Editorial Archive

For years now, a loud subset of Santa Rosa County residents has blasted the Board of County Commissioners – rightfully, we think – for its lack of foresight, especially its failure to ensure infrastructure is sufficient to meet the needs of new development.

When Santa Rosa County accepted ownership of Navarre Beach Bridge in 2004, it expected to replace the bridge in as few as 10 years. Almost 20 years later, we’re still using the 63-year-old bridge. Not to worry; Florida Department of Transportation bridge inspectors tell us the span is structurally sound.

Santa Rosa County seems ready to change how it manages parks and recreation. Commission Chairman Colten Wright recently introduced plans to partner with the City of Gulf Breeze to study building a competition-grade aquatic facility and talks about parks and recreation as “quality of life” infrastructure investments; Commissioner Kerry Smith is negotiating a new agreement with the Emerald Coast Sports Association to ensure a successful revival of recreational sports at East Milton Park; and an economic development strategist has advised the county to investigate sports tourism opportunities.

The highly anticipated review of Santa Rosa County’s Land Development Code got off to a rocky start last week – to the surprise of no one who participated in the contentious 2021 rewrite.

Excited social media posts rippled across Santa Rosa County last week when the school board approved adding a limited middle school sports program. It’s about time. Our neighbors in Escambia and Okaloosa counties have offered robust middle school sports programs for years while Santa Rosa County families wonder why they don’t have the same opportunity.

In this week’s Eye on Government page, we have a story about a proposed bill making its way through the Florida Senate committees that would allow people convicted of sexual battery on children under the age of 12 to be sentenced to death.

A budget workshop last month became a political science lecture when commissioners disagreed about how Santa Rosa County should craft its next spending plan. Staff suggested creating new revenue sources to relieve the county’s dependence on property tax.

In this business, you see a lot of press releases come into your email inbox. A lot of them are very useful, about our communities and the people and events in them that we are happy to share.

It was a great day for Navarre businesses on Friday, Feb. 17, at the Navarre Beach Area Chamber of Commerce awards and installation breakfast. After a year of hard work behind the scenes, the two chambers became one again.

Last year, the Legislature passed a public notice bill (HB 7049) that went into effect Jan. 1. The new law gives counties the option to place public notices solely on their own government website and dispense with any such notice in the traditional format — newspapers and newspaper websites.