This Saturday at 9 a.m. is the Health and Business Expo at the Navarre Conference Center. This is free and open to the public. The expo includes health screenings, a blood drive, door prizes and much more. See our Mind, Body & Spirit section of the paper for more details including great content and information on the layout of the expo and vendor names.
Water board elections are upon us and every year we have people call us with a lot of questions. What looks like a ballot with your water bill is not a ballot. It is a proxy. Basically, if you sign your proxy and bring it to the water department or mail it – you are giving away your vote to the board member you select. To actually vote, you need to show up at the Holley Navarre Water System on Jan. 19 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. and vote in person. You cannot phone it in or consider that ballot an absentee ballot – because it isn’t. It is very confusing and has been for more than 20 years. However, several board members felt that it was more confusing to make this an absentee ballot or a directed proxy – where you could vote for whomever you wanted to vote for without showing up on Jan. 19. Let’s just say Daryl Lynchard and Troy Bossier considers you – to be smart enough to handle a change for the better. The others – think you can’t handle it. So, the board pushed it off to next year – again. There is still no mechanism in place to prove the person who gave away their proxy is in fact the correct individual and a bonafide HNWS member and has the right to assign the proxy. Though they discussed adding safeguards to the process, what is redundant is that you or someone else not authorized repeatedly gives their vote away.
The Navarre YMCA wants to help with your New Year’s resolution. Take advantage of their January “Pay the Day” promotion and get a discounted Joiners Fee. Pay the day works by – paying the day. The paper comes out on Jan. 7 – therefore it would only cost you a $7 joiner’s fee. If you wait until tomorrow – it will be $8. That is a great deal – and the YMCA is a great place to work out or take a fitness class. You may want to refer to our articles this week on the Healthy Living Pages 4C and 5C to help get you started healthfully on your new year. We did this with you in mind!
I found out a very valuable piece of information that I would not have known if I had not gone to the South Annex last week to transfer car titles. My daughters have cars that were still in my name and their name. The tags were up for renewal so I thought it was time to transfer the titles into their names alone – and give them their first real asset on their balance sheet. We are trying to teach real life finances before they actually leave home and we also want to make sure they know the cost of owning a car since they have had it pretty easy up until now. I paid two years of taxes on the vehicles and told them that insurance, oil changes and repairs from now on – were on them. The valuable piece of information for parents out there is that if you still own a car in your name and your child’s name, make sure you transfer the title while they still live at home. That will save you $225 – each. Apparently there is a $225 fee if they have to put a different address on the car title when it is transferred. Merry Christmas. I need to start “Life Hacks for Santa Rosa County.” We need contributors – so if you run into something like this – please let us know.
This Friday, the Pensacola Ice Flyers will be playing the Louisiana Icegators at Home. Santa will be there and you are asked to wear your ugliest Christmas sweater. Don’t forget, if you are a Navarre Press All Access subscriber, we have tickets for you! We also have tickets for this weekend to the Pensacola Little Theater for the showing of “White Christmas.” Last weekend we had tickets to the Pensacola Children’s Chorus and a Sinfonia Concert in Destin with a Broadway star. It really pays to be “All Access.”
I was late on a deadline today and my first inclination was to email them, “Due to the overwhelming abundance of news,” I forgot to send payroll – which I almost did. Don’t tell my staff. There is so much news and not enough journalists to go around. I’ve talked to many people in neighboring counties who tell me that there are zero journalists at their meetings nor are their citizens there that give a darn. That is a sad, sad state of affairs. I see posts online all the time that say, “I didn’t know that,” or “When did that happen?”
Come out to the YMCA on Friday (tomorrow) from 10 a.m. to Noon for a book signing. The book is “The Gunny” and is a tribute to a local hero of World War II, Master Gunnery Sgt. Jay DeGraw.
The Navarre Garden Club is sponsoring “Santa’s Workshop Craft Fair” this Saturday at the Navarre Conference Center. Goodies for Thanksgiving will be available at Ye Olde Bake Shoppe within the Craft Fair. Children’s Activities will entertain the kiddies and Santa will be visiting.
We are introducing something new to the paper this week. We have a first-person story by our Copy Editor, Carmen Reynolds. This is in an effort to introduce our staff to our readers on subjects we think are of interest to you. People forget real people work at Navarre Press. We are human and have many of the same cares, interests and responsibilities as many of you. Your neighbors work here; our children went to or are attending the same schools; we worship together; play together; and we all care about Navarre and our community.
