Editorial Archive

If we haven’t said it before, let us say it now – Quint Studer is truly a community genius. He has proven it over and over again. He has been described as a visionary – he is. An entrepreneur…yes. An investor in his community…absolutely. And he is also one of the best community planners. He is wanted all over the country to plan communities like ours.

Looking back over history in Navarre, since 2010 our population has grown by more than 69 percent. The rule of thumb around here has been to select a piece of vacant property, buy it, clear it, build on it and sell it. Wait…we forgot to mention the very important step of building up the dirt at least five feet over the neighbor’s property so it will flood down to their property, not yours. Or maybe it’s because  you are putting in a septic tank because no sewer service is available.

The loss of four special operations soldiers in Niger is a tragedy. We grieve as a nation, rightly, whenever we lose any of the brave young men and women who serve in uniform.

We need to have a conversation. One that involves the entire community, schools, administrators, parents, students, influencers and churches. It will take every one of these groups to be present in order to have solutions. The topic? Bullying.

We are in a time when our country seems so divided; racial outcries, black, white, Muslim, Christian, Atheists, whose life matters, sexism and so much more. The voices of today’s generation are all muddled by what they believe, all speaking at the same time and over everyone else’s voice. We cannot hear each other speak, we do not listen to the words nor the intent behind the words. And if we do not agree, we protest or kneel or shout in the streets. But every color has shed blood for the flag and it is what unites us under God.

One thing we can all agree on is Navarre Park needs upgrades. The playground equipment needs repairs, and is not friendly to special needs children. The things we cannot agree on is why we would spend $7 million on one 7 acre park and the source of the $7 million.

At the Board of County Commissioners meeting Sept. 14, a slide presentation of photos was used to show the disrepair of Navarre Park. There were photos of the park pier still damaged from past hurricanes with a “Do not enter” sign, an opened electrical box that needed to be closed, a piece of fencing laying in the park grounds that needed to be picked up, playground equipment repaired with duct tape, unkempt interior wall to the children’s park, standing water around the splash pad area and other areas in need of attention. The question we are wondering is why hasn’t the county fixed these things before now? If we have a county park in disrepair – and supposedly district four has $700,000 in reserve recreation funds – then it is the fault of the county that it is in this condition. Why would we put more money into it when it isn’t taken care of now?

Hurricane Irma decided Navarre was not for her. She looked at us for a while, taunted us by moving west and west again and again and one last time before she made the turn to the alluring Florida Keys. We are a grateful community.

I will never look at a yellow number two pencil the same way again.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” – First Amendment, Constitution of the United States of America 1789 (rev. 1992)