News Archive

As 2020 came to a close, a familiar sound began once more in Gulf Breeze near the battered Pensacola Bay Bridge.

The rhythmic pong, pong, pong signifies a new milestone in repairs. Pilings are once again being driven deep into the soft bay floor by a massive crane like structure, a hammer and nail type set up on a grand scale.

Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) contractors have set multiple beam spans and will begin pouring concrete for the deck on the Pensacola Bay Bridge this week.

Find out what they’re building along 98 in Santa Rosa County by checking out this map.

Santa Rosa County Commissioners are scheduled to discuss Thursday whether to change the way the public gives input during meetings.

A proposed resolution on the agenda for the Jan. 7 meeting requires citizens to notify the county in advance if they wish to speak during a meeting.

The Holley-Navarre Water System board of directors decided at their monthly meeting in December to intensify their campaign against the county’s decision to lift key wellfield protections.

The new HNWS CEO, Dr. Dallas Peavey Jr., will lead the effort.

Deployment of new reef modules got underway early Tuesday morning at three different sites off the shore of Navarre Beach.

A total of 47 were deployed during the daylong effort, including 20 at a location a little more than a mile south of the Navarre Beach Pier. The other two reef locations were west of the other one.

No Santa Rosa County department is quite as visible as Public Works. Citizens come face-to-face daily with the roads, drainage and parks managed by this department. And they notice when work needs to be done.

“Public Works is the face of a lot of what happens in the county,” said county commission chairman Dave Piech.

The state of Florida has employed four new actions that will help continue to keep distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine moving along, including expanding access to the vaccine via additional state-supported sites.

Less than 24 hours after officials announced nearly 5,000 Moderna COVID-19 vaccines would be administered locally, Theresa and Ron Ivie were in the waiting room at the Florida Department of Health in Milton.

The Gulf Breeze couple, who are 73 and 74, met the requirement of being at least age 65.

In the early weeks of the pandemic, there was one item everyone wanted and no one could find – hand sanitizer.

Shelves were empty. Online sales were back-ordered. Alcohol-based hand sanitizer was recommended to help protect individuals from the new virus.