News

    The distinctive putter of Model A engines were singing their own song as Ford enthusiasts started arriving in Orange Park for the Southeast Model “A” Round-up on Thursday.
    Jacksonville has a history of enthusiasm for Ford vehicles, which started with the Jacksonville Ford Plant that was built in the mid-1920s. Model A’s rolled off of its assembly line from the late ‘20s to the early ‘30s, and that history is kept alive by the passion of the First Coast Region Model “A” Club.
    “Nothing sounds like a Model A,” said Bob Cook, of Green Cove, a member of the club for about three years. “It’s that putta-putta-putta that people listen for. They are considered to be the No. 1 collector car, as far as popularity.”
    Ford produced more than five million Model A’s from 1927 to 1932, and this production allowed for plenty of opportunities for Model “A” enthusiasts to find parts and bodies for restoration projects.
    “The engine for the Model “A” was used in bigger trucks, trains and airplanes,” said Karl Burghart, 74, former president of the club. “It was a very versatile engine.”
    Cook met Burghart when he was looking to get involved with the club after his dad suggested he find a club in the Jacksonville area.
    “I called Karl up and we started talking about tinkering with Model A’s,” Cook said. “By the end of the phone call he asked me if I wanted to drive one of his cars in an upcoming parade. He was having some mobility problems and thought it would be better if someone was driving it rather than having it sit around. That’s just the way car people are.”
    Cook and Burghart developed a friendship and they took on a restoration project together that produced the “Moosemobile,” which celebrates the Moose Lodge that Karl and his wife, Winnie, are members of.
“This isn’t a show grade Model “A” because we made it out off a bunch of parts, so purists might scoff at it,” Cook said with a grin. “We wanted to make a parade car and this is what we came up with.”
Another consideration for the project was Karl’s mobility.
    “Model A’s aren’t the easiest cars to get in and out of,” Cook said. “So we stretched it out a little to make it easier for Karl to get in and out of.”
    The pair also outfitted the truck with a truck bed built up with cypress walls, a Bermuda bell, fire engine siren and moose horns.
    “We also added some 1930s bling,” Cook said.
    The radiator has a chrome quail cap that also functions as a temperature gauge and chrome wheel caps.     It took about a year to build the truck up from just the frame.
    Cook and Burghart will join about 50 other Model “A” owners Thursday through Sunday for the Seventh Annual Southeast Model “A” Round-up. The event will be hosted by the Quality Inn on Park Ave (U.S. 17) in Orange Park.
    The Round-up will feature seminars, a flea market for collectors, a poker run and ride to Green Cove Springs. The Model “A” vehicles are set to roll out of the Quality Inn Parking lot at 9 a.m. today. They will roll along River Road in Orange Park to Kingsley to Doctor’s Lake Drive to Peoria Road to College Drive to 220 to 209 to Henley Road to Sandridge Road to Green Cove Springs.   
    “You don’t want to drive something like this if you are in a hurry,” Cook said, “But they can get up to 45 miles an hour and even 55 miles an hour with modifications to the engine. Some people even drive them down from Georgia and South Carolina.”

    A local citizens’ group would like to see Clay County vote on whether or not the county commissioners’ salaries should be cut in half.
    The Citizens for Term Limits and Accountability Committee, Inc., filed petitions with the Supervisor of Elections to have the issue placed on the next ballot, the Board of Clay County Commissioners were informed Tuesday at its regular meeting. The five county commissioners earn a base salary of $61,875.
    “We have today placed in the hands of the Supervisor of Elections a petition that will reduce the salaries of Clay County Commissioners to $37,000 a year,” read Durwood Smith, a representative of the group. “We believe this is a fair salary for a part-time employee.”

    Local food pantry officials are celebrating the results of the Souper Bowl.
    Yes, Souper, it’s not a typo.
    During Super Bowl week, more than 20 Clay County schools and churches collected more than 2,400 non-perishable food items for local food pantries, as part of the Souper Bowl of Caring, a youth-led national program created in 1990 to fight hunger. To date, the effort has raised $33 million for charities. Participants choose their own benefactor.
    Ridgeview High School students collected 626 cans of soup and $132 for the Clay County Food Bank. Students and staff at Ridgeview Elementary School donated 1,000 items to the Clothes Closet of Orange Park, said teacher Caroline Chandler.

