The protesters also stormed Congress and the Supreme Court.
Workers measure the windows at Planalto Palace the day after it was stormed by supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. The protesters also stormed Congress and the Supreme Court.
Ingoglia
Folks lined up one-by-one Monday at the speaker’s platform inside county commission chambers to present their project and priority wish lists to Citrus County’s legislative delegation.
The hope is that Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill and Rep. Ralph Massullo, R-Lecanto, will fight for project funding during the upcoming legislative session.
Ingoglia
Massullo
County Commission Chairwoman Ruthie Schlabach outlined three top priorities: $9 million for phase two construction (including taxiway completion and a new hangar) of the Inverness Airport Business-Industrial Park; $8.3 million for building a multi-purpose trail on Halls River Road; and $4.9 million to bring reclaimed water to the Sugarmill Woods and Southern Woods golf courses.
Ingoglia stressed that any funding requests for state taxpayer money must first be vetted through the governing body making those requests. The county board will discuss their legislative priorities at Tuesday’s commission meeting.
Sheriff Mike Prendergast heaped praise on Ingoglia and Massullo for their support of Florida House Bill 3 which gave him more tools – including financial incentives – to bolster recruitment.
Prendergast also thanked county commissioners for approving his 2022-23 budget, which allowed him to close hiring gaps
School board officials stressed two needs for Citrus County schools: increased money for school safety initiatives and teacher recruitment measures. With 45 open teaching positions, the need is strong, they told the legislators.
“Stay tuned,” Massullo told them. “You’re going to see exactly what you want, hopefully coming across as policy.”
Many of the funding wish lists were holdovers from last year, including money to improve roads and to convert homes from septic tanks to sewer.
John Murphy, Citrus County chamber governmental affairs committee chairman, cited several priorities compiled from a survey of local business owners.
They include continued help addressing the state’s property insurance crisis, the lack of attainable workforce housing, water quality efforts, broadband expansion countywide and the widening of U.S. 41 from State Road 44 to State Road 200.
Crystal River City Manager Ken Frink asked for financial assistance for the design and permitting of a new city hall, which is over 50 years old and in need of replacement.
Frink also stressed the importance of home rule, allowing cities to retain autonomy.
Ingoglia said home rule can be problematic due to “bad actors” who use it for their own nefarious purposes.
Once cities get state permission to get incorporated they “create their own fiefdoms” and gouge residents and then are surprised when the legislature makes new laws that stop them.
Crystal River Joe Meek said they agree entirely with that and called it unfortunate that bad apples spoil it for others.
Monday’s meeting lasted about two-and-a-half hours and was well-attended by community and governmental officials and residents.
Michael D. Bates is a staff writer with the Citrus County Chronicle and can be reached at mbates@chronicleonline.com.
Reporter
City of Inverness officials, Citrus County government representatives and clergy make their way through downtown Inverness in the 2022 Unity Walk in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Following the walk participants gathered at the Inverness Depot for messages and fellowship.
When the Inverness MLK Day committee gathered to plan this year’s events celebrating the life of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, they decided one day was not enough to honor the great civil rights leader.
So, this year, it’s a three-day event, beginning Saturday, Jan. 14 with an oral history event at the historic Valerie Theatre in downtown Inverness, followed on Saturday with a Gospel Music festival and concluding on Monday with annual MLK Freedom and Unity Walk, presentations, music, dance and vendors at Liberty Park and the Depot Pavilion.
“Over the years, people would say, ‘I wish we could do –’ and then they’d tell us about things they’ve seen done in other places for MLK Day,” said committee member Tammy Langley, pastor of Citadel of Life Cathedral in Inverness. “So, we took some of their ideas to make it more like a festival to go along with the walk.”
Betty Pleacher, Inverness assistant director of parks and recreation, said the committee wanted to give Dr. King “his due and celebrate his whole life…which would take more than just one day.
“So, we put together a really nice celebratory couple of days,” she said.
Here’s the lineup for the 2023 Inverness “Unity Starts in the Heart” MLK events, Jan. 14-16:
6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14: Gilbert King, author of “Devil in the Grove,” will speak about his Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the infamous 1949 Lake County rape case and the wrongly accused four Black teens known as the Groveland Boys.
Also, local historians, Jim Anderson and Althea Franklin, will speak about the cultural history of Inverness.
Tickets are $10 per person. Order in advance at www.tix.com/ticket-sales/valerietheatre/5008 or at the door if seats are available.
6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 15: Gospel Music Festival at Solid Rock Church of God, 972 N. Christy Way (off Independence Blvd near U.S. 41 N), Inverness.
This free event features music and dance from local groups and individuals including Redemption Point Church, the Ovations, Melanie Whitelaw, Vonn Smith (dance), Randolph Bellamy on keyboard, and the Unity Community Choir, made up of singers from churches in Inverness, Hernando and Floral City.
9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Jan. 16: Annual MLK Freedom Unity Walk and presentation.
Gather at the Valerie Theatre Plaza at 9 a.m. to walk to Liberty Park for presentations and festivities, including music groups, singing and poetry throughout the day and Zumba at 11:20 a.m.
A variety of local vendors will be at the Depot Pavilion selling food, jewelry, clothing, beauty products and more.
“Everybody is so busy and so scattered, and we wanted to have something that will bring the community together,” Langley said. “With all the community participation, this emphasizes the value and importance of unity and community, and it gives us a chance to celebrate each other and let our children know that this is the heart of Inverness.”
