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Community Briefs 6/14/18

Clay Today
Posted 6/13/18

Grogan named events manager at ChamberFLEMING ISLAND – The Clay County Chamber of Commerce has hired Annie Grogan as its new events manager.Grogan will manage venues, sponsors, attendee …

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Community Briefs 6/14/18


Posted

Grogan named events manager at Chamber
FLEMING ISLAND – The Clay County Chamber of Commerce has hired Annie Grogan as its new events manager.
Grogan will manage venues, sponsors, attendee experience and speaker presentations for the Chamber’s Signature events, including the annual spectacular, military luncheon, business & health expo, Tallahassee trip, poker tournament, teacher appreciation, Christmas luncheon, golf tournament, all council & community events, state of the county, legislative delegation luncheon, and business after hours events.
Prior to joining the Chamber, Annie served as the Clay County consultant for the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of North Florida. She brings with her more than 20 years’ experience working with various Fortune 500 companies, helping to grow community businesses and employment. She is a 2016 graduate of Leadership Jacksonville and, in 2015, was honored with the NFL & Jacksonville Jaguars Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award.
She has an undergraduate degree in secondary education, from the University of Puerto Rico. She is also an Army veteran who served 10 years as a commissioned officer under the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corp.

SJR State to add advanced manufacturing program
PALATKA – St. Johns River State College will use a $1.38 million grant to establish an advanced manufacturing training program at the school.
As part of the Governor’s Florida Job Growth Grant program, the new degree program will train students to be part of the next generation of engineering technicians. The new programs will include an Associate in Science program as well as college credit certificate programs in mechatronics and robotics as well as non-degree training for production technicians.
According to the Florida Chamber Foundation “By The Numbers” report, “Manufacturing continues to be a leader in helping Florida diversify its economy and create new jobs. Florida’s manufacturing has grown 3.4 percent over the last year. And in the last four years, Florida’s manufacturing has continued to grow at a rate more than three times higher than the nation overall.”
SJR State President Joe Pickens said he is grateful for the role the college gets to play in preparing students for new jobs in this field.
The Associate in Science in Engineering Technology will prepare students for employment in advanced manufacturing as process and production technicians, industrial machinery mechanics, quality assurance technicians, programmable logic control technicians and operators, and industrial engineering technicians. The core classes of the engineering technology program align with the national Manufacturing Skill Standards Council Production Technician Certification.
The mechatronics certificate program is part of the Engineering Technology degree program and the Advanced Manufacturing specialization designed to prepare students for positions in industrial engineering, maintenance and technology.
The mechatronics certificate program, part of the Engineering Technology degree program and the Advanced Manufacturing specialization, is designed to prepare students for employment in the areas of industrial engineering, maintenance and technology or provides supplemental training for persons previously or currently employed in these occupations. The content includes instruction in advanced manufacturing equipment maintenance techniques, operation of various industrial components, tools and instrumentation, quality and control testing, material handling protocols, robotics applications, hydraulics and pneumatics. Upon completion of this program, the student will be able to install, maintain and troubleshoot automated environments, general robot systems and simulators.
Core classes and non-degree boot camps will begin this fall and will be taught on SJR State’s Palatka campus. Expansion of course and program offerings is planned for the Clay County campus in 2019. For more information, contact TechEd@sjrstate.edu or call 386-312-4259.


Hospital to launch $2.9 million expansion
ORANGE PARK – Orange Park Medical Center will spend $2.9 million to add 2,100 square foot to its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
The expansion will add five new NICU beds to the already existing unit. The new beds are designed and equipped to address either level II or level III subspecialty newborn care, with ability to care for babies born at less than 32 weeks gestation and 1,000 grams as well as babies born with critical illness, at all gestational ages.
With the new expansion, Orange Park Medical Center’s NICU will more than double the beds available for newborn babies. The hospital, which delivers over 2,000 babies each year treats around 500 of those babies in their NICU.
“There is a great need for more critical care neonatal beds in our community,” said Kathy Hester, Orange Park Medical Center’s Chief Nursing Officer. “As prematurity and neonatal abstinence syndrome rates continues to rise we are taking action to make sure we are prepared to help care for those in need.”
Neonatal abstinence syndrome is defined as a group of problems that occur in a newborn who was exposed to addictive opiate drugs while in the mother’s womb.
Included in the hospital’s upcoming upgrades will be new technology that allows a bedside camera to shares live-streaming video through a secure and closed system. This new feature will provide 24/7 access to families allowing them to see their new baby when they are unable to be at the hospital.
TMPartners is the architect and Commercial Construction Services is the contractor on the expansion project. Construction will begin this summer and is expected to be complete in early 2019.

Penney Memorial Church welcomes youth choir
PENNEY FARMS – Penney Memorial Church will hold a special service on June 24, at 10:30 a.m. to welcome the 60-member Youth Choir from the Damascus United Methodist Church in Damascus, Maryland, to sing in the historic French-Norman sanctuary, dating from 1926.
The service has been specially structured to include several numbers by this talented group. This appearance will mark the end of the choir’s Florida tour, before returning home for the summer.
Penney Memorial Church is located at 4465 Poling Blvd. in the Town of Penney Farms. Interested members of the public are invited to attend this special service. For more information, call the church office at (904) 284-4574 or Cathie Parrott at (904) 529-1496.

LifeSouth in emergency need for blood donors
JACKSONVILLE – The recent storms and inclement weather have negatively affected the community’s blood supply, and LifeSouth is asking blood donors to help.
The Metro Jacksonville area is currently in emergency need for all blood types at Wolfson Children’s Hospital, Orange Park Medical Center, Memorial Hospital and all Baptist Medical Centers.
All blood types are needed, and donors are asked to donate now to ensure local hospitals have the blood necessary to help patients suffering from traumas, cancers and chronic illnesses.
“We need donors to come in every day, and when we experience a slowdown due to weather, we ask our community to rally and donate blood to help maintain the local blood supply,” said Ed Keith, district director for LifeSouth.
First time donors are welcomed to try blood donation and LifeSouth asks regular donors to come to a blood drive or blood donor center and bring a friend.
All donors receive a thank you gift, and a mini-physical, including blood pressure, temperature, iron level and cholesterol screen.
Donors must be at least 17 or 16 with parental permission, weigh a minimum of 110 pounds and be in good health. A photo ID is needed. LifeSouth now has a donor center open at Baptist Medical Center at 800 Prudential Dr. where donors can give during regular hours. LifeSouth’s bloodmobiles will also be out at many locations in coming days. For additional information, call LifeSouth toll-free at 888-795-2707.

Melrose woman claims top Lottery prize

TALLAHASSEE – The Florida Lottery announced that Katherleen Duggan, of Melrose, claimed a top prize in the $2,500 A WEEK FOR LIFE Scratch-Off game at Florida Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee. She chose to receive her winnings as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $2,040,000.00.
Duggan purchased her winning ticket from Hitchcock’s, at 7380 State Rd. 100 in Keystone Heights. The retailer will receive a $4,000 bonus commission for selling the winning Scratch-Off ticket.
The $5 Scratch-Off game, $2,500 A WEEK FOR LIFE, launched in July 2017, and features more than $103 million in total cash prizes and over 7.5 million winning tickets. The game’s overall odds of winning are one-in-3.95.
Scratch-Off games generated more than $784 million for the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund in fiscal year 2016-17, and comprising approximately 68 percent of ticket sales.