News Archive

Previously leasing the property, Wal-Mart has purchased a lot at the location of the Gulf Breeze Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market for $3.15 million. Anchored in the shopping center located at 334 Gulf Breeze Parkway, Wal-Mart opened in 2012 after Bruno’s closed its doors at the location several years ago.

The Santa Rosa County Tourist Development Council (TDC) lost its chairman in October when Vernon Compton was not reappointed by commissioners to the council. At the group’s Feb. 19 meeting, board member Mike Loera was unanimously chosen as chairman.

Santa Rosa County has built up a general fund reserve of $22,137,847. That fund is unrestricted and may be used for purposes such as operating the county during a disaster. Santa Rosa County’s total reserves top $36 million, but some of those funds are restricted, committed or assigned for a specific use.

JetBlue will be the proud owner of the first A321 assembled at the Airbus facility in Mobile, Ala., in 2015. At this point, it is impossible to know what if any impact the $600 million project will have on northwest Florida. Airbus Director of Economic and Community Development Michelle Hurdle was the featured speaker Friday at the Panhandle Tiger Bay Club in Pensacola.

The Florida Highway Patrol reported 26-year-old Brianna Strum of Milton was sentenced Feb. 20 to more than 11 years in prison on a charge of DUI manslaughter stemming from a fatal crash April 2013 on I-10 in Escambia County. Strum entered a plea of no contest in December 2013 to the charge.

West Florida Recycling, which operates the county’s recycling program, is more than $50,000 behind in payments a month after promising to catch up or face termination. Commissioners are expected to end their contract with the company and take action on several other matters at today’s meeting.

Qualifications for engineering services for the Holley By The Sea (HBTS) watershed drainage improvement project were due Jan. 21. Six firms provided submissions and, based on county staff recommendations, commissioners interviewed four companies Feb. 24, selecting Baskerville Donovan, Inc.

A man posing as a door-to-door salesman robbed a residence on Forester Road Sunday night, according to a Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office offense report. The man was described as a white male possibly in his 20s, 5’10 to 6-feet-tall with brown hair and an unshaven scruffy look.

Anti-paddling activist James McNulty seems to have succeeded in his effort to get corporal punishment banned as a form of punishment in Santa Rosa County public schools after alleging possible violations of state statutes related to the policy and public meeting notices.

Navarre’s steady growth prompted Holley-Navarre Fire Commissioners to discuss Monday a proposed referendum in the upcoming general election to increase rates. Also at the meeting, the Commissioners selected Charlie Bateson to fill the seat left vacant by Shannon Stone’s resignation Feb. 4.