GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The Firewatch veteran’s suicide prevention council became a reality following a recent signing ceremony at the Board of County Commissioners.

Commissioner Gavin Rollins introduced the idea of a veteran’s suicide inter-county council to the BCC week ago and now, it’s officially in service. A council made up of representatives from Clay, Duval, Nassau, Baker and St. Johns counties, the partnership will allow the five counties work together to support veteran suicide prevention groups and assist in other veteran programs.

“As we’ve discussed before, it’s still in the beginning stages but my understanding is that moving forward, they’re probably going to look at hiring an executive director and then coming up with a specific road map of how to connect veteran suicide groups and focusing on coordination of efforts,” Rollins said.

Firewatch is looking to raise $100,000 between the five counties to give the council a funding boost at the start. Duval pledged $70,000, Baker $10,000, Nassau $5,000 and St. Johns $15,000.

St. Johns put forth $15,000 to get the council to $100,000 but publicly stated that they wanted Clay cover half of that cost. The BCC voted unanimously to pay the $7,500 during its meeting last Tuesday.

This money is currently in an escrow-like account.

“There’s a broad level of support across the five-county area for this so I have confidence in the accountability and transparency of the process,” Rollins said.

In other business, the BCC voted 5-0 to approve a motion that will raise the distance requirement of sexual offenders and predators near child safety zones from 1,000 feet to 2,000 feet. Child safety zones include places like bus stops, day cares and schools. Before this motion Tuesday night, offenders could not live within 1,000 feet of the zones.

The new 2,000-foot zone will be grandfathered in so anyone won’t be forced to move.

That same motion also prohibits certain Halloween activity and requires immediate registration with the sheriff’s office. There will be a $10 fee each time an offender is required to check in or register new information with the sheriff’s office, based on their offense, which is usually two or three times a year.