May is “officially” Military Appreciation Month, even though I thought it was every month and every day of the year. At least in May – the military is in the spotlight. We have several stories in this issue that highlight the military as we do every week. We appreciate and support the troops, past and present.
Santa Rosa Medical Center Fun Fest weekend starts tomorrow, Friday, April 26. You will see a full schedule of events in the middle of this section. There will be arts and crafts vendors, a children’s area with lot of inflatables and a lot of entertainer including Robert Wayne and Erik Paslay. Navarre Press will have a booth there the entire weekend so if you want to see us, please stop by and if you don’t want to see us, we will always be happy to see you.
I had the distinct privilege of covering the homecoming and housewarming of Staff Sergeant Aaron Hale this past Saturday in Santa Rosa Beach. I could have written a book on the events that took place that morning and the events that led up to a home being gifted to the Hales.
We live in a gorgeous area that people pay thousands of dollars to come to each year either as snowbirds or for week-long visits. We really don’t appreciate what we have here, or we would take better care of Navarre and the people of Navarre Beach would care more.
It used to be that when one of our employees said, “I’m moving when my house sells” we had about 12-18 months to not worry about it. However, the market is officially picking up because we recently had an instance when a house went on the market on Monday and sold for more than the asking price on Wednesday and it was a pricey home with a swimming pool. Thankfully, the closing process is still pretty slow so we had four weeks to find a replacement.
By the time you read this it will officially be spring and our legislators will have been in session for a little more than two weeks. Appropriate enough – Leo Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina that, “Spring is the time of plans and projects.”
Daylight savings starts Sunday morning and that means Spring is here. Navarre Beach will start to get college spring-breakers. The University of Florida is out for Spring Break this week. Next week, Florida State, Troy, Auburn, University of West Florida, Duke, University of North Carolina, University of Georgia and Emory are out for spring break.
It is official, Panera Bread will have a location in Gulf Breeze by the end of the year. On March 15, 2012 – almost a year ago – I wrote in my column that I was at the Fort Walton Beach Panera and spoke with a manager-type. I mentioned that the Panera truck has to drive through Navarre every day from Pensacola to Fort Walton and that it should have a stop in Navarre. He mentioned then that they were looking at a location in Gulf Breeze. I proceed to email Panera corporate to let them know that they should be looking at Navarre as well. Today, when I spoke with the regional marketing manager, I said the same. By the time I was finished with her she was sure they were looking at Navarre next and said, “Let us get this one (Gulf Breeze) open first.” I think I wore her down. She works out of the Jacksonville area and has never visited us on the far western side of Florida, but I believe she will now. She is also getting a package of materials from us promoting Navarre, including the 2013 Navarre Chamber Guide that we completed last month and a Visitor Guide.
