Opinion Archive

Check out the front page of this week’s Navarre Press and it shouldn’t take long for you to spot the double whammy for south Santa Rosa. First, we learned that Santa Rosa County in 2007 had an opportunity to gain $3 million in grant funds for stormwater mitigation for Holley By The Sea, but passed. Plus, we’ve also just learned that while other nearby counties are raking in grant funds for beach renourishment, Santa Rosa County, with its beautiful Navarre Beach, is getting none.

Santa Rosa County reported that the local area received 26 inches of rain during a 30-hour period last week. The saturated ground could not take any more water, so it started to runoff and fill yards, streets, homes and businesses.

The Ian Lockwood Memorial run is this Saturday at Navarre High School. You can register online at Active.com or register the day of the event from 6 until 7 a.m.  The timed 5k begins at 8 a.m. There will also be bounce houses for children and 10-15 vendors.

Today is May Day – May 1. We don’t celebrate May Day – like it used to be celebrated. However, early European settlers in America celebrated with “May Baskets.” These were small baskets filled with flowers or treats and left at someone’s door. The giver rings the bell and runs away. If the person receiving the basket catches the fleeing giver, a kiss was exchanged. Sounds like the early beginnings of ding-dong ditch. May 1 also means four more days until Cinco de Mayo – and margaritas. Let me make it easy on you. May 5 is Monday.

The Santa Rosa County Commissioners voted April 24 to close all 21 drop-off recycling locations in the county until further notice. The news release said they would be closed due to health and safety risks from the overwhelming volume of recycling materials not be collected of processed by the county’s contractor, West Florida Recycling.

The East Milton Courthouse, Sheriff’s Office, Jail complex was bungled by the County Commissioners from day one. My opinion is the intent was to never build a County Courthouse on the site from the conception of the project. I don’t say this lightly and will explain how I have come to this conclusion.

As Mother’s Day approaches, we are reminded of how much Mother’s give to make life good for their children. Having worked closely with the families of Special Olympics over the years, I am amazed at the love, care and hard work that go into parenting a child with special needs. Local organizations such as Special Olympics can give families a much-needed outlet and support for their unique life challenges from day-to-day. I wanted to share a letter I received from the mother of a new athlete in our program that really touched my heart.

My name is Doy Thompson. I am the father of Duloris Marie Gonzalez. I live in Ohio and I would like to ask that the community give Sean Gallagher support with his upcoming court date. My daughter and Sean were very good friends, and I don’t believe any sentence could be worse than what has already been done.

Does it seem like we’ve had more than our fair share of rain? If you think so, then you are right. According to the National Weather Service, the Pensacola area on average receives just more than 4 inches of rain in April. However, so far this month, rainfall totals have exceeded 13 inches. Average precipitation year-to-date should total around 18 inches, but we’ve already surpassed 30.

This weekend Friday afternoon – Saturday evening is Fun Fest in the main parking lot of Navarre Beach. There is a lot of information in this issue about the line-up of artists that will be taking the stage. There are 44 arts and crafts booths and 19 commercial type booths along with a great children’s area and food vendors. There is a map inside of “Who is Where.” There is a 5k run Saturday morning (for those of you that wanted to go to Boston) and the event will end with fireworks Saturday evening. Navarre Press will be there and ready, willing and able to take your subscription renewal. We usually come up with some kind of value added prize for subscribers that renew. Just so our subscribers know – we do not give a better deal to people that are new subscribers. We want to reward our loyal subscribers. Our subscribers have access to everything our new subscribers get – if not more. A lot of our subscribers are locked it at the rate that they first subscribed at because they are on auto renew of their subscription. Please make sure you ask us about that when you are meandering through all of the booths at Fun Fest. I heard that there will be a lot of candidates at Fun Fest. This would be a good time to you to talk to them in person. Bring a list of questions with you. I’m sure they would love to answer any/all questions you have.