News Archive

In a ruling released July 28, the State of Florida First District Court of Appeal ruled against the appeal by Santa Rosa County and the Santa Rosa County School District, which imposed an impact fee on new home construction intended to fund new schools and help with infrastructure needs. 

The ruling states that “the impact fees are, in fact, an unconstitutional tax.”

A motion to establish a policy on personal electronic device use by board members during public meetings died for lack of a second at a long, contentious Santa Rosa Board of County Commissioners meeting Tuesday morning.

The motion by Commissioner Colten Wright led to an outburst by Commissioner James Calkins. After refusing to stay on topic – which had been the focus of the first five hours of the meeting – Calkins was silenced by the gavel. Chairman Dave Piech put the meeting in recess until Calkins could control himself.

On a recent July morning, Andrew Thompson let Bitty and Bentley, his two Yorkshire terriers outside, just as he had done for years.

They had both been outside for about 5 minutes before Bentley came bolting back in. This behavior wasn’t out of the ordinary for Bentley, who is still a puppy, Andrew said. What was out of the ordinary was the fact that 12-year-old Bitty had not come back with Bentley.