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Sheriff's Office searching for dead Orange City woman's missing vehicle

ORANGE CITY -- Volusia County Sheriff's investigators are searching for a vehicle missing from the home of an Orange City woman found dead Tuesday afternoon.

The 51-year-old victim, identified as Rabbitt Burns, was found dead Tuesday afternoon inside her home on West Fern Drive just south of Orange City.

Concerned co-workers who came to the victim's home to check on her well-being peered through a window and saw the woman on the ground, Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said.
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ECHO advisory committee to meet Wednesday to consider $3.79M worth of community projects

DELAND -- The Volusia County Environmental, Cultural, Historical, and Outdoor Recreation (ECHO) advisory committee will meet from 3 - 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 13, in the Volusia County Council chambers of the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Center, 123 W.Indiana Ave.

The committee will review and consider the eligibility of the following applicants for the 2010 grant cycle:

- City of New Smyrna Beach, Cross Volusia Trail: $281,853;

- City of Port Orange, Russell Landing: $100,000;

- Wildlife Foundation of Florida, Mosquito Lagoon Marine Enhancement Center: $600,000;

Obituaries

Revis Gale Rhodes Jr. 78, of New Smyrna Beach, and Rumson, N.J., a former copyright and patent law
attorney who served in the U.S. Army as a first lieutenant and then graduated Chicago Kent
College of Law in 1960, died Friday, Jan. 8, 2010.

Kent A. Williams, 72, of New Smyrna Beach, a retired utilities company executive, who moved from Earleville, Maryland to Ormond Beach in 1995, then to New Smyrna Beach in 2003, and enjoyed family, fishing, boating and photography, died Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010.

Jacquelyn Spring Daly of West Roxbury, Mass., who grew up in New Smyrna Beach

Ponce Inlet: Holding the line on spending in tough economic year

PONCE INLET -- Town police Detective Max Binz said the already overworked force has had to adjust to yet another responsibility in dealing with the recession: keeping an eye on more than two dozen foreclosed homes.

"It's something we've had to deal with, especially in the past year," said Binz, a 12-year veteran and the department's lone detective.

"That's an extra patrol we have to do, but everyone has had to tighten their belts and we're no different," Binz said. "Still Ponce Inlet remains a great place to live where residents pay more because of the quality of life."

Ponce Inlet to meet with Port Orange officials Tuesday to discuss sewer hook-ups for the town

PONCE INLET -- Gary Comfort favors conversion of the town's desire to convert the remaining half its residences from septic to the more costly sewer service hook-up with nearby Port Orange, especially as a benefit for the environment, but like all causes, it comes down to money.

Saturday morning brings sleet; BalloonFest cancelled and overnight temps expected to plunge into 20s

Newspaper Section

Contributing photos. These photos (at left and below) were e-mailed to NSBNEWS.net by Jeanette DiCara, showing the early Saturday morning sleet on the plants outside her Edgewater home. Overnight Saturday temperatures are expected to plunge to the coldest levels so far this year with lows in the teens, according to the National Weather Service in Melbourne.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A casualty of the freezing rain Saturday was the weekend BalloonFest at New Smyrna Beach Municipal Airport. The good news is there is no more freezing rain expected this weekend.

Brangaccio and commission $10K apart on salary

NSBNEWS.net videos and photo by Sera Frederick. Interim City Manager Pam Brangaccio and Mayor Adam Barringer discuss her contract in a negotiating session Friday at City Hall. Also in the photo is City Attorney Frank Gummey.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Interim City Manager Pam Brangaccio was insistent on a beginning salary of $120,000, which was what she was hired at in July, as part of negotiations today on a permanent hiring, a demand that is $10,000 more than what the City Commission has proposed.

Former Mayor Sally Mackay attends commission meeting

NSBNEWS.net photo by Sera Frederick. Former Mayor Sally Mackay sits in the back of the commission room chambers at City Hall with her husband, Richard Spangler, during Wednesday's special meeting of the City Commission for action on Interim City Manager Pam Brangaccio's contract. Former Mayoral candidate Marilee Walters, shown here partially in the photo, was also in attendance as was new Mayor Adam Barringer.