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Nassau County Insider
May 3, 2021 The Convenience Recycle Center will have new operating hours beginning on Monday, May 17th. Below is the new schedule. Please note that they will now be closed all day on Mondays instead of Wednesdays. Monday: CLOSED Tuesday: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Wednesday: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Thursday: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Friday: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Saturday: 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Sunday: CLOSED ** Closed from 12:30-1:00 p.m. for lunch Monday-Friday** If you have any questions, please contact Solid Waste at (904) 530-6700.  The City of Fernandina Beach is pleased to announce that Deputy Chief Mark Foxworth will be promoted to Chief of Police. He will assume command of the 42 sworn officers and 5 support staff of the Fernandina Beach Police Department (FBPD).
The current Chief, James Hurley, will retire this month after fifteen years of dedicated service to the City of Fernandina Beach and over forty total years to law enforcement. “I have full faith and confidence in Chief Foxworth to continue the professionalism and integrity instilled in the Police Department by Chief Hurley and expected by this community,” said City Manager Dale Martin, who was responsible for making the appointment. Foxworth, who has over 40 years of law enforcement experience, started with the FBPD in 2008, serving in the role of second-in-command, creating policy, managing the budget, and managing day-to-day operations. Before joining FBPD, Foxworth worked with the University of North Florida Police Department, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, and retired from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. He has an extensive educational and leadership background, including a Bachelor of Science from Southern Illinois University, and 400 hours of a Command Officers Development through the University of Louisville. Outside of work, Foxworth enjoys photography and spending time with Mary, his wife of almost 40 years, their three children, and 15 grandchildren. Says Foxworth, “I look forward to continuing Chief Hurley’s legacy of building trust with the community and making agency transparency a priority.” In his final words to the City Commission at a proclamation in his honor, Chief Hurley said of Foxworth, “I am very, very confident in the next Police Chief, Mark Foxworth. We are planning a seamless transition.” 4/21/21 @ 4:30 p.m. - At today's meeting, the Board of County Commissioners approved Resolution No. 2021-52 proclaiming April 2021 as Water Conservation Month to raise awareness about the importance of water conservation. Every business, industry, school, and citizen can help save Florida's precious water resources by practicing water conservation measures and becoming more aware of the need to conserve water. For information on the importance of water conservation and tips on how you can help save Florida's water, please visit the St. Johns River Water Management District website. -Sabrina Robertson Public Information Officer  Left to right: Geoff Sample, Intergovernmental Coordinator for the St. Johns River Water Management District; and Dean Woerhle, Board Member for the St. Marys River Management Committee 4/20/21 @ 4:15 p.m. - It's Flood Awareness Month in Nassau County, Florida! Did you know that many areas in Nassau County are potentially prone to some amount of flooding from excessive rainfall (or tidal influences)? As a property owner, it's important that you know your flood risk. The first step to understanding your risk begins with reviewing flood maps. A flood map offers useful information regarding flood hazards for a community. To learn your flood zone, visit www.nassauflpa.com. Note: Your property can still be at risk of flooding, even if it's not located within a designated flood zone. Therefore, the Federal Emergency Management Agency recommends that all homeowners purchase flood insurance. -Sabrina Robertson Public Information Officer  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Nassau County Road & Bridge Department 904 530-6175 E-mail: dhearn@nassaucountyfl.com ROAD CLOSURE ON SCOTT ROAD-FERNANDINA BEACH The Nassau County Road Department has issued a Notice of Intent to begin construction on the Scott Road Retaining Wall Repairs Project in Fernandina Beach beginning May 5, 2021. The work will take place at the intersection of Scott Road and the Amelia Island Parkway. For safety of the work crew, Scott Road will be closed weekdays from 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. through May 14, 2021. The road will remain open during the evenings and on weekends. The detour will be as follows: Scott Road to Amelia Island Parkway
Amelia Island Parkway to Scott Road
