Citrus Springs, FL

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office has issued a Silver Alert for a missing 80-year-old woman from Ocala. According to a release from MCSO, Ann Douglas Simpson was last seen in the 6700 block of SW 114th Street Road in Ocala on Friday, July 1, between 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.

A Summerfield woman landed behind bars thanks to an unreadable license plate on her pickup truck. Erin Brinkley Young, 34, who lives on Sunset Harbor Road, was driving a gold Dodge pickup at 12:45 p.m. Thursday when she was pulled over at NE 138th Lane at U.S. Hwy. 441 due to a license plate that was unreadable because of damage, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.

A 38-year-old Ocala man was arrested after a female victim accused him of breaking into her home and stealing approximately $2,000 worth of items. In the early morning hours on Thursday, a Marion County Sheriff’s Office corporal responded to a residence on NW Gainesville Road in reference to a residential burglary that had just occurred. Upon arrival, the female victim advised that she had returned home and discovered that it had been broken into.

Motorists in Ocala can expect temporary lane closures along SW 60th Avenue, between the intersections of SW 31st Street and SW 25th Street, through Wednesday, August 31. Earthmovers, Inc. will be installing new utilities and constructing turn lanes. Workers and equipment will be located in the county right-of-way. Crews will...

MARION COUNTY, Fla. – Crews are trying to figure out what sparked a bus fire in Marion County Wednesday night, fire officials reported. Marion County Fire Rescue responded to the bus fire on Interstate 75 near mile marker 341 in Belleview at approximately 10:45 p.m., reports show. [TRENDING: Florida’s...

If there was ever an Inverness business that was a team effort getting off the ground, the Train Station Café near Liberty Park would be near the top of the list. As part of its lease with the city council it had to open by inverness’ Independence Day celebrations July 3.

OCALA, Fla. (WCJB) - Marion county drivers can expect temporary lane closures. The closure goes along Southwest 60th Avenue between Southwest 31st Street and Southwest 25th Street. This will last through August 31st. Earthmovers, Inc. is installing new utilities and constructing turning lanes. Workers and equipment will be located in...

The sizzle of hotdogs on the grill, fireworks booming overhead and festive music are all familiar sounds on the Fourth of July. People in the tri-county area will enjoy all of the above as they celebrate the country’s independence with events throughout the weekend. The Villages, Wildwood, Leesburg and more have festivities planned.

A man fled through a window to the rooftop of a hotel in The Villages after allegedly pointing a gun at a woman. Law enforcement responded at about 5 p.m. Monday to the Comfort Inn & Suites on Avenida Central where 23-year-old Jimero Lee Von Jackson of Ozark, Ala. pointed a Taurus G2C 9mm semi-automatic handgun at a woman in a guest room, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. Jackson had struck the woman several times and choked her. The altercation was witnessed by an out-of-state party over a video call, the report said.

OCALA, Fla. – The City of Ocala’s Aquatic Fun Centers will be reducing their hours of operation due to a statewide lifeguard shortage that has seen major impacts across Central Florida. The reduction is effective Tuesday, July 12 for the Hampton and Jervey Gantt Aquatic Fun centers, which...

An inmate at the Marion County Jail – a man who at one time worked as a corrections officer at the lockup – has been treated and released from a hospital after he reportedly tried to harm himself. William JamesCharles Brooks, 30, was taken to HCA Florida Ocala Hospital earlier this week for treatment, according to Marion County Sheriff's Office officials. Brooks was released from the hospital on Thursday and returned to the jail, where he now will be...

“The Official Florida Flamingo Museum” is right here in Ocala. There is a floor-to-ceiling explosion of pink flamingos—which would be called a flamboyance in a natural setting—inside Cindy Dunlow Frames in the Six Gun Plaza in east Ocala. There are so many of the iconic colorful and leggy birds nesting here that Dunlow once set a mark for flamingo-related items recognized by the Guinness World Records.

A Wildwood man was arrested after Sumter County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a location where he was “hollering for girls to come outside.”. Deputies responded in the wee hours Thursday morning to the area of County Road 230A and County Road 205A where 24-year-old Ryan Kirkland Hill was “hollering for girls to come outside” but there were no girls present and they were apparently something which he had imagined, according to the arrest report. Hill had been carrying a plastic tote bag and dropped a ziploc bag which contained methamphetamine.

Kingdom of the Sun Concert Band is 'Out Of This World'. The Kingdom of the Sun Concert Band, now with David Fritz conducting, is presenting a concert, "Out Of This World," at 2 p.m. July 16 and 3 p.m. July 17 at the Marion Technical Institute, 1614 E. Fort King St., Ocala. Free and open to the public.

After the May 17 Ocala City Council meeting, in which the board approved one economic incentive grant for a company but denied a second grant for a different company, the Gazette sought to explore the reasoning behind these decisions. The newspaper noted, for example, that the city staff-generated return-on-investment, or...

In June 2019, the Inverness KFC off U.S. 41 North was completely renovated inside and out to bring it up to modern standards. Today, it’s closed. And soon, it will be razed. The restaurant, along with other properties, was in the way of the one-mile widening of U.S. 41.

Shoddy roads, lack of affordable housing, unwanted turnpike extensions and the loss of the cherished Citrus County rural lifestyle were key issues for the 500-plus people attending Thursday’s Citrus County Chronicle-sponsored candidate forum at the fairgrounds auditorium in Inverness. But it turned out national and cultural issues were right...