Local

Gibraltar Contracting and Mark Bauer have a home in the Country Lake at Woodborough neighborhood on this year’s Parade of Homes showcase this weekend. (TODD WILSON/Lake City Reporter)

Gibraltar Contracting and Mark Bauer have a home in the Country Lake at Woodborough neighborhood on this year’s Parade of Homes showcase this weekend. (TODD WILSON/Lake City Reporter)

Eight houses ready for Parade of Homes

JAMIE WACHTER
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
The 2024 edition of the Parade of Homes will feature eight homes across two counties. The premier new-home building showcase in North Florida returns this weekend with eight homes on display Saturday and Sunday in Columbia and Suwannee counties.

Tweaked Niblack plans approved

JAMIE WACHTER
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Modified drawings and plans for the new Minnie J. Niblack Elementary School garnered school board approval Tuesday. The Columbia County School Board unanimously approved the Phase III drawings for the new Niblack school, which will begin construction this summer.

CCSO deputies help save abducted child

NEWS STAFF
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Four Alabama women were arrested Saturday after Columbia County Sheriff’s Office helped save an abducted 7-year-old child from Brevard County. According to a release from the Melbourne Police Department, the boy was kidnapped by multiple female suspects just before 11 a.m.

13th annual Fins and Pins returns Saturday

TONY BRITT
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Community fun for a good cause will reach its pinnacle this weekend when the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office teams up with the community members for its annual fundraiser combining a bowl-a-thon and fish fry, tabbed as Fins and Pins.
Deputies from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office responded to Fort White High School, and Columbia High School, on Tuesday afternoon after a threat was received against a ‘high school.’ (TONY BRITT/Lake City Reporter)

Deputies from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office responded to Fort White High School, and Columbia High School, on Tuesday afternoon after a threat was received against a ‘high school.’ (TONY BRITT/Lake City Reporter)

CCSO receives threat against ‘high school’

JAMIE WACHTER
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Threats made against a “high school” received by the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office led to extra patrols but no immediate concerns Tuesday afternoon. Sgt. Steven Khachigan, a CCSO spokesman, said the agency’s District 2 office in Fort White received a call around 3:30 p.m.

CCSO deputies help save abducted child

NEWS STAFF
Saturday, April 20, 2024
The Columbia County Sheriff's Office helped save am abducted 7-year-old child from Brevard County on Saturday. During a home invasion in Melborne on Saturday, a Columbia County Sheriff's Office release states a woman was beaten and her 7-year-old son was abducted.
Florida Gateway College President Larry Barrett (left) and David Richardson, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida, signed an articulation agreement Thursday that guarantees FGC graduates with admission into 17 degree programs at UF’s liberal arts college. (MORGAN MCMULLEN/Lake City Reporter)

Florida Gateway College President Larry Barrett (left) and David Richardson, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida, signed an articulation agreement Thursday that guarantees FGC graduates with admission into 17 degree programs at UF’s liberal arts college. (MORGAN MCMULLEN/Lake City Reporter)

Agreement with UF guarantees FGC grads admission into 17 degree programs

JAMIE WACHTER
Friday, April 19, 2024
The path from Florida Gateway College to the University of Florida just got easier for some students.
Paving crews from C.A. Boone Construction in Lake City apply smooth asphalt strips to a roadbed in the new Forest Cove subdivision on Wednesday. The new development on Branford Highway just south of Lake City features 14 one-acre lots in a rural setting and is being developed by local contractor Rob Stewart. (COURTESY)

Paving crews from C.A. Boone Construction in Lake City apply smooth asphalt strips to a roadbed in the new Forest Cove subdivision on Wednesday. The new development on Branford Highway just south of Lake City features 14 one-acre lots in a rural setting and is being developed by local contractor Rob Stewart. (COURTESY)

Breakthrough development nearing completion

TODD WILSON
Friday, April 19, 2024
A new 14-lot subdivision on Branford Highway outside Lake City is nearing completion and should be ready for site-built construction to begin in June.
Columbia County Tourism Executive Director Konnie Patke spoke to Rotary Club of Lake City Thursday. Patke, who has been on the job for three months, explained her vision for county tourism as being more than just promoting the springs and rivers of Columbia County. (TODD WILSON/Lake City Reporter)

Columbia County Tourism Executive Director Konnie Patke spoke to Rotary Club of Lake City Thursday. Patke, who has been on the job for three months, explained her vision for county tourism as being more than just promoting the springs and rivers of Columbia County. (TODD WILSON/Lake City Reporter)

Patke shares expanded tourism view with Rotary

TODD WILSON
Friday, April 19, 2024
More than just springs tourism. That’s what Konnie Patke has noticed about Lake City and Columbia County, Florida, during her first 90 days at her position as the county’s executive director of tourism.