Opinion Archive

I haven’t read anything about what EXACTLY is wrong with the Court House. I went for jury duty.  I was hoping the temperature inside would be comfortable, it was. I wanted the seats to be comfortable, they were.  And  I wanted the bathrooms to work, they did.  So what EXACTLY is wrong with the Court House?

The Destin Fort Walton Beach Airport welcomes Allegiant to the airport.  They are now offering nonstop service to St. Louis and Cincinnati.   Visit www.FlyVPS.com for more information.

This legislative session may be the most opportune time in years to eliminate red-light cameras in Florida altogether.

The Presidential Preference Primary Election will be held on March 15th.   Absentee ballots are now available. Any registered and qualified voter may vote an absentee ballot. In addition, all members of the Armed Forces, their family members and members of the Merchant Marine and their family members, who are U.S. citizens, may vote absentee. For more information on overseas absentee voters (UOCAVA), please visit the Federal Voting Assistance Program website at www.fvap.gov.

Some of you may have noticed that the list of people arrested in our paper has grown considerably.  This is not necessarily a reflection of an increase in crime in our area, although we are hearing more reports of crime in Navarre.  The real reason the list has grown is because the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office is no longer providing the addresses of people arrested.  In the past, we have only included people arrested from Navarre or Gulf Breeze.  Because we don’t know where the people being arrested are from, we have to include everyone that is arrested in Santa Rosa County. 

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.

Tonight (Thursday) is the Girls’ Basketball Regional Quarter Finals and they are being held at Navarre High School. When they win…they will play Tuesday either Niceville or Lincoln, depending on the outcome of their games tonight. If for some reason the unforeseen happens – then they will have had a great season otherwise.

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.