Opinion Archive

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.

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.