NSBNEWS.net video and photos by Sera Frederick 

City Manager Pam Brangaccio spoke frankly with NSBNEWS.net immediately after the July 7 hearing with the Florida Department of Community Affairs in Tallahassee, but unable to answer why the city's planning department under the direction of department head Mark Rakowski (above) and (at left) chief planner Chad Lingenfelter, who worked under him and then continued alone after Rakowski's job was eliminated in December, dropped the ball on final paperwork on  land-use zoning amendments, dating back five years (see attachment for example of the transmittal forms). This fiasco, dating back to when Rakowski was promoted, has grounded 72 community projects a Wal-Mart-anchored shopping center and a 112-room hotel Flagler Avenue.  Lingenfelter has continued in his role  to this day despite calls from the mayor to have him fired .

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Mayor Adam Barringer makes no bones about it: He wants the two city planners identified by the city manager as being culpable for the city's five-year backlog of projects held accountable.

"This borders on criminal," the mayor, who has been in office less than eight months, said Wednesday as he deals with perhaps the biggest crisis in this city's history.

Courtesy photo / Volusia County. A Votran bus heads west on Canal Street in New Smyrna Beach in this photo. The county came up with a "flex" schedule to lessen the blow of some routes eliminated for greater New Smyrna Beach resulting from budget cuts.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Cuts in public bus transit for Southeast Volusia are not as bad as initially feared.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A spaghetti dinner benefit is planned for Ray Wright to help him with
expenses after he received a new heart in March at Shands Teaching Hospital in Gainesville. The benefit dinner will have dine-in and take-out service from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, at J.C.’s Restaurant, 409 Mary Ave.

NSBNEWS.net video by Sera Frederick. City officials hold informational meeting Tuesday night at the Coronado Civic Center on the proposed spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year that calls for a 6.3 percent tax increase over this year's operating budget.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- City officials held an informational session Tuesday night for residents to ask questions about the proposed budget that would raise taxes by 6.3 percent over this year.

Courtesy photo for NSBNEWS.net

Charred remains are what's left of this residence in Edgewater's Seahorse Mobile Home Park that after an early Saturday fire caused by an electrical problem, fire officials said. Firefighters were able to keep the fire contained to the burning structure with the exception of minor damage to a neighboring home.

EDGEWATER -- Before dawn Saturday, Edgewater Fire Rescue personnel were dispatched to the scene of a residential structure fire at 414 North Ridgewood Ave., Lot 21, of the Seahorse Mobile Home Park that consumed a mobile home. Nobody was home at the time.

NSBNEWS.net video by Sera Frederick. Here is a video breakout of Mayor Adam Barringer's direct plea Wednesday to the Florida Department of Community Affairs to expedite the process of approving land-use amendments that affect more than 70 community projects, including a Wal-Mart Supercenter just west of I-95 and a high-end hotel on Flagler Avenue.  The city dropped the ball on this process dating back five years. NSBNEWS.net will post the 90-minute hearing in its entirety in eight parts later today.

TALLAHASSEE  -- Mayor Adam Barringer made a passionate plea to state officials Wednesday, asking them to expedite dozens of community projects dating back five years that the city's planning department failed to send back to them for final review.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The Palatka husband wife wife found dead in their boat on July 4 near Disappearing Island died of carbon monoxide poisoning, an official with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission confirmed Tuesday.

The deaths of Howard Lupton, 50, and Sandra Lupton, 48, were ruled accidental from carbon monoxide poisoning, following autopsies, FWC spokesman Joy Hill said, adding the incident remains under investigation though no foul play is suspected.

NSBNEWS.net videos by Sera Frederick

New Smyrna Beach officials drove to the state's capital  to make their pitch for expedited approvals on an array of massive community-project applications, including a Walmart Super center near Interstate 95 and a hotel on Flagler Avenue, some dating back five years that sat in the city's planning department unfinished. NSBNEWS.net broke the original news and was the only media outlet to go to Tallahassee to cover the Wednesday morning meeting between NSB officials and those with the Florida Department of Community Affairs.NSB News' exclusive coverage of the meeting is presented gavel to gavel without cuts in the eight video segments above.

TALLAHASSEE -- Like the Clint Eastwood spaghetti western, there's the good, the
bad and the ugly of New Smyrna Beach's planning debacle in the wake of the municipal
delegation's meeting earlier today with the Florida Department of Community Affairs.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla -- Funeral service for Lois "Dolly" Krohn, age 81 of New Smyrna Beach, who died Thursday at Bert Fish Medical Center, will be 11:00 Monday, July 5, 2010 at Settle-Wilder Chapel, New Smyrna Beach, with The Reverend Luke McKinney, First Baptist Church, New Smyrna Beach, officiating.

Courtesy photo/Facebook.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The editorial board of the Orlando Sentinel in its Monday editions endorsed the candidacy of prosecutor Matt Foxman over longtime attorney George Pappas for a circuit court judgeship in the August primary. The judgeship is held by retiring Circuit Judge S. James Foxman at the New Smyrna Beach-based Volusia County Courthouse Annex on Riverside Drive. The elder Foxman is retiring.