League of Women Voters ^®
of Alachua County

The Transformative Justice Coalition, AFT, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, FL NAACP, LWVFL, and other partners hosted a rolling protest visiting 15 cities in Florida to fight against the assault on democracy that is occurring in Florida. The protest and Votercade arrived in Gainesville on June 19th for a Juneteenth reception and concert featuring gospel singer, Vickie Winans.

This is an excerpt from Gainesville Commissioner Bryan Eastman's May 14, 2023, Substack article, Preview: Gainesville i

In April, LWV of Alachua County, together with Alachua County Public Schools, co-hosted the sixth annual Civics Challenge. The competition helps prepare seventh-grade students for their end-of-year exam while shining a spotlight on those students who excel in the study of our government. There are both in-person and virtual events and High Springs once again emerged as this year's overall champions. As a member of the League, your money and volunteers make this day possible by providing t-shirts, trophies, transportation, and food for the competitors. In addition, your funding has helped to pay for the online platform used to run the virtual competition. There is a proposal to expand the event to include high school students in the future. Read the full article for a detailed account of this important event.

UPDATED: 05/05/23: On March 9th, the gas rebate issue finally went before the City Commission. GRU presented their reasons for wanting to retain the rebate program and Utility Advisory Board (UAB) chair Barry Jacobson gave excellent rebuttals to their arguments. However, the commission decided to take no action so the rebate program will remain in place for now and we do not expect any changes to the program in the near future. In addition, market forces are aligned against future home gas use and, while it will take longer than we would like, we believe the gas rebate program will eventually die from attrition.

On May 11, we expect the commission will hear a presentation from GRU on gas infrastructure plans and their reasons for continued expansion of gas pipelines in western Alachua County. We are against adding more gas infrastructure for the same reasons we are against the rebate program and will be redirecting our efforts toward preventing this expansion. Additionally, given that federal policy and market forces are currently running counter to the use of residential use of natural gas, investing in more gas infrastructure makes no financial sense for GRU.