Fernandina's parking vote passed. The meters stay on for now

the

Island Brief

Amelia Island • Nassau County • First Coast

Happy Wednesday, Nassau County. The ballots are counted, and the short version is that paid parking lost badly and the meters downtown are still running. There is a lot packed inside that sentence, so we have laid it all out below. Also worth knowing before you go outside: the National Weather Service has a heat advisory up from 11 this morning until 8 tonight, with the heat index reaching 110. Fernandina tops out around 96, and Yulee, Callahan and Hilliard are all sitting at 98 or 99 before you add the humidity. Storms build west of the river after lunch, closer to a coin flip out in Callahan and about a 30 percent chance on the island.

📰	What You Need to Know

City voters approved the citizen-initiated parking ordinance Tuesday by roughly 75 percent to 25 percent in unofficial results. What it does is bar the city from putting paid parking into any designated area without first winning a majority vote of city voters, with an exemption for temporary paid parking tied to a publicly noticed special event of 30 days or less. What it does not do is switch off the program already running downtown. City Attorney Teresa Prince told commissioners back on October 21, 2025 that the initiative would not be retroactive, and City Manager Sarah Campbell later confirmed that reading, so the $2 an hour downtown keeps being charged unless the commission separately votes to repeal or change the program, or somebody successfully challenges the city's interpretation in court. Under the city charter, an ordinance adopted by citizen initiative can itself be repealed or amended by a four-fifths vote of the commission. The petition drive that put the question on the ballot gathered more than 1,700 certified signatures.

Read More → Fernandina Observer

Inglis took just over 51 percent of the vote in the three-way race, with former Vice Mayor Len Kreger and Staci McMonagle finishing within a point of each other well behind him. Clearing a majority is what kept the seat off the November 3 ballot. He is a retired 20-year Navy veteran who has lived in the same Fernandina Beach house since 2002, has chaired the Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival for the past three years, and ran as a political newcomer on controlling project costs, roads and street lighting, parks, the waterfront and working better with the county on growth and traffic. He opposed paid parking during the campaign and said voters should decide it. Inglis succeeds Mayor James Antun, who did not seek re-election, and takes office in November. Turnout in the city race was 4,933 ballots cast out of 7,100 registered voters.

Read More → Fernandina Observer

If you are expecting the vote to land on a commission table this evening, it will not, at least not as an action item. Tonight's regular meeting starts at 6 at City Hall, 204 Ash Street, and its agenda was posted on August 11, a full week before anybody voted, so there is nothing on it about repealing or changing the downtown program. Public comment near the top of the meeting is the only route for anyone who wants to be heard on it tonight. What is on the agenda: a presentation on the city's Comprehensive Plan Evaluation and Appraisal Review along with a 2050 Vision Plan prepared with the Northeast Florida Regional Council, the resolution authorizing the city's legal defense in the Beech Street lot lawsuit we wrote about Monday, a police union agreement with an approximate fiscal impact of $309,000 starting October 1, and a first reading of the updated pay and classification plan. The Observer's Mike Lednovich published an editorial this morning calling on commissioners to end paid parking now; that is his opinion page rather than the city's position. The next regular meeting after tonight is September 1.

Read More → City of Fernandina Beach agenda

A.M. "Hupp" Huppmann kept County Commission District 2 with about 48 percent in a three-way race, with Laura Dotson and Douglas Greene splitting the rest almost exactly evenly. Alyson McCullough held District 4 by roughly two points over Cheryl Plaugher. Lissa Braddock kept School Board District 5 with about 57 percent over Angel Foster Cole. Both county commission races were universal primaries, which is why every registered voter living in those districts could vote in them regardless of party, and all four contests were settled outright Tuesday rather than advancing to the general. Countywide turnout came in at 30.3 percent.

Read More → News4Jax

🌟	Community Spotlight

K9 Lea is a four-year-old Labrador retriever, an explosives detection dog, and according to the Observer a serious enthusiast of the beach on her days off. The American Humane Society has named her one of five semi-finalists in the military category of its 16th annual Hero Dog Awards, which puts her among 25 dogs nationwide across five categories and makes her the only Florida dog in her group. The awards go to ordinary working and companion dogs whose people nominated them, and the public decides the winners. Voting is open through September 18 at americanhumane.org/hero-dog-awards. If you were looking for a ballot with slightly lower stakes than yesterday's, here you go.

Read More → Fernandina Observer

💼	Business Brief

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Commissioners take up a city and county agreement tonight to rebuild Seaside Park at 2020 S. Fletcher Ave. as part of the long-running Amelia Island beachfront harmonization plan. The budget is $4 million, with the county pledging 70 percent from tourist development tax money and the city putting in the other 30 percent, or $1.2 million, out of next year's parks capital account. (More)

➤	Tasty's Fresh Burgers is closing its Wildlight location on Sunday after seven years. The company thanked its staff and customers and did not give a reason; the Yulee, Fernandina Beach and Kingsland stores stay open. (More)

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If you have a permit in the works, plan around next week. The Building, Planning and Conservation, and Utilities departments move to new software called CityView, with a migration window of August 24 through 28 when the online portals are down, email and phone in the meantime, and a go-live date of Monday, August 31. A public training session follows September 2. (More)

📌	Briefly Noted

🗓️	Quick Picks This Week

Thu 20

Conservation lands workshop on the Piney Island viewshed plan Nassau County Board Chambers, 96135 Nassau Place, Yulee • 3 p.m. • A special workshop of the county's CLAM committee, open to the public

Sat 22

Terry Kelly Skate Jam and the TK 5K Poe Pinson Skate Park, Main Beach • 5K at 8 a.m., skate jam 1 to 9 p.m. • Tenth jam, third 5K, run by Friends of Fernandina Skate Park. Late registration closes Friday at 6 p.m. and packet pickup is Friday 2 to 6 at Mythic Running, 815 S. 8th St.

Sun 23

Sunset Concert Series: Your Mom's Favorite Band Amelia River Waterfront Park, 123 S. Front St. • 7 to 9 p.m. • Free. Bring a chair or rent one from Rip Tide for a $5 donation, and Keep Nassau Beautiful has the water refill stations

Somebody worked your precinct yesterday, and in this county that mostly means neighbors sitting in a church hall or a rec center from before seven in the morning until long after the last ballot goes in. If you have ever done it, tell us what the day is actually like. And if somebody made your two minutes easier yesterday, tell us who. Hit reply and let us know. We read every response.

Florida runs closed primaries, so you normally have to be registered with a party to vote in its primary. Yet every registered voter in County Commission Districts 2 and 4 could vote in those races yesterday no matter how they are registered. What makes that legal?

Answer: The universal primary rule. Florida voters amended the state constitution in 1998 to say that when every candidate for an office has the same party affiliation and the winner will face no opposition in the general election, every qualified voter may vote in that primary regardless of party. Both county commission races met that test, which is why they were open to everyone and why they were decided outright on Tuesday instead of carrying over to November.

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