June 14, 2021 The Roving Reporter

This is Marcia Lane, your roving reporter.

More thunderstorms predicted for the three-county area today. Sunday brought heavy rains and thunder to the area with WIYD/WPLK reporting two inches in Palatka. About 600 homes in the Silver Lake Drive area were without power for at least an hour after a transformer blew. Flagler County faced tornado warnings in the afternoon Sunday along State Road 100 from Flagler Beach to Bunnell. The rain is needed; St. Johns River Water Management earlier reported rainfall for the area was down throughout the district during May.

Deadly weekend in Putnam County where two separate accidents left three people dead Saturday. 

Florida Highway Patrol reported two women were killed and three people injured in a two-vehicle accident near Swan Lake on State Road 26 around 6:50 p.m. Saturday. A SUV headed west on SR 26 began passing a vehicle in front of it in a no-passing zone. The front of the SUV struck the front of sedan coming in the opposite direction. The 33-year-old woman driving and her passenger, 24, died at the scene. Both were from Gainesville. The SUV driver, a 43-year-old Melrose man,  and a 9-year-old Gainesville boy with him, were seriously injured. The other passenger in the car, an 11-year-old Gainesville girl, had minor injuries. FHP reported neither the 43-year-old man nor the 9-year-old was wearing a seatbelt.

Saturday night in Palatka one man was killed and two women injured in an accident on Palatka’s Northside around 8 p.m. Florida Highway Patrol worked the accident at North 11th and Bronson streets where a 25-year-old Elkton man was killed. FHP reported he was on a motorcycle headed north on North 11th Street when he attempted to turn left onto Bronson Street and struck the side of a pickup headed south on 11th. According to FHP, he was not wearing a helmet. The driver of the pickup, a 58-year-old Palm Coast woman, and her 55-year-old East Palatka woman passenger, had minor injuries.

In St. Johns County a Middleburg man is facing charges after a woman fell out of the car he was driving and died, and he didn’t report it. Slade Sullivan, 26, was arrested at his Middleburg home last week and is facing charges including lying to investigators and failing to report a death. The woman reportedly was his girlfriend, and detectives say he neglected to give aid or call 911 when the death happened in January. He was originally arrested in Clay County 12 hours after the accident and first told law enforcement he didn’t have a cellphone and then later said he didn’t have any cellphones that were working. During the investigation, detectives discovered he had used the woman’s cellphone after she fell out of the vehicle to call his parents and they talked about 10 minutes. Sullivan is out of jail on bond.

Palatka City Commission holds a special city commission meeting today at 4 p.m. at City Hall. On the agenda is discussion of purchasing the Jenkins Middle School gym that once was the city’s Northside Neighborhood Facility. A resolution for observation of Gay Pride month is to be read. At 5 p.m. the Palatka Community Redevelopment Agency meets at City Hall.

St. Johns County authorities over the weekend found themselves dealing with a sinkhole reported on North Loop Parkway in Palencia, a gated subdivision. Sheriff’s deputies said the sinkhole appeared after a vehicle hit a fire hydrant, flooding the area for an unknown amount of time. On Saturday repairs were underway but no boiled water notices were required.

Summer meals for children are available through school districts in Flagler, St. Johns and Putnam counties. Flagler will be providing meals for children through Aug. 4. with weekly curbside pickups on Tuesday or Wednesday between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Meals will be distributed in the old bus loop at Bunnell Elementary on North Palmetto Street. Meal bundles are free and include five breakfasts and five lunches. For more information, call 386-437-7526 Ext. 1159. In Putnam County beginning today free meals for children 18 and younger will be available through July 29. Frozen breakfast and lunch meals can be picked up between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Browning Pearce Elementary, Ochwilla Elementary, Interlachen Elementary, Middleton-Burney Elementary, Moseley Elementary and Jenkins Middle schools. Some mobile routes are being run. Call 386-329-0524.

Today is Flag Day, commemorating the adoption of the flag of the United States. When the War of Independence began the colonies were fighting under a variety of self-designed flags. The Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1777 passed a resolution for a flag reading in part: Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” Now we have 50 states and 50 stars, still a new constellation. Display the flag proudly and remember what it took to make it possible.