Photo of the Day
Photo by Melissa Johnson, Santa Rosa Sound from Navarre Park
Month: December 2020
COVID cancels mother-daughter graduation
Pensacola State College (PSC) President, Dr. Ed Meadows sent an email to all college employees and students Nov. 30 cancelling the graduation ceremony.
“I know that this decision will disappoint some of you, but hopefully we will be able to return to a formal graduation ceremony in the spring when we celebrate both our fall and spring graduates,” Meadows stated in the email.
Spring graduation is scheduled for Sunday, May 9 at 3 p.m. at the Pensacola Bay Center.
Meadows ended his email encouraging students and faculty to continue practicing social distancing and wearing a face mask.
“Hopefully, we will soon have a vaccine available that, along with following CDC guidelines, will help us to overcome this virus,” Meadows stated at the end of his email.
The morning after the president sent an email out to the college, the nursing pinning ceremony was canceled via email as well.
“I do hope you understand that this decision is to help keep everyone safe and healthy,” stated Dusti Sluder, Dean of Health Sciences at PSC. “Hopefully we will be able to host a spring, May 2021, nursing pinning ceremony in which you will be invited to attend.”
Sluder went on to wish the nursing graduates the best of success on their post-graduate licensure exam.
Nursing students such as Navarre local Holly Bartlett were distraught when they heard the news.
She and her daughter, Aubrey Hedlund, were graduating together.
“I am sad for my cohorts,” Bartlett said. “In nursing, we have a ‘push-through-anything’ style, so we are trying to formulate an alternate plan to honor our achievement adhering to social distancing guidelines.”
Column: Chilly weather doesn’t affect live oak trees
It is correct to say the shorter days are the impetus for the leaf loss on most hardwood trees, but the subfreezing temperature and gusty winds in the weeks to come will finish off any foliage stragglers.
Sweet gums, maples, dogwoods, and many others are starkly exposed to the elements.
Gulf Island beach road repairs on horizon
Fort Pickens and its campgrounds reopened for winter hours Dec. 5, according to a press release from Gulf Islands National Seashore, but superintendent Dan Brown said it will still be a while before State Road 399 reopens.
Photo of the Day
Photo by Michelle Mobley at Navarre Beach Fishing Pier
Arrests Nov. 30 – Dec. 7
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Commissioners repeal well protections
Santa Rosa County Commissioners voted Dec. 10 to repeal a key protection for the wells that supply water to the south end of Santa Rosa County, allowing pits to expand and resource extraction to occur over the wells.
Weekly roundup of Florida news
As the state approaches another morbid coronavirus milestone of 20,000 deaths, Gov. Ron DeSantis delivered some glad tidings to Floridians this week: Hope is on the horizon.
Florida is in line to receive nearly 180,000 doses of Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine as soon as federal health authorities sign off on the drug, with 81,900 doses slated to be used in long-term care facilities and the remainder going to five hospitals throughout the state.
But the news wasn’t all giddy for DeSantis and his administration this week.
Grand jury calls Florida’s mental health system a mess
A statewide grand jury studying school safety issued an interim report Thursday that tore into Florida’s mental-health system, saying that “deficiencies in funding, leadership and services related to mental health care tend to turn up everywhere like bad pennies.”
Challenge to mask ordinance dismissed in appeals court
For the second time this week, the 1st District Court of Appeal on Thursday dismissed a challenge to a requirement that people wear masks in certain public places to prevent the spread of COVID-19.