Dunnellon

The Dunnellon City Council is considering legal action against businesses connected to February's rail tie fire.

One month after a massive rail tie fire sent thick, potentially hazardous smoke over Dunnellon and nearby Chatmire, residents are still demanding answers about how a disaster many warned about became reality.

The Dunnellon City Council met Monday to discuss cleanup plans after a railroad tie fire Feb. 1 exposed residents to toxic smoke and ash.

Marion County firefighters fought throughout the day Sunday to extinguish a blaze of thousands of wooden railroad ties left by the side of the tracks near Dunnellon.

Cheers and applause filled Dunnellon High School Friday morning as students and staff honored Jaylianna Lopez-Neumann for her groundbreaking season on the football field.Lopez-Neumann made history this year as Dunnellon’s first-ever female place kicker

The Dunnellon City Council will vote on Monday, Oct. 27, on whether to send a letter to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection opposing Texas-based Track Line Rail’s draft air permit for a railroad tie grinding site. The company tried to establish its first Florida site in Newberry earlier this year but now plans to set up shop in Dunnellon.

A Marion County park bordering Rainbow River will soon be under new management.

Eleven counts of DUI with serious bodily injury have been filed against Bryan Howard. He already was facing eight counts of DUI-manslaughter in connection with the May 14 crash.

A man with a long record of dangerous driving told investigators he smoked marijuana oil and took prescription drugs hours before he sideswiped a bus, killing eight Mexican farmworkers and injuring dozens more.

Eight bus passengers were killed and over 40 injured Tuesday when a bus crashed on State Road 40.