Meet Ed Gaw

January 4, 2019     0    94

Left with no building, he began a search for a new home for Hi-Liner. “The search took us to about every vacant building in Broward, and Broward is an expensive market to purchase warehouse space,” said Gaw. The exhaustive search did not produce any suitable properties for the company. This meant Gaw would have to explore areas outside of the place he’d called home since moving to Florida. One idea that floated through his mind was the place his parents reside after relocating from colder climes – Fernandina Beach. “We went up to Nassau County, found a building, took that offer, went through the whole process,” said Gaw. “But it didn’t work.” In an instant, Gaw was back where he started, however his luck began to change that same day. While visiting a commercial real estate website, he stumbled upon the property he’s in today at 3529 Enterprise Way. “The next day, me and one of my guys jumped in the truck drove up here looked at the building and went ‘that’s it’,” said Gaw. “We didn’t know a whole lot about Clay County, knew ...

AT&T is opening 5G service to users in a dozen cities this week, including Jacksonville

January 2, 2019     0    49

The Dallas-based telecom is investing heavily in the new technology as it seeks to distinguish itself as the early player on 5G in the persistently competitive industry. The new networks promise speeds that will change how consumers – and especially businesses – use wireless technology. Folks initially won’t be accessing the zippier speeds directly onto smartphones, but instead on Netgear’s Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot. This device enables nearby gadgets – such as a tablet or laptops – to tap into the technology. The initial offer will deliver select businesses and consumers the device and 5G data usage at “no cost for at least 90 days,” the company said. In the spring, customers will be able to get the Nighthawk for $499 upfront, and will receive 15 gigabytes of data for $70 a month on a compatible plan with no annual commitment. As well as parts of the First Coast, AT&T said 5G is live in parts of Dallas; Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Houston; Indianapolis; Louisville, Ky.; Oklahoma City; New Orleans; Raleigh, N.C.; San Antonio; and Waco. In the first half of 2019, the company will deploy ...

Florida population climbs to 21.3 million

January 2, 2019     0    35

But Florida is nowhere close to overtaking California, which had an estimated 39.56 million people, or Texas, with 28.7 million. Behind California, Texas, Florida and New York, the other top-10 states this year are Pennsylvania, with 12.8 million people; Illinois, with 12.74 million; Ohio, with 11.69 million; Georgia, with 10.52 million; North Carolina, with 10.38 million; and Michigan, with about 10 million. The trends indicate many people are looking to live where it is warm or where they can enjoy the mountains. The fastest rates of growth from 2017 to 2018 were in Nevada, 2.1 percent; Idaho, 2.1 percent; Utah, 1.9 percent; Arizona, 1.7 percent; and Florida, 1.5 percent. Rounding out the top 10 in growth rates were Washington, Colorado, Texas, South Carolina and North Carolina, according to the Census Bureau. Texas saw the largest numeric growth, gaining 379,128 people over the year, while Florida’s estimated numeric growth was second-highest, with population going from 20,976,812 in 2017 to 21,299,325 this year --- an increase of 322,513. States that lost population during the year were scattered across the country, according to the Census numbers. ...

Baptist Clay opens new surgery center

December 14, 2018     0    121

“As patients are wheeled from the recovery spaces and head back and forth to the operating suites, they won’t have to experience that light sensation you’ve all seen in the movies,” Roark said. “Those are the types of details we’ve looked at to the enhance the patient experience.” Mark Poon, Baptist Clay Outpatient Surgery manager, said the center was built specifically to serve the county. “There’s a lot of patients and they don’t want to drive across the bridge,” Poon said. “This is the place where we wanted to have a healing environment in the county. [Referring to the private rooms] Families don’t have to take the day off, they can stay in surgery center.” Baptist Health CEO Hugh Greene said his upcoming retirement gave him a chance to reflect on the beginning of Baptist Health in the county five years ago. “When I drive up here, I remembered when we were first looking at this property. We had community meetings and some citizens were concerned about noise from a helipad and visual distractions of the lights,” Greene said. “It was kind of ...

Coding takes center stage during Computer Science Week

December 14, 2018     0    118

“That’s a large hole in the workforce that could be filled by our students one day, which are so incredibly bright,” Murphy said. Superintendent Addison Davis said the Hour of Code, which most of the Clay County School District took part in, is a way to expose students to all the facets within technology while keeping it fun and exciting. “The Hour of Code is a way for us to find and implement fun and creativity in our classrooms,” Davis said. “We know that computer science is so important and within our classrooms today, we want to be able to expose all learners to the problem solving, the communications, the critical thinking, and the collaboration involved in order to fall in love with kinesthetic, full hands-on project-based learning activities, and this is the way that’ll do it for our county.” At LAJH, eighth grade students put Davis to work in the computer science lab. Sitting within the computer science lab was a large and shiny first place trophy that the LAJH robotics team earned in the past two years’ Technology Student ...