For additional information, please contact David Hearn, Assistant Road Director at 904-530-6175.  Press Release
Submitted by Martha L. Oberdorfer, MPH, FPEM E-Mail NCEM@NASSAUSO.COM April 19, 2021 April 18-24 is National Volunteer Week and Nassau County Emergency Management (NCEM) is recognizing its volunteers for contributing 12,525 hours to CoViD-19 emergency response efforts; 5,800 of those hours just since January 4, 2021. “We could not have been as successful as we have been in Nassau County without our volunteers,” said NCEM Director, Greg Foster. Prior to 2020, NCEM volunteers were affiliated with either the Nassau County Amateur Radio Emergency Services (NC-ARES) chapter, local Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), or the 4-H Youth Emergency Team (YET) trained through NCEM. When local planning and exercises in the fall of 2019 revealed that Nassau’s capacity to respond to a Public Health Emergency or Mass Casualty Incident was very limited, NCEM’s Senior Planner, Martha Oberdorfer, MPH, applied to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) to register the “Nassau County Medical Reserve Corps,” the only one of its kind in NE Florida. A few months after the Nassau Co. MRC unit was approved and organized, the county had its first case of CoViD-19 and NCEM Volunteer Coordinator, “Cos” Cosgrove, D-HS, began recruiting dozens of healthcare professionals to help with the “OneNassau” unified Public Health Emergency response. The new MRC members stepped up to help CERT and YET volunteers distributing masks and hand sanitizer throughout the county, answering residents’ CoViD-19 questions, and scheduling vaccination appointments. For the past 16 weeks Nassau Co. MRC volunteers have also provided thousands of vaccinations to residents at local Points of Dispensing (PODs). “All of our volunteers have been critical to the local CoViD-19 response and our MRC unit is an essential part of our ability to support the Department of Health’s testing, contact-tracing, and vaccination operations,” said Ms. Oberdorfer. “Many of these incredible volunteers have been contributing their time and expertise for months. We can’t thank them enough; their generosity has been very meaningful to the public health of our community.” By Janet Adkins
Nassau County Supervisor of Elections April 5, 2021 The first 75 days as your newly elected Supervisor of Elections have been a busy and productive time. I have found that my prior experiences in business and as an information technology professional, and my legislative and school board service have helped me take on these new duties. I am holding weekly staff meetings, measuring our progress on goals and objectives, and implementing a “ring the bell” moment when staff accomplishes a task. It’s about culture, and nowhere is the culture more important than in your election professionals. Our election professionals in Nassau County are dedicated, hard-working, and a pleasure to work beside! I have immersed myself in training, getting to know the staff, and reviewing all of the systems at work behind the scenes that help ensure our elections remain safe and secure. We have begun to make changes that we hope will provide voters in Nassau County greater access and more information around their elections. We have been working on a redesign of the www.votenassau.com website. We have been conducting a review and mapping exercise of all equipment and procedures. We are forming an advisory committee to assist with system-wide improvements to help serve Nassau County citizens. I expect to get this group engaged very soon. After taking office, I quickly learned that I would have to conduct an election for the City of Fernandina Beach regarding proposed changes to the city’s charter. The Fernandina Beach City Commissioners decided that they wanted to hold a mail ballot-only election. While I personally like to go to the polls and have consistently voted in person, my role is to ensure that I follow the rules and, to the best of my ability, ensure that we comply with Florida Statutes that govern any election we conduct. I wanted to share some of the details behind mail ballot-only elections and how these are governed in Florida. Florida Statutes 101.6101 thru 101.6017 govern mail ballot elections and require the Secretary of State to approve a written plan for the conduct of the election, including a written timetable for the conduct of the election. There are some prohibitions in Florida Statutes relating to mail ballot elections. For example, a candidate cannot be nominated, elected, or recalled in a mail ballot election. Also, a mail ballot election may not be held on the same date as another election in which qualified voters of that political subdivision are eligible to cast ballots. Florida Statute requires that the Supervisor of Elections be responsible for the conduct of a mail ballot election. Further, it specifies the cost of a mail ballot election