Opinion Archive

Surprise, Surprise! According to the 4-7-2016 issue of the NAVARRE PRESS (thank you), members of the water system are being hit with a 17.5% rate increase.

Even on Earth Day, the costs to our planet don’t outweigh the benefits for education.

We made a few small changes to this week’s issue but next week – there will be an even more noticeable difference. One difference will be where you will find this page. We are going to move this page to the back of the A section for several reasons one of which is because we are going to have two pages of editorial content. We have had a small debate at the office about our section that starts out with the word “Community.”  All of Navarre Press is about our community or news that affects our community, so why have a page that says “Community?” We are still mulling that over. We will be moving a few other pages around and we are going to have a regular “History” page. The page may appear every other week – or every week. Today’s news is tomorrow’s history. However, we have found a source for local history that is a-w-e-s-o-m-e. 

I would like to applaud the residents of Santa Rosa County who attended the recent meeting with the Santa Rosa County Commissioners to express their displeasure at the proposed 10-year penny increase in sales tax, reportedly to cover the new courthouse, roads, sidewalks and storm drainage. I couldn’t agree more with those residents.  It just boggles the mind how obtuse these commissioners think ‘we the people’ are. Another tactic of smoke and mirrors from our illustrious commissioners (see land purchase of Industrial Park @ I-10).  Another insult to the intelligence of the taxpayers of Santa Rosa County. 

Some readers may be surprised to learn that Navarre Press, while owned by Sandi Kemp belongs to the community.  We cover issues important to you: the actions of your government and its individual members, crime and public safety, the latest on beach renourishment, the local high-school athletes who are going places, the Navarre High School JROTC program and all of their awards, upcoming events, healthy living stories and the list goes on.  You might be more surprised to learn that Sandi Kemp usually only has an idea of what is going in the paper each week, and she reads it on Thursdays just as you. 

I would invite everyone to go to the Navarre Press YouTube channel and watch the video of the meeting that took place on Saturday in regard to the attempt to form a historical society for our area. I would spell it out – but you are all smart people. You might want to look at the relation of all of the people nominated and voted on to the “board.” I’ll give you a hint; they are all related and related to the person that nominated them.  And, in case you want to know when the next private club meeting is – we don’t know. I don’t think we are invited.  And, bottom line, we know you are smart enough to know not to believe what you read on Facebook. If you have any questions about Navarre Press or me – please call. I’m not going to play the vulgar game that was played this past weekend on the Tower of Babel – otherwise known as…I’m not going to even say it. It is disgusting and Facebook is of the Devil and the Father of Lies himself – resides there – on certain Facebook sites that will not be named.  People write things on Facebook that they do not have the guts to say in real life.  I have so much more to say – but you will have to wait until the Navarre Press’ UNCUT version comes out.  Hey, I reserve the right to have the uncut version next week…OK editor? You will find our YouTube site here:

There are more than 500 children in our county waiting to be adopted.  One in every 18 children in our county is or will be abused.  There are more than 550 homeless children in our school district.  43 percent of all adults are functionally illiterate.  The list could go on. 

This has been an interesting week. A few months ago Navarre Press signed a book deal with Arcadia Publishing to produce a primarily pictorial history of Holley-Navarre, Fla. All proceeds on our part will be set aside for a historical society and we disclosed that to everyone we have spoken with.  Since that time, our writer, Jon Crider, has been talking to our neighbors in Holley to obtain photographs. We were told that if we were interested we should come up to Holley on Saturday and help with the Holley Point Cemetery clean-up to “prove” that we were really interested. Jon Crider and I were there at 8 a.m. Saturday morning to help clean up with three others. Five more helpful people showed up a little later. Those that could not physically help out provided food.

I bought a fishing pass for $100. My wife bought a walking pass for $60. Some friends of ours complained that they either forgot or lost their pass.  When they tell the people at the office window that they lost or forgot it, they are told the Pier keeps No Records of passes that were sold.  These people either have to pay again or go back home to get it.  It happened to me.

Maybe you stash ‘em in the pantry, maybe you hide ‘em under your sink; regardless of where you keep them, when you can’t stuff anymore in, you decide to throw them away. We all have them: plastic shopping bags. Plastic bags are extremely detrimental to our environment along the Gulf Coast, as they can never decompose.