Local

Fireworks explode above Lake City during last year’s Independence Day celebration at the Florida Gateway Fairgrounds. In addition to fireworks, this year’s 250th celebration will include a laser show and hot air balloons. (FILE)

The conceptual plan for the proposed BJ’s Wholesale Club on U.S. Highway 90 next to Publix shows where there would be entrances to the store, which would include a tire center and liquor store, from both U.S. 90 and from Hackney Terrace. The site also would have a pair of out parcels for other retail sales. (COURTESY)

Lake City firefighters battle a blaze in a duplex on SE Brown Street on Wednesday. Nobody was injured in the fire although a dog perished. (COURTESY LAKE CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT)

Coker (top left, clockwise), Haas, Lyons, Taylor, Washington and Wright

Campers participate in an activity ‘Escape the Vaults’ to unlock leadership knowledge locked deep in the vaults. (COURTESY UF/IFAS EXTENSION OFFICE COLUMBIA COUNTY)

The ‘Globe of Freedom,’ a welded art piece created by Columbia High welding students, won the Commissioner’s Choice award in the Statewide Welding and Fabrication Challenge to celebrate America’s semiquincentennial. (TONY BRITT/Lake City Reporter)

An area outside an apartment building is blocked off Tuesday afternoon following a fatal late-morning shooting outside an apartment building on NW Albright Place on the north side of Lake City. (MORGAN MCMULLEN/Lake City Reporter)

Zayden Jones learns the art of broom handling while participating in a relay race during Columbia County 4-H’s School of Life Skills for Magical Beings camp earlier this month. (COURTESY)