is borne by the jurisdiction initiating the mail ballot election. The State of Florida has specific laws relating to mail ballot elections, specifying that official ballots may be mailed not sooner than the 20th day before the election and not later than the 10th day before the date of the election. However, the Supervisor of Elections may mail an official ballot to absent electors overseas on a date sufficient to allow such elector time to vote in the election and to have his or her marked ballot reach the Supervisor by 7 p.m. on the day of the election. Florida law (FS 100.342) specifies that a special election shall be noticed at least twice, once in the fifth week and once in the third week before the election is to be held. Our five-week-prior notice for the April 13 election was published on March 10; and, our three-week-prior notice is scheduled for March 24. The Logic and Accuracy testing of our tabulating equipment will occur on April 5 at 1 p.m. at the James S. Page Governmental Complex. The County Canvassing Board (comprised of the County Judge, the Chair of the Board of County Commissioners, and the Supervisor of Elections) will process “test decks” to verify the tabulating equipment properly counts the ballots. The elections office will validate the voter’s signature for each ballot received, comparing it to the signature on file. Any variation will be communicated to the voter to allow the voter to “cure” the mismatch. After the voter’s signature is validated, the unopened envelope will be logged in our system and secured in our vote by mailroom, as required by law, until the Canvassing Board convenes on April 9 at 10 a.m. At that time, the Canvassing Board will begin opening and processing ballots. However, no tabulation of votes will be generated. Nothing gets tabulated until after 7 p.m. on April 13. Any canvassing board member or election employee who releases any result before 7 p.m. on election day commits a felony of the third degree. F.S. 101.6013(5) specifies that a ballot shall be counted only if:
If you wish to track your ballot, visit www.nassauflvotes.com. This website allows you to sign up for and receive an email, phone or text alerts when the Elections Office processes your ballot. Also, we have voting booths in our front office to allow you to vote and hand-deliver your ballot in person. For any voter with a disability, our accessible ballot equipment is set up, and we are ready to assist you in our Elections Office. The public is invited to observe all Canvassing Board meetings. Please note that all ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on election day, April 13, 2021, to be counted. A public office is a public trust. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you. Janet H. Adkins Supervisor of Elections Nassau County Emergency Management
March 31, 2021 To make an appointment click here. One Nassau has a new, airconditioned, CoVID Vaccination “POD-in-a-Tent” located at the AMC Theaters’ parking lot on Lofton Square Court in Yulee. Starting today, residents will be vaccinated on weekday afternoons/evenings – first appointments at 1:30 p.m., and last appointment at 7:00 p.m. Anyone 16+ years old can be vaccinated here, and we have more than a thousand appointment slots available next week. If you are 40 yrs old, we also have 100 slots available for our Saturday, April 3rd, POD 9Point of Dispensing) at Yulee Middle School. All of our vaccine is the Pfizer-BioNTech brand and requires two doses. Second dose appointments are automatically scheduled for 21 days after the first one, and the same time and location as the first dose. Vaccinations can keep you from getting sick or dying from the SARS-CoV-2 virus and it will help us stop the pandemic! Protect yourself and your family. Go to www.OneNassau.com and schedule your first shot 3/29/21 @ 2:15 p.m. - At the Monday, March 22, 2021 meeting, the Board of County Commissioners approved Resolution 2021-36 proclaiming April 2021 as Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Nassau County, Florida. This was done to raise public awareness sexual violence, provide education on its impacts and encourage community response to sexual violence.
Lori Armstrong of the Women's Center of Jacksonville attended the meeting remotely to accept the Resolution. She stated, "It's because of our community partner relationships that survivors are able to get the support they need in Nassau County". She also thanked the Board of County Commissioners for their support. The Women's Center of Jacksonville is the only certified rape crisis center in Nassau County. Their office is located within Family Support Services located at 96116 Lofton Square Ct. in Yulee. If you or someone you know needs help, please call their 24-hour Rape Crisis Hotline at 904-721-7273 or visit their website. -Sabrina Robertson Public Information Officer |
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