In the News Greater Gainesville – January 2024
by Breanna Gallo
Legacy Lane
The Gainesville City Commission voted to dual name a section of 8th Avenue in honor of Charles S. Chestnut III. Chestnut served as a civil rights activist and community leader in North Florida for decades. He was the first African American member to serve on the School Board of Alachua County from 1976 to 1992, was a county commissioner from 1992 to 2000 and was fundamental in starting up the first NAACP Youth Council in Gainesville.
The renamed Charles. S. Chestnut III Avenue will run along 8th Avenue from NW 6th Street to Waldo Road at Citizens Field. Sixty-eight road signs will be replaced to display the new street name. This street will also pass the historic Chestnut Funeral Home, founded in 1914.
Hornets Sting Cowboys
The Hawthorne Hornets won their second consecutive state football championship, defeating the Madison County Cowboys 22-13. The Hornets went undefeated this season and continued the streak at Bragg Memorial Stadium with the championship game. This is the fourth straight state championship in which the Hornets have competed.
With several turnovers and tied for almost two full quarters, it was a game well fought. In the end the Hornets came out victorious, avenging their 2021 state championship loss to the Cowboys. The Hornets finished the season strong with a 13-0 record and 25 straight wins.
Debate Dynamos
Several Alachua County Public Schools students placed in the Great Debate. This public debate and civil discourse-based competition was hosted by the Florida Civics and Debate Initiative (FCDI). All 67 Florida school districts had participants in the competition and at 420, the attendance was three times the record high. Lincoln Middle School students Ann Moywaywa, Michael Huan and Mia Yu, and Alachua Learning Academy’s Selena Dexter were just some of the students who placed in the competition.
Engineering Greatness
Santa Fe College was recently awarded $3 million from the Florida Job Growth Grant to develop a new associate degree in engineering. This is part of a statewide initiative to expand semiconductor and chip manufacturing industries. These funds will be used to design and develop the new associate degree in engineering technology and will feature a specialization in advanced manufacturing. Santa Fe was one of five colleges in the state to receive funds for this project. With a state ranking of No. 3 in the country for semiconductor establishments and No. 5 for semiconductor manufacturing jobs, there has been a strong push to develop this workforce.
Next-Gen Neuro-Research
The University of Florida and the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at UF Health announced the creation of a new Research and Technology Innovation Incubator. The 20,000-square-foot space will become a state-of-the-art hub, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among the different UF colleges.
This initiative will establish the Fixel Institute as an international destination for cutting-edge science and collaborations. The Fixel Institute currently serves as one of the nation’s most comprehensive and collaborative research centers. The new incubator will allow even more neurologists, neurosurgeons and researchers to stay ahead of the growing challenges of studying neurodegenerative diseases.
Blueberry Breakthrough
Researchers at the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) may have found genes to make Florida-grown blueberries available in the fall. This would mean that consumers and growers could expand their market window several months past what they normally see. This new information comes from a study that evaluated 536 varieties of the Southern Highbush Blueberry on two commercial farms in Waldo during the fall seasons of 2019 and 2021.
Patricio Muñoz, the blueberry breeder and a UF/IFAS associate professor of horticultural sciences, explains that a few varieties of blueberries can develop flowers during long fall days in addition to the typical short fall days that already see flower organs formed. With the typical fruit harvest taking place in Florida from February through May, this new research could extend the reguar growing season and decrease the need for imported blueberries in the offseason.