Nancy Kennedy can be reached at 352-564-2927 or by email at nkennedy@chronicleonline.com.
It was 1949, back when Florida’s orange industry was booming.
The George Washington Carver Community Center will sponsor the Martin Luther King Jr. Day “Remember the Dream” event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on…
The George Washington Carver Community Center will sponsor the Martin Luther King Jr. Day “Remember the Dream” event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Jan. 16 at Copeland Park, 76 N.E. 8th Ave., Crystal River.
The public is invited for a fun-filled day of remembering Dr. King and his dream, featuring speakers from the community, along with tasty food.
King Jr.
Vendors are still being accepted to set up a table or booth. Any organization is welcomed to join in for this occasion – there is not a fee for vendor participation.
Contact George Ann Jackson at 352-212-2665, Coressa Natteal at 352-257-8388 or Dan Epstein at 352-613-4478.
Also, the Nature Coast Volunteer Center (NCVC) is hosting a Healthy Food Drive in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr who once asked, “What are you doing for others?”
Donations of canned or packaged non-perishable food items are being collected through Tuesday, Jan. 17 at the following locations:
Any Citrus County library; the Citrus County Tax Collector’s Office at 210 N Apopka Ave, Inverness, FL 34450 and also 1540 N Meadowcrest Blvd. Suite 200, Crystal River, FL 34429; and the following Citrus County Community Centers: East Citrus at 9907 E. Gulf to Lake Hwy, Inverness, FL 34452; West Citrus at 8940 W. Veterans Dr, Homosassa, FL. 34448; Hernando Area Senior Program at 2415 N. Florida Ave, Hernando, FL 34442 and Central Ridge at 77 Civic Circle, Beverly Hills, FL 34465.
Also, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. there will be a drive-thru food collection at the Central Ridge Community Center, 77 Civic Circle, Beverly Hills, FL 34465.
Nancy Kennedy can be reached at 352-564-2927 or by email at nkennedy@chronicleonline.com.
Reporter
King
It was 1949, back when Florida’s orange industry was booming.
Over in Lake County, Sheriff Willis V. McCall ruled with an iron fist.
When a white 17-year-old girl accused four Black teen boys of the crime, Sheriff McCall was fast on the trail of the young men who came to be known as “the Groveland Boys.”
Before the sun went down, members of the Ku Klux Klan had swept in, burned the homes of Black people and chased hundreds of them into the swamps, hell-bent on lynching the young men.
So begins Gilbert King’s book, “Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America,” winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, nominated for a 2013 Edgar Award, Book of the Year (non-fiction, 2012) The Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor and the subject of a yet-to-be filmed documentary.
King, a Brooklyn, New York-based writer, will be the featured guest speaker Saturday, Jan. 14, as part of the 2023 “Unity Starts in the Heart” three-day MLK Day event in Inverness celebrating the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The event, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Valerie Theatre, 207 Courthouse Square, Inverness, also includes talks from two local Citrus County residents, Jim Anderson and Althea Franklin, who will be talking about the cultural history of Inverness.
Tickets are $10 per person. Order in advance at www.tix.com/ticket-sales/valerietheatre/5008 or purchase at the door if seats are available.
Gilbert King will be signing books after the program; copies of “Devil in the Grove” will be available for purchase at the event.
In a telephone interview, King said a number of years ago he came across a story about the 1949 Lake County case, and was intrigued.
“It was a famous case, because you have this notorious sheriff who takes the law into his own hands and you have Thurgood Marshall, a rising civil rights star, who later becomes a Supreme Court justice, defending these young men – and nobody really knows about it,” King said.
King said it’s a story of these young men being wrongfully accused of sexually assaulting a white woman, “which was a very explosive crime back in the Jim Crow days,” he said. “So, I went back and looked at the case.”
Among his findings, King discovered that associates of Thurgood Marshall, known as “Mr. Civil Rights” and the most important American lawyer of the 20th century, thought it was “suicidal for him to wade into the ‘Florida Terror’ at a time when he was irreplaceable to the burgeoning civil rights movement” and that Marshall refused to back down from the fight, even after Klan members murdered one of Marshall’s NAACP associates involved with the case and continually threatened threatened Marshall that he would be next.
King’s book, published in 2012, led to the exonerations of the four innocent men.
Other books by King include “The Execution of Willie Francis: Race, Murder, and the Search for Justice in the American South” (2008) and “Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found” (2018).
“I’ll also be talking about that book – same Lake County, same sheriff, but a different incident that happened 10 years later,” King said.
King also has a nine-part podcast called “Bone Valley,” that delves into the 1987 Polk County case of 18-year-old Michelle Schofield who was found dead in a phosphate pit in Florida. Two years later, her husband Leo was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
However, 15 years later, previously unidentified fingerprints matched Jeremy Scott, a violent teenager who lived nearby.
And although Scott has since confessed to Michelle’s murder, Schofield remains behind bars.
King, who hosts the podcast, actually uncovered startling new evidence of Scott’s involvement in a string of murders.
King, quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
“Sometimes we don’t know the whole story,” he said, “and sometimes it takes a writer or a lawyer to look at a case and find the truth.”
Nancy Kennedy can be reached at 352-564-2927 or by email at nkennedy@chronicleonline.com.
