Local News Now

Courtesy photo / Volusia County. A Votran bus heads west on Canal Street in New Smyrna Beach in this photo. The county is looking at possible route cuts for New Smyrna Beach and Pierson to overcome o $2.6 million shortfall in revenue.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The great thing about living in sleepy New Smyrna Beach is the escape from the sprawl of the more urban Daytona Beach. The payoff may be tougher to swallow, though for residents here like a young man named "Rich" who is is on disability and relies on the public transportation of Votran buses to get around the county.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A 28-year-old Michigan biker was arrested Wednesday night on a charge of reckless driving after he and three others on sport bikes were "clocked at a high rate of speed" on State Road 415 near S.R. 44, according to an online District 5 Sheriff's report summary.

Courtesy photo. Calling hours are planned today and a funeral service tomorrow in Conneaut, Ohio, for Linda M. Lockwood, 46, who was killed Sunday in a Bike Week-related motorcycle accident in New Smyrna Beach.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Calling hours are planned today in the small Ohio community of Conneaut for Linda M. Lockwood, Bike Week's first fatality last Sunday when she was thrown from the back of a friend's Harley-Davidson when two motorcycles going in the same direction touched in the 1500 block of South Atlantic Avenue near 5th Avenue on the beachside.

Courtesy photo/Jail mug. Richard Cintron, 32, of New York, is charged with stealing a motorcycle and operating a chop shop in a house rental in New Smyrna Beach.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A local law enforcement task force combating motorcycle thefts during Bike Week arrested a New York man Tuesday., A Volusia County Sheriff's spokesman said.

Richard Cintron, 32, is accused of stealing a motorcycle and dismantling it to use its parts on his own motorcycle. He was charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle and operating a chop shop. The stripped down bike and a second stolen bike were found in a New Smyrna Beach house that he rented for Bike Week.

WASHINGTON -- Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas, D-New Smyrna Beach (FL-24), testified Wednesday before the House Budget Committee about the President's Obama's proposed NASA budget and called for an additional $1.2 billion over the president's request for FY 2011 to continue flying the Space Shuttle.

Courtesy photo. Grayce K.  Barck, 82, past president of the North Beach Neighborhood Association, former teacher and active for many years in NSB politics, including a run for the City Commission, has died.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Grayce K. Barck, a pillar in the community for her neighhood leadership in North Beach and a longtime political insider who once ran for a city commission seat, has died. She was 82.

Barck succumbed Monday at the Southeast Volusia Care Center of Hospice of Volusia/Flagler.

News of her death gave supporters and opponents reason to pause and pay their respects.

NSBNEWS.net photos by Henry Frederick. At left, April Perreault, a Bike Week bartender at Pub 44 in New Smyrna Beach, gets hit on by 90 percent of her customers, even though there are fewer of them than in year's past, as the overall presence of bikers for the annual rally centered around greater Daytona Beach is down in part to the economy and the weather. In the second photo, a vintage Harley chopper stands out from the other bikes at Pub 44.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- April Perreault makes a decent wage as a supervisor of an auditing company overseeing convenience stores. She makes plenty as a bartender during Bike Week, especially tips, even though attendance so far is down from previous years, with the motorcycle rally entering its 6th day with four to go.

And while the crowds are down, biker fatalities are rising with a second death early Tuesday in DeLeon Springs, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Courtesy photo/left. NSBNEWS.net photo by Sera Frederick, at right. John Drago, former finalist for city manager in New Smyrna Beach and DeBary, is among six vying for the top job in Orange City. New Smyrna Beach tabbed Pam Brangaccio to replaced fired John Hagood last July, first as interim for six months and then permanently in January at an annual salary of $120,000.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Former city manager candidate John Drago is now a finalist for the same position in Orange City. Drago, former Longwood city administrator, was among the New Smyrna Beach City Commission's Top 4 candidates from a pool of nearly 100 last summer when then-Mayor Sally Mackay suggested the commissioners diversity the finalist since the final four were all white men. Pam Brangaccio was added.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Linda M. Lockwood, 45, was the Ohio woman on the back of a Harley-Davidson thrown from the bike operated by her companion Sunday on the opening weekend of Bike Week that resulted in her death and him clinging to his life in critical condition at Halifax Medical Center, after colliding with a fellow Ohio biker and friend as they were riding on the beachside in what is now the motorcycle rally's first fatality.

Lockwood, though is more than a statistic. She was the mother of two children and ran her own home day care.

NSBNEWS.net photos by Henry Frederick. Lori Chamberlain, 41, a bartender at Pub 44, poses for the camera with a big, beautiful smile. This motorcycle, was spotted in Pub 44's parking lot, also the object of the camera, but for obviously different reasons.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- No doubt about it: Pub 44 bartender Lori Chamberlain is gorgeous. When this 41-year-old head turner is away from the Bike Week scene she loves her two boys, Nicholas, 6, and Christopher, 12, her dogs, cats, gardening and going to the beach.

Outside in the parking lot, a motorcycle stood on its kickstand, its wretched existence bared to all who would walk by and mock it. This hunk of junk, too, is a head turner. Welcome to Bike Week's "Beauty and the Beast."