Santa Rosa County Economic Development Director Shannon Ogletree hopes quick construction of a new 191,450-square-foot facility in Santa Rosa Industrial Park can help shatter the image that permitting processes in Florida slow down construction.
Nearly 200 people attended the May 9 Santa Rosa County zoning board meeting. The agenda featured several south end issues, including an unsuccessful request to open a private school in a residential area and approval to extend a development order for 114 units adjacent to Tiger Point Golf Club.
Santa Rosa County was offered but did not pursue more than $3 million in stormwater mitigation funding for Holley By The Sea in 2007. The county cites a required $1.86 million cost share as the reason. County Administrator Hunter Walker says in hindsight that was an incorrect decision.
Santa Rosa County juries last week convicted two local men of child sex-related charges in separate cases. According to State Attorney William Eddins Office, 56-year-old Claude Russell Ratliff was found guilty May 9 of Lewd or Lascivious Molestation stemming from an August 2012 incident at Ratliff’s home in Milton. He is scheduled for sentencing July 8 and faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 25 years in prison.
According to the state attorney’s office, a Fort Walton Beach man, 27-year-old Charles Lenear Colvin, Jr., was convicted May 7 of First Degree Murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing a 6-month-old baby in 2011.
Inspectors with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) rearrested former FDLE Pensacola crime laboratory chemist Joseph Graves on additional charges of drug trafficking May 7.
Just like the ending of a good movie where the hero sweeps in to save the day and everything turns out better than before, the former Cinema Plus/Tringas Theatre in Fort Walton Beach will be back, better than ever in less than a month.
Escambia and Okaloosa Counties are receiving $12.5 million in state funding for beach renourishment projects – $8.5 million for Pensacola Beach restoration and $3.8 million to dredge Destin’s harbor and East Pass. A request submitted by Santa Rosa County for Navarre Beach restoration received a lower score and no funding allocation.
Not many Santa Rosa county facilities were severely damaged by floodwaters last week, but according to the county, the Florida Department of Health in Santa Rosa County Midway facility was flooded with between 8 and 15 inches of water.
Gov. Rick Scott May 12 signed numerous bills approved during the 2014 legislative session, and one bill gives voters in the Southwest Florida community of Estero the ability to choose whether or not they would like to become the state’s newest incorporated town.
