BY DAN HILDEBRAN  Monitor Editor  GREEN COVE SPRINGS— The Florida Department of Health’s administrator in Clay County said COVID-19 cases dropped to 275 during the first week in October and that the county’s positivity rate is at seven percent.    “At one point, we were at that in a day,” Heather Huffman told Clay county commissioners of…

BY DAN HILDEBRAN Monitor Editor GREEN COVE SPRINGS— A state bear biologist said the number of bear encounters reported by Kingsley Lake residents have decreased since the area’s  homeowners have taken steps to secure their garbage. Over the summer, Kingsley Lake homeowners reported seeing bears rummaging through garbage or on their properties Mike Orlando, the…

BY DAN HILDEBRAN  Monitor Editor  FLEMING ISLAND— Parents lined up to complain about the shortage of substitute teachers and bus drivers during the Oct. 7 meeting of the Clay County School Board.   The speakers told school board members that the labor shortages are having a negative impact on students’ education.   Patricia Shaefer said that even though the district’s bus…

BY DAN HILDEBRAN  Monitor Editor  KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— A Clay County deputy told a Lake Region business group that one barrier to fighting crime is that many victims now don’t report crimes to the sheriff’s office, choosing instead to complain about the offenses on social media.   Deputy Dimitri Santiago spoke to the Keystone-Lake Region Business Association during the group’s Oct. 12 meeting at the…

BY DAN HILDEBRAN  Monitor Editor  FERNANDINA BEACH— An official with the St. John’s River Water Management District said the district has two final permits to obtain before the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project can proceed.  The planned 17-mile pipeline from the south prong of Black Creek to an aquifer recharge area in the southern part of Camp Blanding could transfer up to 10 million gallons of water a day, during high water periods,…