Editorial Archive

Clock-watching may prove counterproductive.

Unlike the Santa Rosa Board of County Commission meetings – one of which recently ran over six hours – the local legislators run on a tight schedule. When they call a meeting from 5:30 to 7, they mean it as more than a dozen constituents discovered last week.

Over the past several months, Santa Rosa’s politics have been inflamed by heated debates concerning the county’s water supply.

The arguments largely concern local developers and their practice of digging sand. The practice leaves large holes or “borrow pits” that many experts say are hazardous to our underlying water sources.

There are clearly two halves to Santa Rosa County, with a lot of open land in between along with a few homes and businesses.

There is south Santa Rosa County, known for its beautiful beaches and vibrant tourism, as well as being a “bedroom community” for about 70,000 residents. North Santa Rosa has more agriculture, history and a beautiful tannin-stained, spring fed river winding through it.

While our friends to the east are still reeling from Hurricane Michael of October 2018, making landfall as a category 5 storm, it is the beginning of another season. While it seems the 2018 season just ended, the 2019 season is starting. Included in this issue is a Hurricane Preparedness Guide with new storm names and predictions. Read it. Follow directions. Be prepared.

A Milton mother of five has been charged with felony child neglect – five counts. Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office investigated and entered the home to find the children living in squalor. What they found was disgusting. Children living in a roach-infested house. No furniture except a dining room table. A room with three mattresses on the floor, no linens and no clothing except for dirty clothes in a basket. No food could be found in any cabinets, no food in the refrigerator except for spoiled milk and eggs. Dirty dishes littered the counters with rotten food and roaches. Piles of cat feces were all over the floor. A microwave oven still powered on was hanging out of a window by the power cord. The home also had several broken windows and shards of glass were on the floor. Trash bags were all around the home in the yard.

Are you tired of the Santa Rosa County traffic jams and overcrowded schools? According to county ordinance, you shouldn’t be suffering through these and other serious problems caused by lack of infrastructure.  The Santa Rosa County Comprehensive Plan includes Article 5, which specifies that infrastructure is to be in place before development is completed. It’s called “concurrency,” which means that adequate roads and schools should already be built and functioning now:

Over the weekend, D.J. Deas’s parents returned to Navarre only eight short months after he took his own life. They came to talk about suicide, they came to talk about it out loud, they came to reach students, parents and teachers who knew D.J. and those who didn’t.

If anyone has experienced the miracle of child birth, you will forever remember the first time you heard your baby’s heartbeat. The fast flutter sound fills the room along with the smiles and giggles from the parents.

Florida Press Educational Services (FPES) is proud to commemorate Newspaper in Education Week 2019 and encourages teachers, parents and students to read the newspaper daily in school and at home to enrich their lives. FPES and its member Newspaper in Education programs join the American Press Institute in commemorating and celebrating Newspaper in Education Week the first full school week in March.

The Home Builders Association turned out in numbers to Monday’s County Commission meeting wearing their red HBA shirts. The Home Builders Association of West Florida is a membership driven networking and advocacy group focused on the needs of the building and development industry and related business in Escambia and Santa Rosa County.