News Archive

John Niven Cotner, age 26 of Mary Esther, gave deputies chase Monday afternoon after shoplifting several items from Walmart on Navarre Parkway.  Deputies responded to the store after the asset protection department saw Cotner walk out of the store without paying for merchandise.  They confronted him but he left the store. 

The City of Milton will soon hold its second outreach meeting for the property owners in and around Stewart Street. According to Milton City Planner Randy Jorgenson, the once vibrant commercial corridor no longer serves the needs of today’s consumer. Strip mall developments, though popular in the past, are no longer attractive to many of today’s shoppers. As a result, said Jorgenson, many of the buildings on Stewart are vacant or under-utilized. While there are areas that show signs of revival and recent investment along parts of Stewart Street, most of the street continues to languish.  All properties along Stewart are currently zoned commercial and limited to those specific types of activity. The city is examining the potential of rezoning to again provide for residential usage.

Some backers of the proposed 1-cent sales tax to pay for a new Santa Rosa County courthouse are debating whether their plan should be put before the voters in prime time.

Although Holley-Navarre Water System officials have reassured Williams Creek residents that the utility’s plan to treat wastewater near their homes is temporary, an alternative proposal to pipe the effluent to Eglin Air Force Base is years from reality.

Santa Rosa County deputies responded to a shooting Sunday afternoon shortly after noon on Quail Roost Drive off of Panhandle Trail in Navarre.  According to a report released by the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer, Rich Aloy, the two men involved were father and son.

Holley resident and Hurlburt Field Intelligence Squadron member Douglas J. Plate, age 53, pled guilty Monday to receipt, possession, and access with intent to view child pornography. The guilty plea was announced by Christopher P. Canova, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida ahead of the May 9 trial date that was set.

Gulf Islands National Seashore will be bustling with activity May 21 as citizen scientists set out to explore nature at Naval Live Oaks in Gulf Breeze.

Lt. Gen. Brad Heithold, AFSOC commander, was surprised April 29 by a crowd of Airmen who presented him with an engraved invitation to his AFSOC Order of the Sword induction ceremony.

The Order of the Sword is the highest award the enlisted corps can bestow upon an officer for significant contributions to the enlisted corps.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is pressing Holley-Navarre Water System (HNWS) to build additional wastewater disposal capacity, but the utility’s best long-term solution has languished within the Santa Rosa County bureaucracy.

Christopher Reed Lynch is in the Santa Rosa County Jail after deputies say he beat him mom to death at around 1:30 a.m. on Mother’s Day.