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NSBNews.net file photo of Oak Hill Police Chief Diane Young

OAK HILL -- The Florida Department of Law Enforcement acknowledged for the first time that it has the Oak Hill Police Department on its investigative radar.

"We've received some information as it relates to the police department and we're looking into it," FDLE spokeswoman Heather Smith told NSBNews.net.

Smith declined to get into specifics except to say things are in the preliminary stages that "may or may not be criminal" in the small police force led by embattled Police Chief Diane Young, whose reinstatement of Sgt. Manuel Perez a week ago today after has been met with skepticism from some city officials and residents alike.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A water-main break on U.S. 1 near Douglas Street that forced the Utilities Commission of New Smyrna Beach to lower water pressure for 24,000 customers has now been repaired, a spokeswoman said.

"Everyone should be back up to full water pressure within the next 15 minutes," Utilities Commission spokeswoman Ellen Fisher reported in an e-mail sent to NSBNews.net at 5:36 p.m. in an e-mail. "No precautionary boil water notice is expected to be issued at this time."

Early this afternoon, a state Department of Transportation contractor working in the right of way near the intersection of U.S. 1 and Douglas Street hit a 12-inch potable water main and split the pipe lengthwise.

Fisher said crews had been working all afternoon to isolate the break and repair it. Water Resources crews lowered pressure to be able to access the break. As a result, many customers throughout the city experienced either low water pressure or none at all, especially on higher floors of multi-unit buildings, such as condominiums.

Customer service staff will be staying after hours until 7 pm to answer calls at 386-427-1361. Please check the Utilities Commission website for updates at www.ucnsb.org.

Courtesy photo / If you know this man shown in a surveillance video from the Bank of America branch bank at 1454 W. Granada Blvd., please call Ormond Beach Police at 386-677-0731 or Crimestoppers at 277-TIPS or 1-888-277-TIPS.

ORMOND BEACH -- A robber claiming to be armed, fled the Bank of America, 1454 Granada Blvd. on Tuesday with an undisclosed amount of cash, Ormond Beach police said.

The man, approached the teller at 3:20 p.m. and showed her a note demanding money and implying he was armed.

"The teller complied and the suspect then walked out of the bank," Ormond Beach Police Lt. Kenny Hayes said.

Courtesy photos / The man shown in these gruesome photos is none other than Henry Ford Wheeler, greater New Smyrna Beach's notorious ex-con who got beat up in a beachside bar. Wheeler made headlines last year by costing then-County Judge Mary Jane Henderson her seat on the bench in the November elections after she tried to help him turn his alcoholic life around, only to see him continue getting into trouble, including being at the center of a murder.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Henry Ford Wheeler, a career criminal with more than 60 arrests on his record, has actually found himself on the right side of the law in the wake of being beaten to a bloody pulp inside a New Smyrna Beach bar in April.

David Fernendez, the manager of Traders Pub on Flagler Avenue where the beating took place, was arrested Wednesday on a warrant charging him with felony battery.

OAK HILL -- Oak Hill Mayor Mary Lee Cook's insistence that marijuana plants were placed on her property to frame her was reported in 181 media outlets nationwide Wednesday, two days after NSBNews.net broke the story live from Monday night's City Commission meeting.

NSBNews.net photo illustration by Sera Frederick 

OAK HILL -- Talk about the pot calling the kettle black: In a shocking turn of events, NSBNews.net has learned that embattled Police Chief Diane Young -- whose past use of cocaine and marijuana is well chronicled -- was the driving force behind Sheriff's narcotics investigators showing up at 84-year-old Mary Lee Cook's house last month to confront her about marijuana plants on her property.

Young had denied any involvement in the episode in media interviews, including NSBNews.net, which broke the story Monday night. The mayor was not charged and the marijuana plants were destroyed, but what remains a mystery is how they got there in the first place.

NSBNews.net photos by Sera Frederick / On the drawing boards for five years-plus, the proposed Hampton Inn & Suites is the new reality for historic Flagler Avenue in New Smyrna Beach. The developer is South Carolina-based David Swentor (with hand out to the drawing) shown here with CRA Director Tony Otte during a public hearing earlier this year.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Residents soon will see the beginning of the first significant hotel development in the City in more than 20 years. Developers of the Hampton Inn Hotel on Flagler Avenue are expecting to break ground on the project in the next few weeks.

"After nearly five years of meetings and public hearings, we're excited to have a new hotel coming to New Smyrna Beach," said New Smyrna Beach Mayor Adam Barringer.

"The project will serve as an economic generator in the short term with construction jobs and in the long term with the travelers expected to stay here. We anticipate this hotel will exceed the expectations for occupancy."

Courtesy photo / Robert Olen Butler

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Pulitzer Prize winning author Robert Olen Butler will discuss his literary works and read from his new novel, “A Small Hotel,” at the New Smyrna Beach Regional Library at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10.