Residents lashed out at Santa Rosa County commissioners July 11 over the board’s inconsistent use of a public solicitation process when leasing county-owned property. The reaction came after Hunter Walker, county administrator, placed a discussion on the agenda for soliciting proposals for the design of an air-conditioned storage facility to replace the Santa Rosa County warehouse, which was leased to a local nonprofit organization last year.
All five Santa Rosa commissioners agree the time has come to replace what has been called the worst courthouse in Florida. The board even seems to be in unison that the best way to fund building a new judicial facility would be placing a vote to enact a temporary local one-cent sales tax on the November 2014 ballot. The biggest question remaining at the end of a public workshop held to address the matter July 11 was where the new courthouse should be located.
With more leeway in this year’s tentative budget, the Midway Fire District Board of Fire Commissioners chose to implement pay raises at Tuesday night’s meeting.
A 20-year-old Navarre man who applied for employment with the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office was arrested for having a sexual relationship with a juvenile, after a background check revealed evidence of the relationship.
The water at the shore of Navarre Park is still testing high in bacteria levels, and health department officials are saying that the heavy rainfall in the area is likely the largest contributing factor.
Seven people, including four Navarre residents, have been arrested in connection to a prescription drug trafficking operation led by a Fort Walton Beach nurse. The Okaloosa County Multi-Agency Drug Task Force (DTF) has concluded a joint investigation with the Drug Enforcement Agency which led to multiple warrants.
Police shot and killed a large dog last Tuesday after a woman released the dog while officers were attempting to search a Navarre house for suspected drug trafficking. According to Santa Rosa Sheriffs Office Public Information Officer Richard Aloy, SRSO deputies along with agents from the United States Marshals Fugitive Task Force, Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and Special Agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration attempted to serve an outstanding warrant at a home on Toledo Street in Navarre when the incident occurred.
This year’s dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico could be one of the largest yet, according to forecast models from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This dead zone, or area of highly hypoxic levels, is an area off of the gulf coast that has dangerously low levels of oxygen.
A Navarre man was arrested in Pensacola on Monday after striking his girlfriend at the Queen Mary Inn on Davis Highway and holding her in a hotel room against her will.
The erosion of Navarre Beach is a primary concern for the Navarre Beach Leaseholders and Residents Association (NBLRA), but progress toward beach renourishment has been slow to date. The group is advocating for action toward a planned beach restoration, which was anticipated to start this year. However, plans for the estimated $10-12 million project had been placed on the backburner due to uncertainty related to funding.
