Hurricane Milton is a Category 5 as I write this, and it is heading toward Central Florida where I lived for the first 19 years of my life. I have a lot of good friends there that I have invited to come to Navarre, but they want to “hunker down.” Contrary to advice, I would do the same. It is difficult to get back and I know that firsthand. My husband was in Iraq or Afghanistan in September 2004 when Ivan was headed our way and by order of the Air Force, the families had to evacuate. I evacuated with our children to my parents’ home in Orlando, which had just been hit by Charlie the month before with 104 mph winds. They were still cleaning up and there was a lot less foliage than the last time I was there. After Ivan left, I called our Santa Rosa County Public Information Officer at the time, Don Chinery, and asked him when he thought schools would be back in session. He thought it would be months. I called my in-laws and asked if their grands could stay with them for a week or a few months – and they said sure. They met me near Atlanta, and I handed the children and a dog and a cat off to them. They were saints – and are angels in heaven today. I quickly headed back to Navarre and bought a cooler and started loading it with things to eat on the way back. I got back with little difficulty. The next day I went to the Emergency Operations Center in Milton and was asking where the water and supplies were for Navarre and was told it was too difficult to get there – true story. I promptly let them know I arrived from Atlanta the night before and was able to get to them that day…they could get there. And they did.
As I’m writing this, we are watching the yet-to-be-named storm that will be in the Gulf by the time you receive this paper. We are having daily updates with management and have a good plan in place. As an organization, we have been through Ivan, Dennis, Opal and Erin. However, many of our team members haven’t been through hurricanes, and they aren’t sure what to expect. There is no way to describe it except you will learn a lot about yourself and others after the storm. That is where it gets very real. Time will tell. In the meantime, we now have a “Storm Center” on our website where we will post when there are significant updates. When we post there, it will disseminate to Facebook and “X.” Now is not the time to check your insurance policies or decide you need flood insurance. But it is time to make sure you have 72-hours’ worth of food and water, just in case it heads west instead of east.
Life is tough and the tough keep going. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. It doesn’t matter how many times you fall down; it matters how many times you get up. Just when you think you have given your all, give a little more. Always do one more rep. Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. There are lots of quotes about working harder, keeping going, but who is letting our younger generation know that there is light on the other side of the tunnel or that it often gets worse, right before it gets better? I spend time with a lot of young adults. I have four that grew up in our home, and I work with quite a few. It seems that many have forgotten or were not taught that you have to take the good with the bad. All the things that our parents told us when we were growing up. Or, at least mine did. My parents went through the great depression and WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Nixon resigning and more. They were a hearty bunch and had been through a lot of disappointment and pain. However, it made them into the awesome people that they were. As a matter of fact, my mom passed away a year ago next week.
This past week we heard of the passing of Navarre icon Tommy Cox – the owner of Tommy’s Sno-balls. For decades, on any given day in the warm months, you would see carloads of people enjoying the cold treats at the foot of Navarre Beach bridge. During the school year he would reward honor roll students with a free sno-ball, he hired high school students to work the stand and learn about business and customer service, he volunteered his time with the Navarre Youth Sports Association, and there is story after story of how he impacted lives across our area. We are thankful he was part of our community – or maybe we were part of his. Either way, he will be missed – a lot. You can read more about Tommy’s life on page 2A.
Kaitie Kiger and I had a lot of fun Friday night at the Navarre High School vs. Choctaw High School Football game. We passed out our Fall Sports Guides with the help of some young volunteers, and we took pictures of the first quarter of the game. We appreciate all the help we get from the community on the coverage of the football games. Our long-time and talented sports reporter, Brian Lester, was covering the historic first game of Central High School in the north end of the county.
The local primary election is written in the books (thank goodness), we are glad that part is over. This county election was nastier than any I’ve seen before. The lies perpetuated as truth, more postcard mailers than ever before, ghost candidates (some maybe fraudulent) and those hitching their wagon to a blogger (all of whom lost) brought out the voters who really wanted change. So, congratulations to the voters of this county for standing up and letting your voice be heard – and for bringing about the change our county needed.
You should probably get your calendars out and mark down the following local activities.
Labor Day is Monday – Sept. 2 and since most of you won’t be “laboring” you might want to consider going to Juana’s for the Navarre Krewe of Jesters Annual Labor Day Rubber Duck Derby and Mullet Toss will be held Monday, Sept. 2, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Juana’s Pagodas (1451 Navarre Beach Causeway) on Navarre Beach. This event is fun for the whole family and is a fundraiser for the Krewe’s scholarship fund and Mardi Gras parade.
Thank you to everyone that called in, texted and emailed with your thanks for my column last week. I didn’t start out writing that column about that subject but apparently it was on my mind, so I just kept typing and typing. We have a motto around here and it goes something like this, “When in doubt, keep it out.” Well, I broke that motto last week – but maybe I should break my self-imposed rules more often. After the column was at the printer, I second guessed myself – a lot. I thought to myself – that it wasn’t “nice.” But then, I thought, “Well, that was being nice.” It could have been less “nice.” A lot less.
We have an article in this week’s issue about how much our county commissioners are being paid for part-time work – north of $70,000 a year. Some of our commissioners would say they are working full-time, but it isn’t a requirement to clock in, so we will just have to believe them, or not. There is at least one that I hope isn’t working full time – but probably is. His entire identity is based on being a county commissioner, and that is James Calkins. And, if county commissioners are elected for two terms, they receive retirement for serving eight years as an elected official. For instance, if James Calkins is re-elected, he has retirement pay of 3% of the average of his highest paid eight years in office. One dollar would be too much.
