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Week in Words

By TIMES STAFF
Published January 8, 2007

Editor's note: The following is a recap of last week's news events in Citrus County, in the words of newsmakers.

"I don't look at this so much as a sentencing than as a life upgrade for him."

Charles Holloman, attorney for James Couch, 55, who was sentenced to prison for attempting to run over a sheriff's deputy. Couch, who has a terminal illness, said he would receive better medical care in prison than he would on his own.

"I'll be surprised to see him make it through the next year. It might as well have been a million-year sentence."

Holloman, on Couch's sentence.

"Businesspeople don't have any kind of protection at this point. And as time marches on, I'm sure we'll start looking at that."

Property Appraiser Melanie Hensley, noting that businesses do not receive any benefits from the Save Our Homes amendment.

"This is one piece of tax reform that will allow homeowners to either downsize or upsize and untrap them from their homes."

Hensley, supporting legislative efforts to allow homeowners to transfer their property tax benefits when they move.

"Every time the kids took the field, they felt like they had a chance to win. He developed a lot of pride in everything we did. He always said, 'Play hard, practice hard, and the game is the reward.' "

Jere DeFoor, former Crystal River High School football coach, speaking of longtime Crystal River head coach Earl Bramlett, who has been chosen for induction into the Florida Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

"My wife would be returning home from church and see people in the middle of the street with wheelchairs. How ridiculous is that?"

Richard Marion, whose efforts to get a walkway along SE Eighth Avenue in Crystal River has led the city to install a sidewalk in his name on the street.

[Last modified January 8, 2007, 06:29:14]