The Navarre Krewe of Jesters Mardi Gras Parade is this Saturday. Make sure you are on the island before noon because it will be hard to get over the bridge after noon. In years past, they opened up both lanes of the bridge for cars to use to get off of the island, so be prepared for delays. This year’s parade is being touted as larger than ever and there are more than 25% more parade entries than last year. The forecast is currently calling for only a slight chance of rain – but to date – there hasn’t been any rain in the history of this parade.
Spring is officially March 20, and there are officially 41 days until Spring by the time you receive this issue. When I was researching “Spring” I found a widget that you can put on your desktop that counts down the days, hours minutes and seconds until Spring. I did more research on the extended forecast and saw that the last full week of February it will be above 70 every single day!
The Sheriff’s Citizen’s Academy I wrote about in my column last week was canceled due to lack of participation. Perhaps I should have highlighted it a few weeks earlier. I have always wanted to participate but one night a week, for three hours, for 10 weeks was more than I could carve out. However, I was going to do my best to make this time. Darn.
There was a little uproar on social medial last week about the Holley-Navarre Water Department proxy forms that were sent out for the election that is this Tuesday, Jan. 21. There is a story about this on the front of this issue. The water department has been conducting their elections this way for as long as we have been a newspaper which will be 14 years in May. If someone doesn’t like the way the water department holds elections, then perhaps they will change it when the get involved and run for the water board. The candidates for the water board are Chris Richardson, Daryl Lynchard, James Dabney, Ashely Strabla and incumbents Charlie Enghauser and Sheldon Hutchins. Please go vote Tuesday.
I was troubled when an initial search did not show Sharon Aydelott, a teacher at Holley-Navarre Middle School, as ever being on the pages of Navarre Press. However, when I read that she was teacher of the year for her school in 2005, I knew there must be a glitch. Sure enough, we interviewed Sharon after she won the honor in December 2005. We reprinted the article this week on our education page in honor of her. We received the press release on Christmas Eve about a murder and posted it immediately to our Facebook page. Then news started leaking that it was Sharon who was killed even before we even received the official press release, my heart sank along with everyone else. The story has appeared all over the world in gruesome detail. We elected not to publish all the details on our website because we knew that this was a time to mourn the loss of Sharon and to celebrate her life and contribution to our community and it was not necessary to detail the manner of her death. The minimal details were enough at the time. There will be a trial and if not a trial, there will be sentencing and the details will be detailed at that time.
As I’m writing my column my friend and former editor, Brenda Bordelon, and her husband, Matt, walked into the office – on a Sunday, knowing we would be here because she remembered the drill. And, they laughed when they heard I was working on my column because as always – that is the last thing that gets done before we put the finishing touches on the paper. And, oddly enough, I was reading my column from this time in 2007 when she walked in – which is right around the time Brenda left. I was writing about our next editor in that column. Matt told me I should just copy and paste it for this year’s column and no one would know, and he might be right. However, I would know. Brenda left the area in 2008 and now lives in the D.C. area. I really hate that all our new employees didn’t get to work with Brenda. She is a blast, and I’m blessed to be able to call her and Matt my friends.
I hope everyone realizes what a big deal it is to have a new luxury apartment complex with 250 units to be built in Navarre. First of all, it had to be financed. If you have tried to get a loan lately , you would know that. I’ve never known them not to be tough but apparently there was about two years where they didn’t even check your employment history. It is a good thing I didn’t know about that at the time, or I may have more house or office building that I could afford to pay – especially when the bottom fell out of the market.
Joyce Charles Enghauser live in North Shores in Navarre and she and her husband Charlie adopted a 10-month-old Beagle from the Pensacola Humane Society last week. The dog had not been treated very well by previous owners and was skittish. The minute she was let go in the backyard she jumped the fence and ran away. North Shores is on the south side of Hwy 98 and Lucy has been spotted on the north side of Highway 98. In fact, I saw her yesterday in front of our office in Harvest Village. I was leaving my office around 9 p.m. and when I walked outside and there was a little Beagle running north on Harvest Village Court – with a red collar. Lucy went to a dark area of the street and I didn’t see here anymore. That had to be Lucy. I immediately called Joyce because she wanted people to call with sightings. The Enghauser’s have a reward for $500 if you can bring her home safely. The phone number is 939-0156.
We have a new Navarre Press Pass Discount. Sail Inn is offering a free cup of soup when you buy a whole sandwich or sub and a beverage. They have the best soups ever. I had one the other day that was squash, chicken and kale. Yummy! Sail Inn is under new ownership since October and Chuck has made some very subtle, but essential, changes to the menu and quality of the food. For example, all of the meats and cheeses are Boars Head. And they have a killer Saturday Breakfast.
