Bryan Rhoden left the Baker County Commission meeting this week a happy man in stark contrast to the disappointment he felt five years ago when commissioners flatly denied his request to rezone land on the St. Mary’s River for a waterfront campground and picnic area off Steel Bridge Road.

This time, the board unanimously approved his rezoning request after 10 people lauded Mr. Rhoden for the hard work he has put into his property to keep it a “clean, safe place for families to go for fun and recreation.”

“I’m impressed,” Commission Chairman Gordon Crews told Mr. Rhoden after listening to the glowing endorsements. “Your support speaks volumes. No one spoke against it.”

The commission’s decision on the evening of October 15 rezones a 6.85-acre parcel from residential to recreation resource — the same zoning that applies to a small county park and boat ramp immediately west of Mr. Rhoden’s property, which he calls St. Mary’s Cove Landing.

The county’s comprehensive plan, which designates future land use, also will be changed to reflect the new recreation status of the property, which lies immediately west of St. Mary’s Cove subdivision.

A fatal crash on the interstate near mile marker 335 involving a vehicle traveling in the wrong direction killed two people about 2:30 am Friday, according to Maj. Gerald Gonzalez of the sheriff's office.

Emile McPherson Whitney, 47, of Ocala was heading westbound in the eastbound lanes of I-10 in a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee when it hit head-on the 2005 Honda Odyssey driven by Nge Thay, 20, of Jacksonville, which carried eight passengers.

Two of those passengers, Ta Nu, 47, and Kaw Lay, 37, both of Jacksonville, died at the scene.

A Sanderson man was placed on a five-year probation after pleading on September 25 to four counts of grand theft and fraud for what amounted to a one-man crime spree starting late in 2011.

Aaron Roy Davis will be on house arrest the first year of that term, according to court records. Circuit Judge Phyllis Rosier ordered him to avoid contact with all of the six victims he stole from through March of this year.

A later hearing will determine the restitution amount that will be part of the probation obligation.

Mr. Davis was arrested for stealing property including tools, a trailer, farm implements and fence posts during that period. He was also charged with defrauding a pawn shop and scrap yard by representing himself as the owner of items he turned in for cash, but those charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement.

After Michael Crews was elected to the Baker County Commission in 2008 he began calling for measures to ease the tax burden on property owners by implementing special assessments that everybody would pay to cover the costs of public services.

He’s still spreading that message just weeks before he leaves office after losing his re-election bid in an atmosphere of public protests over county budget issues, including the continued use of reserve funds to cover deficits, and pending sand mine proposals.

Mr. Crews cast the only vote against the $28.2 million 2012-13 county budget at the commission meeting on October 2, which he later explained was his way of saying that the county had not done enough to ease the tax load on property owners by spreading out the costs of public services more equitably.

“I did not vote in support of the budget for multiple reasons,” Mr. Crews said in an interview on October 8. “One is because the way it is currently done is a burden (on too many property owners) because the cost of services is falling on the few.”