Love was the biggest winner at Saturday’s Play for a Purpose volleyball tournament in Pace. The event raised about $8,000 to help the families of the Davidson brothers – Khai, 13, Dawson, 11, and Jack, 3 – whose father was killed on New Year’s Day and whose mother is in jail charged with his murder.
For the past 18 years, people from Santa Rosa County and beyond have gathered at the Gulf Coast Kiln Walk Society’s Woodstoke Festival for fun, food and friends, but mostly for pottery. On Saturday, Feb. 18, they came back to celebrate the latest kiln firing, look at the pottery and, in some cases, buy it.
Woodstoke Festival, named as an homage to Woodstock, brings together potters and ceramics artists from across the region with the chance to use some of the high-quality kilns at Holley Hill Pottery (7507 Buckeye Drive in Holley).
Even amid a pandemic, Navy Federal Credit Union has never strayed from the course of its mission.
It took some adapting along the way, with employees going remote for more than two years, but with 2023 underway, everything is humming along for the region’s largest private employer.
Kim Aderholdt is the vice president of the Greater Pensacola Operations, a sprawling campus off Nine Mile Road that is a hop, skip and jump away from Interstate 10. She noted nothing came easy during a time of uncertainty for the country, but she is impressed with the way the company has continued to move forward.
Residents have begged Santa Rosa County for months to improve code enforcement to prevent erosion damage and water pollution. Last week, the Board of County Commissioners approved increasing landfill fees, including a $1 per ton impact fee to pay for four new compliance officers.
Once every 10 years or so, Navarre Beach goes through beach nourishment, a process in which sand, lost through erosion, is replaced through other sources.
This can help widen the beach, making it more resistant to the effects of erosion and storms.
The last time Navarre Beach went through this process was 2016 and it was due to happen again in 2026. That was until Hurricane Sally’s impact bumped up the timetable. Now, nearly three years after Sally hit the Gulf Coast, the beach has still not been restored.
The old ball and chain has been given a new meaning. On Tuesday, Feb. 14, Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson spoke at a news conference about a murder for hire case involving a man and a woman from Pace.
“I think this is my first Valentine’s Day press conference,” Johnson said. “That’s kind of appropriate because we’re going to tell you about a love story.”
Beginning Tuesday, Feb. 14, Santa Rosa County residents calling 911 may make a new connection with the Nurse Navigation program, an innovative healthcare solution provided through Lifeguard Ambulance Service in Santa Rosa County in conjunction with Santa Rosa County Public Safety.
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) will open the westbound (Gulf Breeze to Pensacola) span of the Pensacola Bay Bridge on U.S. 98 to vehicular traffic by 6 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14.
The two spans of the bridge are now temporarily accommodating two east and two westbound travel lanes, but upon final completion of the project each structure will support three lanes of traffic in each direction, along with inside and outside shoulders, and 10-foot wide multiuse paths for pedestrians and bicyclists.
The waters off Santa Rosa County could see more artificial reefs in the coming years thanks to a new $1.3 million grant. As of 2021, the last time reefs were deployed, there are 557 reef modules in the gulf off Santa Rosa County.
During a Jan. 23 meeting, the Board of County Commissioners approved the $1.3 million grant, which comes from Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC). It was initially awarded during the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
If you have driven on Granada or Carlos streets in Navarre at any point in the past month, you may have noticed work being done on the lot across from the Childcare Network. There are approximately nine new cottages going in as part of a rental project called Sum Beach Rentals.
Before these cottages, which are not finished, the lot was home to a trailer park that had become dilapidated. The project to create Sum Beach Rentals began when Jeff Perrett, an entrepreneur and developer, bought the property July 15, 2022.
