Opinion Archive

A suggestion for the Court House. There have been two new Court Houses built in our area. Santa Rosa County has an engineer on staff. Send the engineer to the new Court Houses and have him inspect them, review the quality of the work, determine which is the most economical to run/maintain, obtain a copy of the building plans, names of the contractors, the COST of the buildings and after determining which one would be the best fit for building in Milton, build it!  We don’t have to reinvent the wheel and waste taxpayers’ money on studies. The county already paid three times the value of property needed for the New Court House instead of just compensation and using the right of eminent domain. Also, Mr. Lynchard has to make sure Rob Williamson does not get involved with the Project because he has shown the continued ability to make bad decisions.

This year, Mother’s Day in Santa Rosa County was tragic indeed.  Two mothers lost their lives in equally tragic ways and both allegedly by the hands of their own child.  It is every parent’s worst nightmare.

In 1999, the United States Congress designated the month of May as Military Appreciation Month to give communities across the nation the opportunity to show their thanks to the men and women who serve in all branches of the United States military.

This is our second week of publishing a page from the Milton Gazette. The issue this week is from August 19, 1910, and in it is a story that starts with “A rare relic.” It details how someone brought them a paper from January 4, 1800, that gives an account of George Washington’s funeral.  Here we are looking back at newspapers from more than 100 years ago to a paper that is also looking back at a newspaper more than 100 years ago. And, because the Milton Gazette reprinted that, we have a real treat – from more than 200 years ago. Please read the entire page of the Milton Gazette. If only you could hear Gail Acosta read it out loud. We may have to start a YouTube channel because the way she reads it – makes the entire page come to life.

Fun Fest is this Saturday!  When I was the chairman of the board of the Navarre Chamber, we went from a Friday night, all-day Saturday, half-a-day Sunday event to just a Friday evening – Saturday event. This year…they are eliminating Friday night and holding the event only on Saturday. The changes sound good to me and it promises to be a very fun event. In fact, I may just enjoy every moment of it because all-day Saturday sounds very manageable.

Nearly 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men are victims of rape (Black et al., 2011). But all of us are impacted by sexual violence. That’s because sexual violence affects communities and society — in addition to survivors and their loved ones. Because of this, it’s on all of us to help prevent it.

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.

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. 

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

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.