Out and About Archive

Businesses help the communities around them in ways most of us don’t realize and could never have imagined.

For example, when a dump truck and car collided Tuesday morning on U.S. Highway 98 in Gulf Breeze, both drivers were injured and the highway was blocked not just by the damaged vehicles, but by 20 cubic yards of dirt that the truck had been carrying.

There is a lot of dirt being moved in Navarre right now. The Publix at the county line has cleared their lot and new apartment complex, “Elevate Navarre,” started clearing this week.

Also, we have a report in this week’s issue that the new K-8 school, East Bay K-8 is already almost 100 students over projections and more than 80% capacity in their first two months after opening its doors for students. Navarre is growing with or without your permission.

I’ve heard people complain that there is nothing to do in Navarre or surrounding nearby communities.

However, if you hear this in the next 1.5 months – it must be someone that is in a basement without connection to the outside world. (There are very few basements in this area.

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.