Out and About Archive

Santa Rosa County is the only county in the panhandle that did not have any Gulf drownings between Memorial Day and Labor Day, according to Navarre Beach Fire Rescue Chief Danny Fureigh. Kudos to the Navarre Beach Fire Department for having the vision to ask the county to take over the difficult task of guarding Navarre Beach.

I know I’m not alone in breathing a sigh of relief that Hurricane Ida swept so far west of us however, we have a lot of visitors here from Louisiana that don’t know what they are going home to.

Beginning next year, Santa Rosa residents will have many more shopping options than they do right now.

At some point, new Publix stores in east Navarre and Milton will be open, as will the much-discussed Aldi near the foot of the Navarre Beach bridge.

Navarre and Santa Rosa County are always busy places and having a tropical storm peeking at us always dials that up.

We spent time looking at Tropical Storm Fred, which could have gone anywhere, but did not choose us. We got lucky and hours after it made landfall in Cape San Blas, the sun was shining over Navarre’s beautiful beaches.

A 50-plus page report on Waste Pro was included in the July 13 Board of County Commissioners meeting and, although I am writing this late on Monday, I’m sure there will be some fireworks there.

In summary, there were no improprieties as it relates to the county’s relationship with Waste Pro, but there are plenty of problems or potential problems within Waste Pro that fell outside of the scope of investigation.

The Holley Navarre Water System board is up to seven members again after appointing Jo Ann Cave and Don Linnell to fill two open positions.

We were not informed of the special meeting to elect the two new board members even though we knew they had two openings.

The big news in the last week was that the Pensacola Bay Bridge finally reopened, and everyone is already breathing easier.

As I’m writing this on Tuesday, it is Navarre Press’s 21st anniversary May 25, 2021.

It is difficult to believe it has been that long, especially since our community is working on some of the same issues we were facing 20 years ago.

I had the “opportunity” to watch most of the Santa Rosa Board of County Commission meeting last week and it was, well, interesting.

What wasn’t interesting was that it lasted from 4:30 p.m. until midnight.

It’s been a crazier week than usual in this business with everything from small sinkholes to buried bodies, fatal wrecks and a bank robbery.

We also had a car drive into a Holley by the Sea house, and then drive away.