Amelia Island just picked up 3.2 miles of new trail

the

Island Brief

Amelia Island • Nassau County • First Coast

Happy Friday, Nassau County. It is a wet one, so plan accordingly. The good news is that the island picked up 3.2 miles of new paved trail on Wednesday, Amelia Community Theatre closes its 45th season tomorrow night, and there is a turtle nest coming open at seven Saturday morning if the sky cooperates. Sunday is bare on the calendar, which, given that it is the island’s better weather day, is not the worst outcome.

Fernandina ⛈️ 87°/74° Yulee ⛈️ 90°/73°

Callahan ⛈️ 91°/72° Hilliard ⛈️ 90°/70°

Saturday runs 85 on the island and 88 to 89 inland, storms likely from late morning, with the mainland heat index touching 100. Sunday is where the two halves of the county part company: the island falls to a 40 percent chance and Callahan and Hilliard stay at 70. So on the island, Sunday afternoon is your window. On the mainland, take the morning both days and do not count on anything after lunch. No advisories anywhere in the county, and the one named storm in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Dolly, is still out near the Leeward Islands.

🎉	This Weekend

Aug 28

“And Then There Were None,” final two nights Amelia Community Theatre, 207 Cedar Street • Tonight and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. • The Agatha Christie mystery closes the show and the theatre’s 45th season; no matinee left. Box office (904) 261-6749.

Aug 29

Public sea turtle nest excavation Beach access 6N off Ocean Avenue • Saturday, 7 a.m. • Free, about half an hour, volunteers narrate as they inventory the nest. The schedule is rebuilt daily and excavations cancel for weather without notice, so check it before you leave the house.

Aug 29

Fernandina Beach Farmers Market N. Seventh Street, downtown • Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. • This is the fifth Saturday of the month, so it is the only one running. The Arts Market on Centre takes second and fourth Saturdays and Wildlight takes first and third, and both are off until September.

Aug 29

StoryTime with Ms. Dearsha Story & Song, 1430 Park Avenue • Saturday, 10:30 a.m. • Free. The bookstore’s children’s programming director reads aloud in the store, which is a decent answer to a rainy Saturday with small people in the house.

Aug 29

The Story of Jazz, Part 4: “Bebop, Blues & Beyond” Story & Song, 1430 Park Avenue • Saturday, 5 p.m. • Les DeMerle and his band, with vocalist Bonnie Eisele, close out the summer jazz series by running from the big band era through bebop and the blues. Ticketed; check with the store for seats.

🍽️

Try This

County and city officials cut the ribbon Wednesday morning at the trail and Airport Road on the finished Amelia Island Parkway Trail, and unless you happened to be there, you may not know it is done. The first segment, South Fletcher to Jamestown Road, opened back in 2024. What landed this week is the rest of it, Jamestown to Eighth Street, which makes 3.2 miles of asphalt that ties into the original Amelia Island Trail from 2011 and picks up the River to Sea trail at Bailey Road. It is built for people going at a comfortable pace rather than for road cyclists, who will still want the roadway. Go Sunday morning if you can, before the afternoon finds you, and take the whole thing at least once so you can see where it actually connects.

📍 Along Amelia Island Parkway, South Fletcher Avenue to South Eighth Street • Free, open daily • E-bikes allowed at 10 mph; no golf carts, no other motorized vehicles

📰	In Case You Missed It

Century Communities is moving ahead with two more Nassau County subdivisions. Hidden Lake, near Amelia Walk in Fernandina Beach, is 275 homes on 80-foot lots and is already underway after the builder closed on the land. Mills Bridge adds 144 homes on narrower 40- and 50-foot lots, with sales expected to open in the first quarter of 2027. The company sold out its 247-unit Concourse Crossing here earlier this year, and vice president of land acquisition Andrea Johansson told Nassau NewsLine that when supply is low in places people want to be, “the fundamentals of home building bode really well.” The timing is the part worth sitting with: the city’s own community-character survey, which we covered Monday, found 73 percent of respondents naming overdevelopment the single biggest threat to the place.

Read More → Nassau NewsLine

On August 20 the FDA put its highest-risk classification on frozen GreenWise Organic Blueberries and Mixed Berries sold at Publix, a Class 1 alert over possible E. coli contamination. Twelve people have been sickened so far and eleven of them are in Florida. If the bags are in your freezer, throw them out or take them back to Publix for a refund. It caps a bad summer for this: the Observer’s Shari Roan reports Florida had logged 448 Cyclospora cases as of August 19, two of them here in Nassau County, and 2,520 salmonella cases since June 1. The chief medical officer at Ascension St. Vincent’s Riverside, Dr. Mario Pulido, called the Cyclospora outbreak remarkable and said warm weather is doing most of the work.

Read More → Fernandina Observer

Roughly 200 people packed Tigre Island on August 24 for the premiere of “The Right Whale: Tales of Resilience and Hope,” a new documentary by California filmmakers Cheryl and Nick Dean. The film travels through waters off Argentina and Australia before finishing here, for the reason locals already know: the water off Fernandina Beach is where North Atlantic right whales come to calve. Fewer than 400 of them are left. The Amelia Island Whale Ambassadors sponsored the screening, and founder Candis Whitney said it has never mattered more to keep the population going. Calving season starts in November, which is also when the whales become everybody’s business again.

Read More → Fernandina Observer

📌	Briefly Noted

Three point two miles of new trail, and nobody has decided yet where you stop on it. Every path on this island has unofficial landmarks: the bench, the patch of shade, the spot where everyone turns around. If you get out there this weekend, tell us what yours is going to be. Hit reply and let us know. We read every response.

The island just gained 3.2 miles of multiuse trail. Take an e-bike out on it and how fast are you allowed to go? And can you bring the golf cart?

Answer: Ten miles an hour, and no. E-bikes are the one motorized exception permitted on the island’s multiuse trails and they are capped at 10 mph. Golf carts are not allowed on them at all. Ten is the same figure the city wrote into its e-bike ordinance last July for trails, sidewalks and beaches, where the limit out on city roadways is 25.

Know someone who'd love a weekend guide to the island? Forward this to them.

Share With a Friend ✈️

Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe free →

f ✦