Citrus: The week in review

HOSPITAL CLOSE TO APPROVAL FOR HEART PROGRAM: Citrus Memorial Hospital cleared a key bureaucratic hurdle, leaving it one step away from receiving state approval to develop an adult open-heart surgery program. If the hospital prevails by November 2003, Citrus patients would be able to stay in Citrus, if they wish, instead of traveling to surrounding counties for angioplasty and heart surgery. A hearing officer agreed that Citrus should receive the state certificate of need that would clear the way for construction.

DRIVER DIES IN WRECK: An early-morning crash involving a nearly empty school bus and a single-occupant car resulted in the death of the car's driver Friday. Charles William Harden, 71, 5161 E Tangelo Lane, was killed on impact after colliding practically head-on with a Citrus County school bus. The driver was the only person aboard the bus as it was just beginning its morning rounds to pick up students bound for Citrus High School. Authorities said the bus was northbound on U.S. 41 at Jasmine Lane, a half-mile north of Inverness city limits, when the southbound 1993 Ford driven by Harden crossed the center line and collided with the right front portion of the oncoming bus.

CRYSTAL RIVER PUBLIX RELOCATES: After a quarter century in the center of town, Publix closed its Kings Bay Plaza grocery store and opened a new one Thursday on State Road 44 at County Road 486.

INVERNESS HOUSE TO BE RAZED: Saved more than a month ago from demolition by fire, the historical house at 105 W Grace St. will now face demolition by wrecking ball. The Inverness Architectural/Aesthetic Review Committee voted 4-2 to allow the property owner, Joanne Palmieri, to tear down the dilapidated house so she can build a one-story office building at W Grace and S Pine Avenue. The board's decision came after no one agreed to move and restore the abandoned house, the one-time home of Judge E.C. May that was likely built in the 1910s.

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