    An Orange Park man has been indicted on a first-degree murder charge in the shooting death of his neighbor.
    Ralph Javier Muma was rearrested just after the panel handed down the indictment Feb. 9. He had been jailed since Jan. 8 without bond on an open count of murder.
    Muma, 48, is accused of killing Ralph Rodney Forehand on Dec. 28. Forehand lived across the street from Muma and his family — had even helped them string Christmas lights. He was gunned down in the driveway of his next-door neighbor’s home in the Heritage Hills subdivision off Blanding Boulevard. He was shot four times and died at the scene, despite efforts by fire rescue personnel to save him.

    Twenty-one Clay County wrestlers will take to the mats with some of the best athletes in the state today through Saturday in Lakeland at the state championships.
    Two of the county’s contingent are undefeated – Clay High two-time state champ Cory Baudendistel (135 pounds) and Ridgeview’s Stephon Cohens (130). They go into their respective divisions (1A for Clay and 2A for Ridgeview) as favorites to win state titles.
    Three other wrestlers – Clay’s Garret Soileau (45-2 at 112) and Steven Joseph (46-1 at 119), and Fleming Island’s Adam Taylor (35-2 at 145) – have two or fewer losses this season, but will be hard to beat as they ascend the ladder toward the championship final.

Clay County School Board member Charles Van Zant Jr. has requested a leave of absence while he is deployed in Kuwait with the Florida National Guard, and asks that his father serve as his replacement.
Gov. Charlie Crist had not received the request as of Tuesday afternoon, said Erin Isaac, Crist’s press secretary. A decision about appointing a temporary replacement will not be made until after the request is in hand, she said.
“We will have to evaluate the specifics once we receive it,” she said.
Van Zant, who represents the Keystone Heights area, is on extended active duty in Kuwait as a helicopter pilot for the 1-11th Aviation Regiment, Florida Army National Guard. District officials said Van Zant had asked Crist to name his father, retired architect Charles Van Zant Sr., also of Keystone Heights, to the seat.

An Orange Park officer says the man appeared intoxicated.

By DEBORAH CEARNAL
Clay County Line

A son of Clay County Attorney Mark Scruby is scheduled to be in court Feb. 21 for his arraignment on drug charges.
Robert Edward Scruby, 19, was arrested just after noon Feb. 2 on Kingsley Avenue.
An Orange Park Police officer responded to a call of an intoxicated person walking down the street. Scruby “appeared intoxicated,” the officer wrote in his arrest report. The officer offered Scruby a ride and asked if he had any weapons on him. Scruby pulled a plastic box containing “small white pills” from his trousers, the report said.
The officer also found more white pills, some blue pills and some orange pills on Scruby. The pills were identified as the prescription pills Lortab, Ambien and Xanax.
Scruby is charged with possession of a controlled substance.
He was released on his own recognizance.
The charge is a third-degree felony, punishable by a $5,000 fine and/or five years in prison.

It’s their second crown in 3 years; they were No. 2 the other year.

By BILL JOHNSON
Clay County Line
Hayley Flynn scored two goals, including an early 35-yard free kick that sailed untouched into the upper right corner of the net, as the St. Johns Lady Spartans blew past defending state champion Delray Beach American Heritage 5-0 on Thursday night in Fort Lauderdale to claim their second 2A state soccer title in three years.
Tyler Law, Molly Richardson and Amanda Martorana also scored for the 27-1-3 Spartans, but it was their dominating defense that once again proved impenetrable. The Spartans, coached by Mike Pickett, had 23 shutouts in 31 games and didn’t allow a single goal in five regional playoff games.
“This was really amazing. We’re all psyched,” said Amanda Martorana, who got a “sister assist” on her final Lady Spartan goal from Nikki Martorana.
Amanda, who has netted plenty of sweet shots in her career, said Flynn’s first goal, only seven minutes in, “was one of the sweetest shots I’ve ever seen.” Flynn totaled 25 goals this season.
American Heritage is the same team the Lady Spartans defeated to win the 2005 state championship, and the same team they lost to in the 2006 championship game.
On Wednesday, St. Johns powered its way into the championship final with a solid 4-0 win over St. Petersburg Shorecrest.
Kara Moore, Molly Richardson, Amanda and Nikki Martorana did the scoring for St. Johns in the semifinal-round win, while the Lady Spartans’ brick-wall defense produced yet another shutout, allowing only two shots on goal.
The Spartans had allowed only 72 shots on its goal heading into the championship game, an average of 2.4 per game. The Spartans allowed American Heritage four shots.
Senior forward Amanda Martorana, who signed with the University of Central Florida while in Fort Lauderdale, ended her Spartan career with 194 career goals. She now has been on two state championship soccer teams and won two individual state track titles.

