The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has signaled its intent to issue a key permit to Oldcastle Southern Group, the Tampa-based company with plans to mine course sand from 264 acres in the southeastern county.

Last week FDEP notified the company as well as the county and other regulatory agencies of its intent to issue an environmental resource permit required for projects that impact surface water.

Oldcastle intends to mine using a floating dredge that moves over man-made lakes, which grow larger as more land is mined.

The notice of intent to issue the permit, which the company must publish in the newspaper, gives anyone with “substantial interests to be affected” by the permit 21 days from the publication date to petition for an administrative hearing.

The hearing could delay or halt final approval of the permit.

Some of the litter scattered on Woodlawn Road this week.

Based on a recent poll by The Baker County Press in which most respondents said they would volunteer to help keep roadsides clean, county officials are planning a neighborhood anti-litter campaign.

The proposal was pitched by County Commissioner Jimmy Anderson during a board meeting on March 5, which followed his suggestion a month earlier for county government to take the lead in a massive cleanup effort.

“Part of my 2013 goals was cleaning up Baker County,” Mr. Anderson said last week, adding he was encouraged by the results of the recent poll which asked readers whether they would participate in neighborhood clean-up efforts if local government furnished supplies.

“I was surprised that a majority (43 percent) said they would help,” he said. “Forty percent said they wouldn’t help. That wasn’t a surprise.”

Another 12 percent said they weren’t even aware the county had a litter problem, while 5 percent said they were already doing their part in cleaning up litter.

Buoyed by the number of potential volunteers, Mr. Anderson suggested the county could provide plastic bags and form community groups to “get some of this trash off our roads.”

If the commission wants to move in that direction, County Manager C.J. Thompson said, neighborhood coordinators could be named and assigned the task of organizing volunteers to patrol designated areas.

Commissioner Anderson suggested designated areas could include specific sections of roadways assigned to neighborhood groups in an Adopt-A-Mile campaign, which have been employed in other communities for many years to control litter. He said signs could be erected identifying volunteer groups responsible for maintaining the grounds alongside certain roads and highways, say a one-mile section per group.

Search teams prepare to embark on massive manhunt for fleeing suspect.

A white Dodge Charger led authorities on a high-speed, four-county chase on Interstate 10 eastbound before crashing near Sanderson about 10 am on February 28.

The driver, Terrick Shadon Lundy, 26, of Jacksonville was captured some three hours later by K-9 search teams from Baker Correctional Institution and the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) less than a quarter-mile from the wreck scene, ending a massive multi-agency manhunt.

Passenger Ronnie Bernard Williams, 31, of St. Augustine was critically injured when the vehicle, traveling at an estimated 100 mph, slammed into a large pine tree after Mr. Lundy tried to avoid stop sticks placed near the U.S. 90 interchange. He reportedly navigated around a similar obstruction in Columbia County.

Mr. Williams was taken to Fraser Hospital and flown to Shands Jacksonville. Neither suspect was wearing a seat belt, FHP’s report indicates.

A Madison County Sheriff’s Office deputy attempted to pull the Charger over for speeding about 9:30 am on I-10 eastbound. During the traffic stop, the vehicle sped away and at some point the deputy fired at the car.

FHP’s account of the incident states the gun shots occurred before the vehicle fled the scene. A news release from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is investigating the shooting at the request of Madison County authorities, said “an altercation occurred, shots were fired, and the chase began.”

Allen C. Hyde

A Macclenny man was among 13 suspects arrested across the state and in Georgia last week for stealing valuable artifacts from state lands and attempting to sell them online and at trade shows during the last two years.

Undercover officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) infiltrated a group of men accused of digging or dredging on state property to find the artifacts, some priced at $100,000. Most of the suspects were arrested at their homes the morning of February 27, including Allen Charles Hyde at 53 W. Macclenny Ave.

Mr. Hyde, 49, faces 50 felony counts of dealing in stolen property, one misdemeanor count of theft and 51 felony counts of violating historical resources, according to FWC.

The state agency did not release details of each suspect’s specific offenses like what artifacts they took from public lands or the exact locations of the alleged thefts.