A smoldering electrical fire under the hood of a 1995 Buick Century erupted while being hauled on a tow truck heading through Macclenny the morning of February 6.

The driver was heading north on S. 5th St. near Minnesota Avenue when black smoke began bellowing from the vehicle’s engine.

Another truck driver Derek Tippins was trailing the first and used a fire extinguisher to quell the flames enough for the tow truck driver to unhook the burning vehicle and remove it from the truck.

Nobody was injured in the fire but the Buick was completely destroyed.

Seven firefighters from the City of Macclenny used 650 gallons of water to fully extinguish the blaze, which had engulfed the front of the vehicle.

Ballfield bleachers.

Commissioners approved County Manager C.J. Thompson’s recommendation to spend $18,194 to repair or replace most of the wooden bleachers after expressing concerns for public safety at the ball fields.

Commissioner James Croft, who was elected in November, cast the only dissenting vote, saying this was the first time he had heard of any safety issues with the bleachers. He said the time to discuss expenditures for repairs was before the 2012-13 budget went into effect on October 1.

“I doubt very seriously that those bleachers got that way since October 1,” Mr. Croft said, adding that mid-year is not the time to increase expenditures in a deficit budget that was only balanced last year after an infusion of about $1.6 million in reserve funds.

“I’m not anti-Little League and not anti-safety, and I’m not anti-youth,” he said. “But this board has got to face reality. We are on a down-hill pull.”

Defendent Marshall Mann (center) with his attorneys during his October trial.

The nearly three-year-old criminal case against a City of Macclenny computer technician for predatory sexual activities with minor females came to a close on February 6 when he pleaded no contest to a charge of simple battery on one of them back in March, 2002.

Marshall Mann, 48, was acquitted in a jury trial last October of felony sexual battery and lewd acts on another young victim. The state attorney’s office last month downgraded the sole remaining pending count against him to battery, and transferred the case to county court.

County Judge Joey Williams refused a defense request to withhold adjudication of guilt during last week’s hearing, ignoring Mr. Mann’s denial that he touched the victim in a sexual manner.

The judge termed the defendant’s actions “intentional and sinister.”

“You’re in a pickle,” asserted the judge. “You’ve told the court and community ‘I’m not denying what I’m accused of.’ That’s a big thing. What you’re accused of is a heinous misdemeanor.”

The outcome in the lawsuit, filed by the city against Rayonier on January 15 at the Baker County courthouse, could boil down to a case of “he said — she said.”

Rayonier officials accuse Mr. Boyette of lying last June to induce the company to sell him 114 acres of timberland that he immediately agreed to sell to the city, which needs a new site to get rid of up to 50,000 gallons a week of treated sewage sludge to meet new state disposal standards, for $479,000.

While he did not disclose his plan to turn around and sell the property to the city, Mr. Boyette said he never lied to any Rayonier representatives in his conversations leading up to the property transaction, which called for Mr. Boyette to pay $399,000 for the land.