Local News

Quincy Police Chief Ferman Richardson said no one knows exactly when illegal slot machines showed up in the city of Quincy, although he thinks it has only been in the last 6 to 8 weeks.

During the regular meeting of the Quincy City Commission Tuesday night, Commissioner Derrick Elias asked if there was paramutual betting going on in the city. Before Elias' inquiry, Richardson said he had no idea the machines were inside several local businesses.

Elias said he heard about the machines a month ago after a citizen asked him if the city was now allowing paramutual gambling.

A Quincy man who had pawned one ring at Mitch’s Jewelry in Chiefland should have looked around for another shop before he tried to pawn a second one — this time a diamond and platinum ring valued at almost $13,000.

Chiefland Police Chief Robert Douglas said the suspect, Reginald Lydell Jones, 45, of McCall Bridge Road in Quincy, and Northwest Capital Circle in Tallahassee, was arrested July 18 and charged with dealing in stolen property, motor vehicle theft and resisting an officer without violence. Jones is incarcerated in Levy County Jail under a $79,500 bond.

Three officers at Gadsden Correctional Institution have been fired as part of a continuing investigation into inappropriate relationships between officers and female inmates.

The terminiations come on the heels of the firings of four other officers in recent months who were let go for the same inappropriate behavior.

According to the Florida Department of Corrections, the investigation focused on letters, pictures and accusations of sexual encounters.

The 2010 census is so important to the city of Quincy that Jack McLean, city manager, formed a census committee among department heads last Thursday.

"This is critical to the city. We have to make sure people are counted. I feel one of the reasons that Quincy has not gotten its fair share of state and federal funds is that people were not counted properly in 2000," he said.