Porch Fest fills the streets
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Porch Fest fills the streets

It opened with the feel-good sound of the local ukulele band The Ukulillies, and it ended with the auctioning off of Dave Daley’s poster for the fourth annual Porch Fest, signed by each of the two dozen musical groups that played the three main stages and the 13 porches scattered throughout the neighborhoods of Apalachicola….

Abandoned water bottle helped lead to inmate capture
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Abandoned water bottle helped lead to inmate capture

When a Florida Department of Corrections officer spotted a man on a bicycle in Eastpoint Thursday morning, law enforcement officials thought he might be Robert Rutherford, the Franklin Correctional Institution inmate who escaped from a work camp detail in Apalachicola Monday morning. When they looked over the contents of a backpack the man left behind…

Trinity ordains its new priest
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Trinity ordains its new priest

From the very last pew of the overflowing sanctuary, Dot Hill raised her hand softly when the question was asked if any congregants had been present the last time Apalachicola’s Trinity Episcopal Church ordained a priest.  That ordination, in the 1838 sanctuary of what is now the second oldest continuously serving church in Florida, had…

Seafood festival to offer array of bounce houses
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Seafood festival to offer array of bounce houses

The upcoming Florida Seafood Festival, Nov. 3 through 5 at Apalachicola’s Battery Park, will have an array of bounce houses to keep kids from bouncing off the walls at home. In a news release Thursday afternoon from the Florida Seafood Festival volunteer board, the festival reported that a year-long effort to secure kids’ entertainment for…

UPDATE: Escaped inmate captured in Eastpoint
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UPDATE: Escaped inmate captured in Eastpoint

The search for a Franklin Correctional Institution inmate who escaped Monday from a work crew site in Apalachicola has ended. At about 6:30 p.m., Franklin County Sheriff A.J. Smith posted a video on Facebook of a handcuffed Robert Rutherford, 37, of Pasco County, in Eastpoint. Authorities have captured Franklin County escaped inmate 37-year-old Robert Rutherford….

Award offered for escaped inmate
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Award offered for escaped inmate

As the search for an escaped inmate from the Franklin Correctional Institution entered its third day, a reward of up to $5,000 is now being offered to anyone who can provide information that leads to his arrest. Sheriff A.J. Smith said Wednesday morning that 37-year-old Robert Rutherford was last seen between 8th Street and Avenue…

I do solemnly swear
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I do solemnly swear

On Tuesday, Oct. 3, Apalachicola Mayor Brenda Ash, and city commissioners Adriane Elliott and Despina George were all sworn in to office. All three were re-elected to their non-partisan posts without opposition.  Because of the recently enacted ordinance to hold elections on even-numbered years, in concert with state and federal elections, their terms will run…

Yacht club opens in downtown Apalachicola
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Yacht club opens in downtown Apalachicola

There’s a new bar in town, operated by a man who knows a lot about brewing.On Thursday, Oct. 12 a soft opening was set for the new Apalachicola Yacht Company, at the corner of Water Street and Avenue D, at the site of the former Tin Shed.For eight years, Clayton Mathis worked at the Oyster…

Pretty in pink: Breast cancer fundraiser brings in $80K
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Pretty in pink: Breast cancer fundraiser brings in $80K

It started out with a series of cabarets, and then blossomed into the Calendar Girls, with prominent women from around the county adorning the months is not much more than their birthday suits. In 2007, Franklin Needs Inc. was established to strengthen the effort to fight breast cancer in Franklin County, and a festive evening…

Firefighters subdue Apalachicola waterfront blaze
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Firefighters subdue Apalachicola waterfront blaze

No one was hurt Thursday afternoon after a fire broke out in a two-story commercial building at 165 Water Street, just to the southeast of the former Taranto and Sons seafood. With the use of foam and of water, the fire, which began sometime around 3 p.m. was extinguished within about two hours by crews…