Early voting opens Thursday in Nassau County

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Island Brief

Amelia Island • Nassau County • First Coast

Good Morning, Nassau County! August starts wet. There is a 70 percent chance of rain today, most of it before mid-afternoon, so keep the umbrella in the car. It is a heavy week on the civic calendar too. The city commission begins working through next year's budget line by line, early voting opens Thursday, and a week from this morning the buses are back on the road. Grab your coffee. Here is everything worth knowing to start your week.

Fernandina 🌧️ 86°/74° Yulee 🌧️ 87°/73°

Callahan 🌧️ 88°/72° Hilliard 🌧️ 88°/72°

Showers are likely through the morning and a thunderstorm is possible between 10 and 3, with a quarter to a half inch of rain on the table. It dries out after dinner. Tuesday climbs back to 88 with a heat index near 100 and storms most likely mid-afternoon, and Wednesday runs 87 with a 40 percent chance after 2 p.m. No advisories are up. Today is the day for the indoor errand you have been putting off.

📰	Top Stories

Commissioners set the ceiling on next year's property tax rate a week ago Tuesday, voting 4 to 1 for 4.8530 mills, the highest of the four options staff put in front of them, and they did it before they had seen City Manager Sarah Campbell's proposed budget. That budget was due Friday. Now comes the part where they open it up. The commission meets Tuesday at City Hall with a workshop at 5 and its regular meeting at 6, then holds budget workshops Wednesday and Thursday and again next Monday and Tuesday, all at 5 p.m. That tentative rate can still come down before the final vote in September, but it cannot go back up, so the arguing over what stays and what gets cut happens over these four sessions. Agendas and the livestream are on the city's meeting portal.

Read More → City of Fernandina Beach

Polls open for early voting Thursday, August 6, and stay open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day through Saturday, August 15, weekends included. Unlike Election Day, any registered Nassau County voter can use any early voting site that is open, so you are not tied to your precinct. Thursday is also the last day to request a vote-by-mail ballot, with a 5 p.m. deadline. On the August 18 ballot: the mayor's race between Genece Minshew and Tim Poynter, the three-way City Commission Seat 4 race among Scott Inglis, Len Kreger and Staci McMonagle, the paid parking referendum, County Commission District 2, and School Board District 5. Bring a photo ID with your signature on it.

Read More → Nassau County Supervisor of Elections

The state's July inspection reports for Nassau County are out, and 23 food service establishments failed on the first visit. The highest violation counts over the last 30 days went to The Sandbar and Kitchen with 22, Mini Drunken Noodle with 20, and Tenkura Sushi and Bohemian Bull with 19 each. Two places came through with a clean sheet and zero violations: the Waffle House on South Kings Road and the Chick-fil-A on State Road 200 in Yulee. Worth keeping the state's own caveat in mind before you cross anywhere off your list. An inspection is a snapshot of one particular day, and the same kitchen can have more or fewer violations the next time an inspector walks in.

Read More → Fernandina Observer

Nassau County students go back Monday, August 10. Several elementary schools hold Meet and Greet drop-ins on Friday, with the window set school by school, so check your school's page or the district app for the time before you show up. Middle and high schoolers who plan to ride an e-bike or e-scooter onto campus need to finish the district's application and safety course and be certified first, and the courses are available now. And the roads change a week from today. If you have a new driver or a new bus-stop walker in the house, the last quiet mornings are this week.

📍	Around Nassau County

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American Beach: A group of American Beach neighbors, plus a few grandchildren visiting for the summer, spent an afternoon at the Barnabas Center studio painting bowls for the center's Empty Bowls luncheon. Vernell Britton has hosted the paint party for her neighbors for years now, and Barnabas expects more than 800 hand-painted bowls before November. (More)

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Countywide: The St. Marys Riverkeeper is asking residents to fill out a watershed resilience survey. It runs 5 to 10 minutes, asks for no personal information, and collects what people have actually seen: where it floods, where it erodes, which roads close and how often. That gets folded into a resilience plan for the watershed. (More)

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Countywide: Saturday closed the public comment window on the county's draft data center rules, the rural-character framework the fact-finding committee has been drafting since spring. Next the committee finalizes what it sends to county commissioners, who are working under a 12-month moratorium on data center approvals. (More)

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Yulee: The Nassau County Value Adjustment Board holds its organizational meeting this morning at 10 in the commission chambers at the James S. Page complex. It is the annual housekeeping session that sets the rules for property owners who want to challenge their assessment, which is timely, because TRIM notices land in mailboxes this month.

📌	Briefly Noted

🗓️	This Week on the Island

TUE 4

City Commission meeting City Hall, 204 Ash Street • Workshop at 5 p.m., regular meeting at 6 • Agendas and the livestream are posted on the city's portal

WED 5

Brown Bag Lunch: "The Siege of Pensacola" Baker Hall, Amelia Island Museum of History • Noon to 1 p.m. • Free, with Dr. James Cusick; in person or streamed online, and yes, bring your own lunch

THU 6

Early voting opens Any open Nassau County early voting site • 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through Aug. 15 • Bring a photo ID with your signature; mail ballot requests close at 5 p.m. this same day

FRI 7

Sounds on Centre Centre Street, downtown • 6 to 8 p.m. • Free outdoor concert; the series took July off and now runs first Fridays through October

SAT 8

Fernandina Beach Farmers Market N. 7th Street, downtown • 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. • Produce, seafood, flowers and baked goods, rain or shine. The Arts Market sets up alongside it at 506 Centre on second Saturdays

SAT 8

AI Dance Festival Preview: A Celebration of Dance Story & Song, 1430 Park Ave. • 5 to 6:30 p.m. • $35; a first look at the artists coming to September's Amelia Island Dance Festival, with performances by festival dancers and guests

SUN 9

Acoustic Flashback with Bill Ivins Story & Song courtyard, 1430 Park Ave. • Noon to 2 p.m. • Free, no RSVP; grab lunch from the bistro and find a seat outside

One week from this morning, the alarm clocks come back. Every household has its own first-day ritual: the picture on the front steps, one particular breakfast, the walk to the bus stop, the quiet cup of coffee after drop-off. What is yours? Hit reply and let us know. We read every response.

Nassau County was carved out of Duval County in December 1824 and named for a small duchy on the other side of the Atlantic. In what country would you find that place today?

Answer: Germany. The Duchy of Nassau sat in the west of what is now Germany and was the ancestral home of the House of Orange-Nassau. The name reached here first by water, during Florida's British period, when the Nassau River and Nassau Sound were named for the family of William of Orange. When the county was created in 1824, it took the name from the river.

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