Nassau County votes Tuesday, at your precinct and nowhere else

The ten days of early voting ended Saturday at 6 p.m., and that changes one practical thing about tomorrow. During early voting any registered Nassau voter could use any open site. On election day you go to the polling place assigned to your precinct, and nowhere else. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and if you are not sure where yours is, the Supervisor of Elections has a precinct lookup you can run in about twenty seconds.

Inside the Fernandina Beach city limits there are two items: the three-way race for City Commission Seat 4 between Scott Inglis, Len Kreger and Staci McMonagle, and the citizen-initiated paid parking referendum, which would require voter approval before the city charges for parking in new areas. Countywide the ballot carries County Commission Districts 2 and 4 plus School Board District 5. The two commission races are universal primaries, so every registered voter living in those districts can vote in them regardless of party. The mayor's race between Genece Minshew and Tim Poynter is not on this ballot; only two candidates qualified, so that one is settled at the November 3 general.

Karenia brevis, the organism behind red tide, turned up in a water sample at Fort George Inlet on August 6, and the Duval County health department issued an alert five days later. A second Duval alert followed for Kingsley Plantation. In the state wildlife commission's August 14 status report, bloom concentrations showed up in two Duval samples for the first time this season, and the organism was found in Nassau County waters at very low concentrations. No fish kills and no reports of respiratory irritation came in during that reporting period.

This is genuinely unusual here. Red tide is a Gulf Coast story that starts with an upwelling and needs sun, warm water and nutrients to bloom, and low cell counts often fade instead of growing. The last serious Atlantic bloom ran from the Georgia line to Jupiter Inlet in the fall of 2007, and dredging crews working the Amelia Island beach renourishment that September reported coughing and throat irritation to the county health department. The sensible posture for now is awareness, not alarm: if the water looks discolored or you start coughing on the beach, move along, rinse off after, keep dogs away from dead fish, and check the state's next report on Friday.

Fernandina Beach ocean rower Paul Lore and his British rowing partner Dawn Smith were eight miles from the end of a 2,500-nautical-mile North Atlantic crossing on Saturday when exhaustion, the currents and the risk of being pushed onto rocks made them call for help. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution towed the pair and their 28-foot boat, Penny B, into Newlyn Harbour in southwest England at about 2:30 in the morning.

The tow ended the unsupported part of the row, which may cost them a Guinness World Record. It does not do much to the rest of it. They left St. John's, Newfoundland, and spent 50 days on three-hour shifts, cold and broken sleep, rowing to raise money and attention for military veterans, service dogs and children living with a genetic disorder. Eight miles, after 2,500.

We told you last Monday the nomination was headed to Tallahassee. It went well. The Florida National Register Review Board voted Wednesday to send Bosque Bello Cemetery's nomination on to the National Park Service, which now has 45 days to accept or reject it. If it lands, all 34 acres of the city-owned burial ground get recognized for their connection to Fernandina's early settlement, its multicultural development and its African American history.

Two city planning and conservation staffers, Mia Sadler and Mackennah Tarmey, drove up to speak for it. The nomination was prepared by Terracon with the Amelia Island Fernandina Restoration Foundation and the city. Bosque Bello was laid out around 1798, when Domingo Fernandez gave the land to the community for a public burial ground, which puts it ahead of Florida statehood and ahead of the 1811 Spanish plat of Old Town next door. The oldest surviving marker there is from 1813, and it is still an active cemetery. Listing would also make it eligible for preservation money.

James and Julie Pledger, who own a home at 1809 Beech St., are asking a Nassau County judge to halt construction next door at 1826 Amelia Ave., block the city from issuing a certificate of occupancy, and ultimately order the partly finished house removed. Their argument is about the lot rather than the house: they say the parcel was split off through a 2003 quitclaim deed without the subdivision approval the City Commission should have given, and that at roughly 8,372 square feet it falls short of the minimum they say applies in that zoning district.

The city disputes the central claim and has produced a March 2003 letter in which a city planner found the parcel met the zoning rules then in effect and was buildable. The Pledgers, who are representing themselves without an attorney, filed a fourth amended complaint on August 5 and say the structure was about 70 percent complete at that point. Commissioners are being asked Wednesday night to approve a resolution formally authorizing the city's legal defense, which decides nothing about who is right.

Bosque Bello has been burying Fernandina families since before Florida was a state, and the oldest stone still standing there is from 1813. If you have people in that ground, we would like to hear about them. A name, a section, the story you were told about how they got here. Hit reply and let us know. We read every response.

The skate park at Main Beach hosts the Terry Kelly Skate Jam on Saturday, and a lot of people assume the park carries Terry Kelly's name too. It does not. Who is it named for?

Answer: Poe Pinson. She learned to skate at that park, made the 2024 Paris Olympics in women's street and finished fifth, and the city renamed the park for her when she came home. The jam and the 5K honor Terry Kelly, a father who suffered a heart attack at the very first skate event in 2016. Two names, one park, and now you can settle it.

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