By MARY MARAGHY
Clay County Line
It’s impressive enough that a seventh-grader made the high school varsity soccer squad at St. Johns Country Day School.
But the success of 13-year-old Carson Pickett on the soccer field, and on the track, especially, grabs people — because Carson was born without a left hand.
“Everything she does, she’s good at. She runs like a gazelle. She’s a great kid,” said assistant soccer coach Brad Schmidt. “Her disability has never been an issue. You don’t think about it or even notice.”
Carson can’t throw a ball in-bounds because regulations require two hands. But other than that she’s on equal footing. So far this season, Carson, who plays left back on defense, has scored 7 goals and provided 14 assists. The team is 22-1.

A meeting finds contention over who takes credit — or blame — for the moratorium.

By JOE WILHELM Jr.
Clay County Line
Communication is an area that Clay County commissioners and the  school district are working on as they continue to plan for the county’s future.
A communications breakdown, however, led to an awkward moment Tuesday night.
An item on the agenda for the Planning Commission was the rezoning moratorium approved by the County Commission at its Jan. 23 meeting. A representative from the school district stepped to the podium to clear up any confusion about who called for the moratorium.
“I was told pretty much when the door opened to make this comment, that this initiative with the moratorium was not initiated by the Clay County School Board,” said Shawanda Watson, coordinator of Planning and Intergovernmental Relations, facility planning and construction for the school district.
“It was initiated by county commissioners here and the school district has always just had the intent that they were supporting that initiative because it would give us a little breathing room, but they wanted that clarified that it was not initiated by the School Board.”
The statement confused some of the commissioners.
“Why did the commissioners bring it up if the School Board didn’t need it?” asked Marsha Dumler, a planning commissioner.
The statement was rescinded the following day by School Superintendent David Owens.
“It was a strictly mutual thing as we talked about growth and how we could deal with it,” Owens said. “It was a mutual thing for both boards to help us catch our breath. Whoever made that statement at the meeting was misinformed.”
County Commission Chairman Harold Rutledge echoed the sentiment.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Rutledge said. “We both committed to it [the moratorium] and we both think it is the right thing to do for the county.”
The moratorium will put a freeze on any rezoning requests that would increase density until May 1, 2008, or until concurrency requirements are met. Concurrency requires that counties have infrastructure, schools, roads and police for example, available to meet its development needs. The moratorium is aimed at halting any new major subdivisions or housing developments until concurrency is achieved.
Another move being discussed by the School Board to improve communications between it and the county government is seeking a seat on the planning commission, an issue raised Tuesday night.
“I am opposed to a representative of the School Board being a voting member on this council,” commission member Ralph Puckhaber said.
“They don’t ask us to comment on School Board business. I don’t see why we need to have them comment on county development.
“They have been doing a great job of commenting on zoning applications recently, and think that’s a better way for them to contribute to the planning process.”
Commission member Belinda Johnson was also wary of adding a School Board representative.
“I’ve looked through the minutes of our meetings for the last 10 years, and in those minutes there is always a ‘no comment’ from the School Board,” Johnson said. “I’ve been on this board for the last 13 years, and we’ve never had comments from the School Board.
“Now they want to step up and put a stop to growth? That’s where I’m coming from, we plan for growth, not how to stop growth.”
The commission agreed to send a letter to the county commissioners saying they would not like to see a representative from the School Board serve on the commission.
County Commissioner Doug Conkey sat in the back row of the meeting hall and was able to hear the reasoning behind the commission’s suggestion of denying the new voting member.
“It was interesting to hear their side of the argument last night,” Conkey said. “I want to hear all the different perspectives on this subject, get all the views and facts so I can make the most informed decision on the subject — a fair decision.”
The issue of adding members to the planning commission wasn’t on the county commissioners’ agenda for their Tuesday meeting by midweek.

joe.wilhelm@jacksonville.com, (904) 278-9487, ext. 6372