May 9 – Marcia Lane, roving reporter

This news bulletin is brought to you in conjunction with NATKIM Radio. Listen to WPLK (800 AM), WIYD (1260 AM) and WPLK FM (98.3 FM).

The U.S. Postal Service holds its annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive this Saturday. Bags have been put in most mail boxes and people are asked to put in healthy nonperishable food items. Leave them in the mailbox or at the base and postal employees will pick them up Saturday. The annual postal food drive comes just as food banks begin running low on supplies and helps them get through the summer. Donations stay in the communities where they’re collected.

Palatka City Commission holds two meetings tonight. The first is a special called meeting at 5 p.m. to decide how to go about their third search for a permanent city manager. The second is the regular scheduled meeting at 6 p.m. Both are open to the public.

An anonymous message on Snapchat Wednesday sent St. Johns County deputies to Allen Nease High School to investigate reports the school was on lock down and that firearms had been located in the school. The Snapchat message, which ended up on other social networks, proved to be false. Some parents did remove their children from school, where classes were already underway.

Palatka Police are warning women to be careful with their purses after two were snatched Wednesday – one in the parking lot of WalMart, the other in the parking lot of Publix. In both cases purses were snatched from shopping carts as goods were being unloaded into vehicles. Police warn to put purses in the car first. Two suspects in a newer model black 4-door car have been spotted.

In Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to a victim’s shelter early Tuesday morning after a domestic violence offender who had been warned against trespass in the area showed up. Dominic Petrillo, 53, was arrested on a variety of charges after an incident that began where his 20-year companion left their Bunnell home following an altercation and went to Flagler’s Family Life Shelter. Petrillo for two days drove by the shelter area and reportedly made phone calls. After questioning, he was arrested with charges including aggravated domestic battery by strangulation.

A reminder the March of Dimes March for Babies will be this Saturday in Palatka beginning from the riverfront in downtown Palatka. Walkers will take off at 9 a.m.

In St. Augustine the Florida Department of Transportation has a $1.4 million cleaning and painting rehabilitation project underway on the Bridge of Lions. The work will mean the single and double leaf bridge spans will be opened and closed throughout the day and double leaf open at night. Channel restrictions will apply for boaters. Work will continue through the month. The bridge was renovated and reopened in 2011.

Enjoy a weekend of musicals. Flagler Palm Coast High School Thespians will present Les Miserables the musical at 7 p.m. tonight, Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday at Flagler Auditorium. In Palatka, Disney’s Newsies begins its second weekend of performance tonight and continues through Sunday at the Pignato Theatre at the C.L. Overturf Jr. Sixth Grade Center. Tickets are available at Ralph’s House of Flowers.

This is Marcia Lane, your roving reporter.