Mid-Week Edition: June 3, 2026

the

Island Brief

Amelia Island • Nassau County • First Coast

Happy Wednesday, Nassau County. A north wind, surf and rip current advisories at the beach, and the rare June day that calls for a light layer. The civic week kept its promise too. The data center fact-finding committee held its first meeting Monday night, the company eyeing 1,600 acres in the county finally has a name, and tonight the city wants to talk about what comes next at Waterfront Park. Coffee first.

📰	What You Need to Know

The first session of Nassau County's Fact-Finding Committee on Data Center Development drew an engaged Yulee crowd Monday night, with residents Pat Scattolon and Chadd Charland of the Florida Native Plant Society raising specific concerns about water use, electrical demand, noise, and heat. The company that has been the unspoken subject of all this is NextNRG, an AI-focused energy firm now confirmed to hold a long-term lease option on roughly 1,600 acres in the county, with as much as 400 of those acres possibly hosting a hyperscale data center. The committee meets again tonight in Callahan at 5 PM, and its work feeds straight into next Monday's final BOCC vote on a 12-month moratorium.

Read More → Action News Jax

After months of guessing, the new Publix at 1421 Sadler Road has a confirmed opening: 7 AM on Thursday, July 2. The renovated 58,834-square-foot store brings back a major grocery option for the south end of the island and adds a few features locals have been hearing about for a while. The chain's Pours concept will serve smoothies, acai bowls, and other drinks; the deli is getting a pizza oven and burrito bowls; and the whole footprint is the larger, newer Publix format. "The new store brings shopping back to the local community," Publix spokesperson Hannah Herring said. It is the second of the island's two closed grocery anchors to come back online this year, following ALDI's opening in March.

Read More → News-Leader

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🌟	Community Spotlight

Sea turtle nesting season opened May 1 and runs through the end of October, and a quiet army of volunteers with Amelia Island Sea Turtle Watch is back on the sand at first light. Each volunteer takes a one-mile stretch, walks it every morning during the season, flags new nests with small "Do Not Disturb" signs, and logs the data that feeds state and federal sea turtle counts. Most of what they find here is loggerhead. By mid-July the focus shifts from finding nests to excavating ones that have hatched, and that is when the public sometimes gets to see live hatchlings released. If you want to help without joining a patrol, the simplest things still matter most: lights off if your house faces the beach, holes filled, sandcastles flattened, and trash carried back out. The work is volunteer-run and donation-funded.

Read More → Amelia Island Sea Turtle Watch

💼	Business Brief

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The Omni Amelia Island Resort & Spa unveiled its newly renovated spa with a ribbon-cutting at 60 Amelia Village Circle. The redesign adds a 2,300-square-foot serenity garden, new hydrotherapy amenities, and a "Low Country Zen" aesthetic, with future plans for community-facing yoga, sound baths, and after-hours sessions. (More)

➤	IVX Health, the national infusion and injection therapy provider, opens a Yulee location next Tuesday, June 9 with a 10 AM ribbon-cutting hosted by the Nassau County Chamber at 96044 Victoria's Place.

📌	Briefly Noted

🗓️	Quick Picks This Week

Wed 3

Town Hall: Waterfront Park Phase II City Hall, 204 Ash Street • 6:00–7:00 PM • Public input on what comes after the April Phase I opening

Fri 5

Gumball 3000 + Sounds on Centre (Mojo Roux) Centre Street • 6:00–9:00 PM • 100+ supercars, free to the public, Mojo Roux playing outside the Palace Saloon

Fri 5

"Enchanted April" opens at Amelia Community Theatre 207 Cedar Street • Runs through June 20, matinees June 7 and 14 • Romantic comedy set in 1920s Italy

Gumball 3000 brings more than 100 supercars to Centre Street on Friday, the first time the rally has ever stopped on Amelia Island. What is the one car, old or new, foreign or domestic, that you would actually go downtown to see in person? Hit reply and let us know. We read every response.

Friday's Sounds on Centre concert sets up right outside Florida's oldest continuously operated drinking saloon, at the corner of Centre and Second Streets in downtown Fernandina. What is its name, and roughly what year did it open?

Answer: The Palace Saloon, which opened in 1903. Bonus fact: the swinging doors and pressed-tin ceiling are still original.

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