From our desks at The Baker County Press...

Welcome back to The Loop — the place where local headlines, hometown happenings, and the occasional oddball story all end up in one place.

This week, we’re talking budget spreadsheet mix-ups, a very rough weekend for Island Oaks, a stubborn wildfire, and a massive development proposal officially moving past the 'talking' phase.

On the lighter side: our Macclenny mayor is a movie prop creator?? The Emily Taber clock tower is chiming again, kids went full Jurassic Park at the fairgrounds, and Aunt Florida’s cursed ring is here to remind us that family jewelry should maybe come with a warning label.

Grab a lemonade and let’s get into it.

🏛 In The Loop

County budget season has arrived, and everyone is...confused.

Baker County commissioners held their first budget workshop for the 2026–27 fiscal year, and the opening act was a circus... lively. The spreadsheets were, as you corporate-world dwellers would say, "misaligned".

*not actual accounting department

The issue came up during Fire-Rescue’s presentation, when one document made it look like the rescue budget was jumping 208%. Fire-Rescue Chief Donald Blanton said the actual requested increase was closer to 13.9%, or about $445,000.

So... much less of a jump scare.
(You can get all the details from the meeting here).

County officials said the problem came from last year’s master spreadsheet, where formulas apparently did not properly distribute totals into individual line items. In other words, the overall budget number may have been right, but some of the comparison lines were not.

Commissioners took no final action, and staff plans to revise the documents so future workshops compare last year’s requested budgets with this year’s requests.

The next budget workshop is set for 3 p.m. July 21.

Island Oaks had a very rough weekend

Island Oaks RV Resort had the kind of weekend nobody wants near their summer plans.

Around 2 a.m. July 9, a fire broke out in the resort’s maintenance area, destroying maintenance and sewer treatment plant facilities, burning equipment and storage areas, and triggering propane tank explosions.

Nearby Glenwood Drive residents reported waking up to loud blasts and flames above the trees. Some campground occupants and nearby Glenwood subdivision residents were temporarily evacuated.

Firefighters found two 1,000-gallon propane tanks in the fire area, with pressure-relief valves activating. Crews were ordered to pull back before one tank experienced what fire officials described as a boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion — which is exactly as bad as it sounds.

About 40 firefighters, six law enforcement officers, hazardous materials responders and drones were involved in the response. No residents, resort occupants or responders were injured.

The State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause, and nearby residents are now raising safety and wastewater concerns before damaged facilities resume normal use.

Read all about it here → FULL ARTICLE

Then, two days later, Island Oaks was sadly back in the headlines after a golf cart crash left a passenger critically injured.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a Jacksonville woman was arrested on charges of DUI causing serious bodily injury
and refusing DUI testing after a passenger was ejected from a golf cart at the resort July 11. The passenger was flown to UF Health Shands Hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries.

The felony case remains open.

Also on the radar

The Mailbox Fire has grown to over 400 acres in the Osceola National Forest south of Taylor and, as of Tuesday morning, was 10% contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service. No structures were threatened, but dry swamp vegetation and organic soils are making the fire slow, stubborn and very much not impressed by these scattered showers.

Midpoint Commons is officially in the application phase. County officials received formal applications for the massive proposed mixed-use development east of Macclenny, which could eventually include up to 2,500 homes, industrial space, commercial areas, parks, open space, a possible school site and a fire station site.

Because the project is huge — more than 2,000 acres huge ...

...the county plans to bring in outside planners to help review it before public hearings begin.

Lighten The Loop

🤓 Let's hear it for the nerds

Baker County creativity showed up at the brand new Jacksonville fairgrounds for 2026 First Coast Comic Con, where longtime friends Denny Courson and Mark Bryant helped bring comics, creators and collectibles to the new Jacksonville Fairgrounds.

The event drew about 2,000 guests, more than 120 independent comic creators, over 100 vendors, and at least one bubble-blowing droid roaming around.

Courson helped organize the event with a focus on actual comic books and sequential art. Bryant, Macclenny’s mayor and BCHS art teacher, helped with the show and brought his own prop-making know-how through Bryant Armor & Foundry.

The mayor inspecting his "handi"work. 🤓

Basically: local nerds, but make it professional (you know, with real jobs who don't live in their mom's basement).

