News Archive

Heavy rainfall and localized flash flooding, particularly of low lying and urban areas, is possible beginning today, Wed., May 25, through the evening of Thurs., May 26 along with a tornado threat through Thursday morning, according to the US National Weather Service in Mobile.

There is also a high risk of rip currents along Navarre Beach through Friday night. Santa Rosa County Emergency Management officials are encouraging residents to monitor local weather reports and have multiple ways to receive weather warnings, especially overnight.

The Board of County Commissioners further discussed possible changes coming to Navarre Beach at their May 23 meeting, including a code enforcement officer and the run, walk and race policy.

In early April, the Tourist Development Council (TDC) discussed bringing in a code enforcement officer specifically for Navarre Beach.

On May 10, Santa Rosa County Commissioner Dave Piech held his monthly town hall over Zoom.

Piech discussed the various developments in the area and where they are all at as of May.

Holley-Navarre Water customers will face higher bills when they refill their pools this summer, after the Holley-Navarre Water Board did away with a yard-meter policy that gave residents a credit on their sewer bill.

National Fentanyl Awareness Day seeks to bring attention to a prevalent drug issue, one that affects Santa Rosa County residents.

According to a press release from Attorney General Ashely Moody, over 105,000 Americans died of a drug overdose in the span of a year, and more than 66% of those deaths were related to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.

Driving over the Garcon Point Bridge between Navarre and Milton, one might notice some floating objects in East Bay, heralded by an American flag and the Florida state flag.

Those objects in the water are not traps—they are oyster farms, put there by Emerald Tides Oyster Company.

The promised reduction to the Garcon Point Bridge tolls still has no effective date.

Representatives from the Florida Department of Transportation and Governor Ron DeSantis’s office reported that while work is still happening, there is no current update.

A website and petition campaign called Open Our Museum has been organized by a group of local citizens and civic leaders working together to urge the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense (DoD) to reestablish the public access waiver to NAS Pensacola so all citizens are allowed to visit the National Naval Aviation Museum (NNAM) and the base’s other historic attractions.

Freshwater fisheries researchers and managers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) successfully released 3,300 hatchery-raised shoal bass fingerlings (young fish) into the Chipola River in May.

Guy Thompson, the former Mayor of Milton, was released from the federal prison he was staying in two years before his set release date.

On January 17, 2020, Thompson was sentenced to 51 months in prison for embezzling over $650,000 from the United Way of Santa Rosa County, which he ran for 39 years. The sentencing came after the FBI and IRS investigated Thompson’s finances for the years of 2011-2018.