News Archive

Navarre Beach Fishing Pier regulars see Jeremy Utter and his friends all the time.

Members of the Team True Blue reel in some of the biggest sharks in local waters, tag and release them. They don’t typically share photos of their catches or publicize them, though. But word spreads, as it did in early February when Utter and three other men caught a 12 1/2-foot tiger shark off the pier and pulled it into shallow waters.

State Rep. Alex Andrade held a Facebook Live town hall meeting Tuesday night from his office in Tallahassee to apologize to his constituents about the delay in reopening the Pensacola Bay Bridge.

Andrade, who held previous town halls to reassure folks that the bridge work was on schedule, said that he knew people were hurting and losing hope.

Commission Chair Dave Piech held his monthly town hall meeting on Zoom Monday night, updating viewers on everything from traffic light timing and speeding enforcement, to what to do if you’re affected by nuisance smoke from Navarre-area controlled burns.

Here are some highlights:

The U.S. Navy is preparing to sample drinking water wells near Naval Air Station (NAS) Whiting Field beginning in March.

The Navy will be sampling drinking water wells within a designated sampling area for certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. 

A proposal to add an amphitheater, shops, food trucks, playgrounds and other amenities to Navarre Beach was greeted with enthusiasm March 4 by members of the Tourist Development Council.

Director Julie White had rolled out her vision to the Santa Rosa County Commissioners at their Feb. 23 strategic planning workshop.

The Pensacola Bay Bridge will not reopen as scheduled and announced.

The need for additional repair work was discovered, and completing it takes the March 22 reopening date off the schedule. Instead, local officials were told by Florida Department of Transportation Thursday that the Memorial Day reopening date is still viable.

The Santa Rosa County Commission voted 5-to-0 at its recent special rezoning meeting to withdraw a controversial amendment to the Comprehensive Plan that would have opened the East Milton Wellfield Protection Area to more open-pit mining.

“This should put everybody’s mind at ease,” said District 2 Commissioner Bob Cole, shortly before the vote that came at the end of public input about the doomed amendment. “It’s done. It’s over.”