Library gets its clock cleaned...erm, repaired.

The Emily Taber Library clock tower is chiming again after roof repairs cleared the way for a specialist to finish fixing the old clock.

Library Director April Teel said it’s still the same clock — just finally fully repaired. “It’s great to have the old girl chiming again!” she said.

Listen out for her singing the song of her people every hour on the hour!

No time travel required.

🦕 Dino dig day

Emily Taber Library also wrapped up its summer program this week with a dinosaur-themed morning at the county fairgrounds.

Kids chipped and scooped through ice and foam to uncover toy dinosaurs, tackled games and cooled off under a water-spraying inflatable dinosaur.

Basically, the library turned a hot July morning into
Jurassic Park: Preschool Edition.

RIP Dr. Alan Grant 💔

Thankfully, no velociraptors sighted (unless you count screeching children). Just snacks, scoops, and very committed little fossil hunters.

⚡ Loop Around Town

🍋 Isaiah 117 House Lemonade Stand Weekend

📅 Friday, July 17 + Saturday, July 18 · Various times + locations around town

Free lemonade will be popping up around Baker County to support Isaiah 117 House (our office included!), with donations accepted.

Hydration? Charity? Supporting the community? We love a summer multitask.

🚗 Worth the Drive

For those willing to venture outside county lines...

🎸 For the punk rock millennials

📅 Saturday, July 18 · 🕢 7:30 p.m. · 📍 The Florida Theatre

The Jacksonville Rock Orchestra is performing The Music of Green Day, which means your middle school eyeliner era has officially entered its revival (for at least one night).

Tickets start around $30, and yes, this is your sign to make “Good Riddance” everyone else’s problem again.

it's not just a phase, mom!

Sponsored Content

⚡ Loop Tea Loop

Aunt Florida and the cursed ring, Part 1

Every family has 'lore'. And it's not that I intentionally mean to pick on the Barbers, but when it comes to Baker County, their name just pops up everywhere. The material is just TOO good.

The Barber family apparently has like... premium HBO-level lore, this time complete with a runaway aunt, Park Avenue, a New York gambling house, surprise bigamy (why yes, I DID say bigamy), and one extremely suspicious diamond ring.

That's just the way the world works!

This week’s archive rabbit hole introduces us to Aunt Florida, whose full name might be even more dramatic than the story itself: Florida James Edward Pauline Barber Palmer David Knapp.

That is not a name. That is a family tree wearing a trench coat.

According to Gene Barber’s family history, Aunt Florida became pregnant as a teenager and was turned away from home by her brother, who allegedly told her never to darken his doorway again.

She didn’t.

From there, her life took a hard left out of Baker County and into the kind of plot that makes you press pause and say, “Wait, WHAT?”

She sailed from Jacksonville to San Francisco, then by rail to New York City (how, why, or with whom no one knows), where she was taken in by a woman named Mrs. Palmer. Her baby, Annie, was born there and later adopted by Mrs. Palmer, along with Florida herself.

Little Annie died at age 7, and Aunt Florida’s letters home reportedly carried all the grief you’d expect from a mother who had already lost one life and was trying to build another.

Eventually, Florida married Leon David, a French Jewish gentleman from Paris who ran a gambling house in New York and lived on Park Avenue (of Monopoly fame).

And for a while, Aunt Florida did alright. Then came the ring.

Family lore says a cleaning man at David's gaming house found a double diamond ring on the carpet one morning. Leon tried to find the owner, and when he couldn’t, he gave it to Florida.

Which sounds romantic, except for the part where the ring had apparently been abandoned by “some unfortunate soul” at a gambling table.

Red flag? Maybe. Cursed object origin story? Absolutely.

Not long after, Leon became seriously ill. And then a woman named Rosie David showed up at the door claiming to be his sister. Aunt Florida was grateful for her help, and when Leon started showing signs of improvement, Rosie had an announcement.

She was not his sister. She was, in fact, his WIFE.

And that, is where we pause until next week — because the trouble was just getting started. Was 'the ring' to blame?

Alright folks, that wraps it up!! Got thoughts? Stories? Feedback? Shoot it to me at sales@bakercountypress.com. Go ahead, I can take it.