Opinion Archive

Great Navarre Beach Mardi Gras Parade…..Best ever!.However…

I happened to be driving the Grand Marshal car that followed the U.S. Air Force Color Guard and had a great view of the crowd as the Color Guard which lead the parade passed us all.

This weekend starts the Mardi Gras festivities in Navarre.   Friday night Juana’s will have a Mardi Gras Glow Party beginning at 9 p.m. and $5 gets you “Glow Bling.”  For more information, see their ad in this issue.  Don’t miss the after-parade party at Juana’s.

In our daily lives, we have much to be grateful for, too many things to list.  So many things in fact, we rarely say we are thankful for the basics of life and move on to being grateful for the “extras” we enjoy.  There are those amongst us who would just be grateful for the basics: a roof over their heads, clothes, food and lately, heat. 

The County Commissioners strike again!  Coastal Concessions asked for relief from paying for maintenance, utilities, supplies, trash collection and the employee salary for collecting gate receipts. This will cost approximately $50,000 a month so that means the first 50,000, $1-to-walk or 7,142, $7-to-fish or combination of receipts collected each month will go into Coastal Concessions’ pocket first before any receipts go to the county/taxpayers.  Any business would like this benefit at taxpayers’ expense and the commissioners just don’t care.

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.  

The County Commissioners need to tell the local hospitality industry, Director of Santa Rosa County Special Projects, the Tourist Development Council and the president of Navarre Properties that they will NOT delay the beach renourishment project.

The Santa Rosa County BOCC recently raised the tax on a gallon of gas. It was raised because of the dwindling road tax revenue. The dwindling road tax revenue is a product of some vehicles using less gas because newer vehicles are getting better mandated fuel mileage. Some vehicles accomplish this by being a hybrid (gas & electric) and others do it by being totally electric. So this gas tax is being unfairly collected from the gas only vehicles. The tax is for road improvements. Don’t hybrids and electric vehicles use these same roads? Are not these same vehicles bought and owned by the more affluent of the county’s populous?

All of Santa Rosa County is growing, but south Santa Rosa is experiencing a real boom.  We have two new apartment complexes coming on line soon, and down every road a lot is being cleared for one or two homes to be built. It’s a reconstruction surge and great economic recovery following the 2008 Great Recession.

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!