www.greenepublishing.com Zhe mabitson Eat 51865 6nterpriseiR cor&A Our 145th Year, Number 11 Friday, November 6, 2009 464 + 4 Tax=500 www.greenepublishing.com Madison, Florida County Votes To Buy EMS Property For $662,000 T he year has passed quickly since the Madison County Board of County Commission- ers voted unanimously to find a new home for Emergency Medical Ser- -- vices. The department had been operating from a deficient facility for years, when a health haz- ard was discovered. Since that time, county. officials and EMS Direc- tor Juan Botino have Alfred Martin been searching for a suitable property to purchase, renovate and/or build. During the meeting of Nov. 4, the board ap- proved an offer of $662,000 for the Robinson Ford Dealership property Numbers in excess of $800,000 had been mentioned with little progress in prior meetings, and then Commissioner Renetta Parrish suggested an offer of $500,000, which she believed more in line with the current economy At the Nov. 4 meeting, Robinson returned an offer of $750,000, which died for lack of a second when a motion was made to accept it. At that point, Commissioner Alfred Martin reit- erated his concern with the price, making a motion for a counter-proposal of $600,000, which was sec- onded and forwarded to Robinson. Before the meet- ing concluded, the two sides settled on $662,000. Please see EMS Property, Page 5A Madison Gets New Weather Observation Station Photo Submitted Mike Vise and Jim Bolden of the NWS installing the Temperature monitor. Anew weather observation station has been established in Madison, Florida. On Thurs- day, October 29, 2009 representatives of the Na- tional Weather Service (NWS) in Tallahassee installed new temperature and rainfall monitor- ing equipment inside the city limits. Mike Vise, Observation Program Leader and Jim Bolden, COOP Focal Point provided the manual labor and monitoring devices for measuring daily high and low temperatures and 24 rainfall totals. Volun- teer observers who are part of the Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) will report data daily to the NWS for inclusion in the nationwide data- base. Data for the United States has been collect- ed in this manner since 1890. COOP (Cooperative Observation Program) con- sists of thousands of dedicated volunteers that take observations on farms, in urban and suburban areas, National Parks, seashores and mountain tops. The input data are truly representative of where people live, Please see Weather Station, Page 5A 4. I V 1- Ib I'ullic Iilil' 1a Greene Publishing, Inc. Photo By Michael Curtis, November 4, 2009 The Friends of the Lee Library got a $10,000 boost to their fundraising effort thanks to Nestle Waters. Pictured, left to right, are: Rob Fisher, Kent Koptiuch, Frank Mercer and Danny Hales. Nestle Waters Donates To Lee Publi $10,000 Contribution Helps Equip and Furnish New Facility The Nestle Waters Madison County Bottling Facility to- day made a $10,000 contri- bution toward equipping and furnishing the new Lee Public Li- brary. The money represents 25 per- cent of Madison County's original goal of $40,000 that is being raised from individuals and businesses in the area. "Nestle Waters has a proud histo- ry of strong community involvement c Library and good corporate citizenship," said Rob Fisher, Supply Chain Manager. "We believe the Lee Public Library is a wonderful example of private com- panies working with local govern- ment to promote education and create a local center for learning." Madison County received state grant funding to construct the new, 5,200-square-foot facility adjacent to Lee Elementary School on U.S. 90. However, it was left to the local citi- zens to raise the money for books, computers, desks and other ameni- ties. With local government budgets strained during the recent recession, interested citizens created Friends of the Lee Library, Inc. to reach out to lo- cal businesses and individuals for help in the effort. "The Friends of the Library have worked hard helping us bring this fa- Please see Lee Library, Page 5A Bembry Scores High With Christians State Rep. Receives "Faith And Family" Award From Christian Coalition Twelve days af- ter the 20th Anniversary God and Country event in Orlando, the Christ- ian Coalition of Florida released its 2009 list of 100 percenters. Many of the Legislators who re- ceived a 100 percent vot- ing record with the Coalition this year re- ceived the "Faith and Family" award during the banquet held at the Rosen Centre hotel on Saturday night, Sep- tember 26th with Richard Land and Ralph Reed. State Representa- tive Leonard Bembry, House District 10, was honored with the "Faith and Family" award presented by the Christian Coalition. The award was also pre- sented to an additional 21 Florida House mem- bers and 7 Senators. State Representa- tive Leonard Bembry said, "I want to always represent the heart and soul values of the peo- ple of District 10 partic- ularly during these very Leonard Bembry critical and important times." Areas of involve- ment of the Christian Please see Bembry, Page 5A FDLE Arrests Madison Man For Possession Of Child Pornography Bond set at $500,000 Agents With the ," Florida De- partment of .I r Law En- forcement Computer J Crime Cen- Jack Yates ter(FC3) ar- rested Jack Yates, 52, of Madison, on Tuesday, and charged him with 10 counts of distribution of child pornography Yates became a sus- pect last month after a de- tective with the Boynton Beach Police Department working undercover re- ceived more than 500 im- ages displaying the sexual performance by a child on a private file sharing net- work from the suspect. The detective was able to trace images that had been shared online back to Yates' computer. An FDLE agent exe- cuted a search warrant at Yates' home yesterday with assistance from the Madison County Sheriff's Office. During the search warrant agents learned that Yates tried to delete his collection of child pornography on his com- puter because a friend in his private network had been arrested just weeks prior. Yates was subse- quently arrested and booked into the Madison County Jail. Yates had his first ap- pearance in court Wednesday morning. Judge Wetzel Blair set his bond at $500,000. 'As technology grows predators learn new ways to evade law enforce- ment," said FC3 Special Agent Supervisor Mike Phillips. "Florida's crimi- nal justice community is committed to locating and apprehending individuals who prey on children from the privacy of their computer." FDLE is an active member of the three In- ternet Crimes Against Children Task Forces in Florida. There are 59 fed- erally-funded task forces nationwide created solely to investigate Internet crimes against children that include the online sexual exploitation of children and child pornography Please visit the FDLE Computer Crime Center Web site to review tips for keeping your children safe online at: www.fdle.state.fl.us/FC3 Two Deputies, Two Wrecks By Jacob Bembry Greene Publishing, Inc. T wo Madison County deputies were involved in accidents in patrol vehicles during the month of Octo- ber. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the first accident oc- curred on Oct. 13 at 8:18 a.m. as Inv. Tina DeMot- sis was traveling west- bound on Interstate 10 in the inside lane. A deer en- tered the roadway and DeMotsis was unable to avoid the deer, striking the vehicle into the deer. The vehicle continued traveling west until com- ing to a final rest in the median facing west. Damage to the vehi- cle, which has already been repaired, was esti- mated at $3,000. The next accident in- volved Madison County Reserve Deputy Mike Fairley It happened on Oct. 24 at 2:50 p.m. at the I- 10/221 exit, south of Greenville. According to the FHP, an unknown driver was traveling east in the outside lane. Fairley's pa- trol car approached the other car from the rear at a higher rate of speed in the inside lane. Fairley said that the other vehicle traveled into the inside lane into his path. To avoid the ve- hicle, Fairley traveled off the roadway onto the south shoulder. The pa- trol car rotated clockwise on the south shoulder, col- liding into a tree with its left side. After the impact, the patrol car continued to rotate and collided into a tree with its rear. After the impact, the car came to a final rest on the south shoulder, facing north. Inxo cal 'eather 1 Sections, 16 Pages Around Madison 6 -8A Brooks County Tour 13A Church 10A Outdoors 12A Classifieds 14A Legals 15A United Way 9A Turn Back Time 11A SSat Sun Mon Fi 7Sat 76/55 a 79/65 o 79/68 11/6 73/4711/7 11/8 11/9 Mainly sunny. High 73F. Winds NE Mix of sun and clouds. Highs in the Considerable cloudiness. Highs in Few showers. Highs in the upper at 10 to 15 mph. mid 70s and lows in the mid 50s. the upper 70s and lows in the mid 70s and lows in the upper 60s. 60s. -h - Ne~stle" W'aters., N.. %.