NSBNEWS.net: Volusia County / State

PALM COAST -- Flagler County School Board member Peter Palmer died Sunday battling cancer. He was 66.

Palmer, a native of New London, Conn., and a Navy veteran, He was a middle school teacher for 20 years in Guilford, Conn., before relocating to Palm Coast in 1989. He worked 16 years in the Flagler school district as parent specialist/coordinator in the federally subsidized low-income student programs. He retired in 2005.

Palmer was elected to the school board a year later and served up to his death. He is survived by his wife, Gail, and their four children.

DEBARY -- Children in grades 2 - 5 are invited to join Volusia County’s ECHO Rangers program, a hands-on educational 10-month program featuring the county’s ecological, cultural, heritage and outdoor resources.

The program is offered from September through June at more than 40 sites including parks, museums, libraries and historical sites. Participants are asked to visit at least eight sites and participate in specially designed ECHO Ranger activities.

Courtesy photo. This is a composite sketch by the Port Orange Police Department of a flasher who exposed himself to three teenage girls at the city amphitheater.

PORT ORANGE – Police are seeking the public's help in finding a man who exposed himself to three teenage girls at the city amphitheater last week.

Courtesy photo. A body, believed to be that of missing Deltona resident Alfonso Milian, 82, was found this afternoon in a wooded area near where his vehicle was located earlier in the day in Flagler County, said Brandon Haught, spokesman with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office. The body was discovered approximately 175 feet from County Road 200 in dense underbrush.

PONCE INLET -- A 26-year-old Spaniard swimming off the Beach Avenue Approach off Ponce Inlet became the seventh shark-bite victim of 2009, but he did not require stitches and was treated at the scene, according to the Florida Beach Patrol.

All but two of the bites have occurred in New Smyrna Beach near the South Jetty where bait fish are the meal choice of the 4- and 5-foot sharks.

Courtesy photos. The Volusia County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help in locating 82-year-old Alfonso Milan, missing since at least Friday, who has medical needs. He may have been driving a Jeep Cherokee like this one.

DAYTONA BEACH -- A 23-year-old Daytona Beach man was taken into custody Monday after a negotiator with a SWAT team talked him into surrenduring after he barricaded himself into a residence where a 1-year-old was inside when he learned police were looking for him.

Neighbors told police they heard gunfire just before police arrived at the residence at 1069 North St. at 5:33 a.m. Harrison Burson surrendered three hours later and was taken into custody on several outstanding warrants.

Police did not release any other details.

DELAND -- Nine years after leaving for a post in Tallahassee and then even greener pastures in California, Dr. Bonita J. Sorensen realized there's no place like home as she returned to the helm of the Volusia County Health Department earlier this month.

Sorenson, who held the top post from 1996 to 2002, first left for a larger post as state deputy health director and then relocated to California to work for that state's health department as the chief deputy director of policy and programs.

Courtesy photo. Alfonso Milian, 82, of Deltona, who has medical needs, has been missing since Friday.

DELTONA -- The Volusia County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help in finding a missing Deltona man reported missing by his family on Friday.

Alfonso Milian, 82, suffers from beginning stages of Alzheimer's Disease and takes medications for high blood pressure and diabetes.

DELAND -- Volusia County Animal Control is working to address the animal overpopulation issue through proactive measures – such as education, investigation, and enforcement – to stop indiscriminant breeding of dogs and cats, animal fighting, and cruelty to animals.

As a result, the county has organized an Animal Welfare Fund, to which citizens can make donations, said Shelley Szafraniec, a Vousia County spokeswoman. The funds are used to offset the expenses of these efforts, she said.