LATEST NEWS

Sumter County will close its Building Services Bushnell Annex Office effective July 10, 2023. All building services will be consolidated at the Villages Sumter County Service Center location at 7375 Powell Rd., Wildwood, FL 34785. With this consolidation, all building, planning and zoning services will be housed at one location for all customer needs. This activity is in preparation for the future relocation of building and planning services to the new Service Center in Sumterville.

Multiple firetrucks responded Friday night to a store at Rolling Acres Plaza in The Villages. The units from The Villages Public Safety Department were called at about 9 p.m. to Ross Dress for Less, which is located in the same shopping plaza as Target. Firefighters entered the store and no outward flames or smoke were showing.

An inspector found problems with employee hygiene and food temperature at a popular restaurant in The Villages. The inspector paid a visit May 12 to the Fiesta Grande Mexican Grill at Colony Plaza and found numerous health violations, according to a report on file with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

For an alligator, it doesn’t get better than this. Check out the big smile on this gator’s face during a warm and sunny Memorial Day Weekend in The Villages. Thanks to Julie Walfield for sharing!. Share your local photos with us at https://villages-news.com/contact-us!

A Villager’s son has been sentenced after he was found passed out at The Villages Polo Club. Michael Scott Griffin, 53, pleaded no contest last week in Sumter County Court to charges of driving under the influence and driving while license suspended. He has been placed on probation for one year, has lost his license for six months and was ordered to perform 50 hours of community service.

A Wildwood woman is back behind bars after violating her probation. Lisa Marie Walczak-Kendall, 55, was being held this weekend without bond at the Lake County Jail. She is charged with violating her probation on a charge of fraud. The Ohio native had been arrested earlier this year when a...

A man tied to an infamous beating death at a town square in The Villages is back in trouble again. Nicholas Metcalfe, 25, of Ocala, was being held without bond this weekend at the Marion County Jail. Metcalfe had been sentenced to six months probation in the 2016 death of...

Offenses: 784.045(1B) – AGG/ASSAULT/BATTERY PREGNANT PERSON. The Hernando Sun is a locally owned weekly newspaper. The founders of the newspaper are Rocco and Julie Maglio. They saw the need for a newspaper when the Hernando Today newspaper closed their doors in 2014. Rocco is from Hernando, he went to school from Moton Elementary through Hernando High. Growing up in Hernando enhances his ability to provide background to ongoing issues. The Hernando Sun Printed their first issue in March 2015. They published monthly for a year before increasing to a weekly printing. The newspaper is delivered through the US mail, so it arrives with your mail.

As we observe Memorial Day, we look back at the origins of The Veterans Memorial Park of The Villages. The year was 1998 and The Villages already was home to veterans of many different eras, wars and conflicts. And the more those veterans came to Florida’s Friendliest Hometown, the more...

ORLANDO, Fla. - FOX 35 is looking into why a man who shot and killed another man inside a Florida Applebee's is not facing charges. Dishaun Hudson was shot and killed inside an Applebee's in Lady Lake in early March, just after 1 a.m. According to documents from the state attorney's office, "stand your ground" and self-defense applies in this case, which is why the man who shot Hudson will not be charged.

Jose Luis Hernandez Verano, 48; Alfredo Quintana Marrero, 43; and Leonardo Valdes Cordero, 27, all of Orlando, were recently sentenced on racketeering and other charges stemming from a March 2022 arrest for stealing diesel fuel The post Three men sentenced for organized diesel fuel thefts appeared first on Alachua Chronicle.

A huge Hobby Lobby store is on track to open later this year in The Villages. The 55,000-square-foot-store is under construction at Buffalo Ridge Plaza. Longstanding real estate partner, David Emihovich of Katz & Associates, worked with Hobby Lobby’s Matthew Abnet to secure the location in Buffalo Ridge Plaza.

A Villager will escape prosecution after a tussle with his manager in a UPS delivery golf cart. The prosecutor’s office announced earlier this month in Sumter County Court that 57-year-old David Aaron Clement of the Village of Bonita will not be prosecuted on a charge of battery. Clement completed...

A painting contractor in The Villages has been apprehended on a felony charge. Jason Melville Garaway, 48, who lives in the Village of Calumet Grove and operates Garaway Painting Inc., was driving a black Chevy Silverado pickup at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday in the area of County Road 466 and Chula Vista Avenue when an officer ran the vehicle’s license plate and learned the vehicle’s registered owner has a driver’s license that was suspended last year, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. The officer followed Garaway’s pickup and initiated a traffic stop at Miller’s Ale House on U.S. Hwy. 27/441.

A man was arrested after making a snack run for his pregnant girlfriend. Beon Ozar Strong, 38, of Wildwood, was driving a silver Kia SUV at 9:20 a.m. Tuesday on U.S. Hwy. 27/441 at Griffin View Drive when an officer noticed that the vehicle had a brake light that was not functioning, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. The officer attempted to initiate a traffic stop, but Strong drove to a home on McClendon Street.

A 73-year-old Leesburg man has died as the result of a crash on U.S. Hwy. 441. David Reno was at the wheel of a silver 2007 Chevrolet sedan at 11:39 a.m. Wednesday northbound on U.S. Hwy. 441 making a left turn onto Perkins Street when he collided with a 2011 GMC pickup driven by 22-year-old Terrin Lawson, of Leesburg, according to a media release from the Leesburg Police Department.

The family of a Citrus County deputy is remaining hopeful after he was struck by a 19-year-old girl while directing traffic on Tuesday.

A golf cart was snatched from a garage in The Villages. Kimberly Foreman of the Village of St. Catherine said her garage doors were down and the thief apparently broke in through a back door. The incident was reported to the Wildwood Police Department. Foreman said she fears the golf...

A homeless woman was arrested Thursday after she reportedly kicked a deputy in the groin while being forcefully removed from her father’s home in Leesburg. Stephanie Lynn Armstrong, 40, was charged with trespass without warning and resisting a law enforcement officer both with and without violence after the incident, which happened Thursday morning at a home on Sunnyside Drive. Deputies responded to the residence after Armstrong’s father reported she wouldn’t leave, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office arrest report.

A man caught with a stolen gun in Leesburg is facing up to 15 years in federal prison. Eddie Lee Parks III, 24, Orlando, if facing a one-count indictment charging him with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. According to the indictment, on April 10, Parks was in...