News Archive

Billy Neal loves the American flag. At age 75, Neal still enjoys working outside on flagpoles and making sure the stars and stripes are swaying in the wind.

The Navarre man started his flagpole business in 2001 when he first moved to Navarre and named it “Flying High, Flying Proud.” He has installed flagpoles all over Navarre, including flagpoles at Navarre Press and Cayo Grande Apartments.

Nearly an hour before the sun rose on the Friday morning of a busy Memorial Day weekend, Tanner Haynes was on the Navarre Beach Fishing Pier hoping to catch something. But as the hours passed since his 5 a.m. start time, nearly six in all, the odds of a catch seemed stacked against him.

That is until he finally got a bite on his line and was able to reel it in fairly easily. His catch on this day was a mahi mahi.

Memorial Day weekend has started out on a tragic note for a 22-year-old man who jumped off the Navarre Beach Fishing Pier into shallow water to impress his friends, according to Navarre Rescue Fire Chief Danny Fureigh.

Emergency operations officials in Santa Rosa County are gearing up for the hurricane season, though perhaps not as aggressively as in years past.

At 5:45 a.m. Friday, May 28 Santa Rosa Commission Chair Dave Piech got a call with the news everyone has been waiting to hear for more than eight months.

“Chairman, I just wanted to let you know that we are 15 minutes from flowing traffic on the bridge,” Carter Johnson, government affairs liaison with the Florida Department of Transportation.

Multiple people were injured during a May 15 brawl at Stripes Pub and Grill, according to two of the individuals’ Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office arrest reports.

Biologists at Gulf Islands National Seashore (GUIS) have identified the first sea turtle nests of the 2021 season at Gulf Islands National Seashore. A total of two loggerhead nests were identified May 27, one in the Fort Pickens Area and one in the Perdido Key Area.

Officials are expecting this Memorial Day weekend to bring record crowds to Navarre Beach and have adjusted staffing in preparation.

From the Gulf Breeze Area Chamber and the Pensacola Beach Chamber:

Chamber officials realize the completion of the first phase of the Pensacola Bay Bridge project is not dated. “Our chamber simply wants to utilize the opportunity to promote our City, the beach, and their businesses alongside such a momentous milestone as the bridge reopening to traffic,” the statement said.

A 24-year-old Milton woman triggered a four-vehicle accident on Interstate 10 that caused traffic to be diverted to the shoulder for an hour. The accident happened about 8 a.m. near mile marker 7 in Escambia County, according to the Florida Highway Patrol media release. The woman failed to notice that traffic had slowed in front of her. She was seriously injured, while the other drivers either had minor or no injuries, the release said.