Out and About Archive
Sep 12, 2024
Out and About
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.
Sep 5, 2024
Out and About
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.
Aug 29, 2024
Out and About
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.
Aug 22, 2024
Out and About
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.
Aug 15, 2024
Out and About
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.
Aug 8, 2024
Out and About
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.
Aug 1, 2024
Out and About
We had a very eventful week last week. Between the three newspapers, we won 45 awards from the Florida Media Conference. Thirty-six of the awards were from the Florida Press Association’s annual contest. We didn’t win best overall, but I’m fairly sure we came in second in two circulation categories. I’m going to find out.
Jul 25, 2024
Out and About
Have you heard of the perfect storm? Well, we are being tested here as of the last two-three weeks. Our awesome bookkeeper for the past five years decided she would like a summer to stay home with her children, so she gave us plenty of notice to find a new bookkeeper. One we hired and waited two weeks for, emailed in the day before she was to start and said she took another position. Another person actually started training, and it was obvious in the first few days that she barely knew her way around a computer, much less QuickBooks, so we had to say no thank you. By that time, it was mid-July and rightfully so, our bookkeeper went home to be with her children. And, at the same time, our front desk admin gave her notice because she got a job with better benefits…i.e., a government job, and we hired someone to replace her and four days of training later, the last four days of our former team member’s time with us — she emailed us late one night and said she decided to stay home and homeschool her child. So that left us without a bookkeeper or a front desk admin. I told Gail, our Publisher, that this means something awesome is about to happen. And then, I found a quote from a friend of mine who is also going through some trying times. She wrote, “Whenever something important falls apart, it’s because something bigger and better is on the horizon. And, with sudden change always comes the deepest opportunities for growth. Well, we are definitely growing through this. The good news is that we used to put out a job opening and get zero applicants. Now, they are coming in all day long – which is a job in itself – weeding through applications, interviewing, onboarding, etc. However, well worth it when you end up with awesome team members like we have now.
Jul 18, 2024
Out and About
This is probably a subject I should have taken more time to hash out before I wrote an entire column about it, but here it is regardless.
Jul 11, 2024
Out and About
Last week’s column was a re-run from 2019’s Independence Day paper. I didn’t receive any complaints, and I thought it was still interesting and I hoped you would too. It was, after all, verified history from more than 200 years ago so…it wasn’t stale. It is always good to reminder during Independence Day celebrations.