As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of University of Central Florida in Orlando this year, we are reminded that a core benefit of an upper-level education is the opportunity to pursue and obtain insight and knowledge over blindness and ignorance.
I had the distinct privilege of covering the homecoming and housewarming of Staff Sergeant Aaron Hale this past Saturday in Santa Rosa Beach. I could have written a book on the events that took place that morning and the events that led up to a home being gifted to the Hales.
We live in a gorgeous area that people pay thousands of dollars to come to each year either as snowbirds or for week-long visits. We really don’t appreciate what we have here, or we would take better care of Navarre and the people of Navarre Beach would care more.
In the four years before I took office, Florida lost more than 825,000 jobs, unemployment more than tripled from 3.5 percent to 11.1 percent, and state debt increased by $5.2 billion.
It used to be that when one of our employees said, “I’m moving when my house sells” we had about 12-18 months to not worry about it. However, the market is officially picking up because we recently had an instance when a house went on the market on Monday and sold for more than the asking price on Wednesday and it was a pricey home with a swimming pool. Thankfully, the closing process is still pretty slow so we had four weeks to find a replacement.
By the time you read this it will officially be spring and our legislators will have been in session for a little more than two weeks. Appropriate enough – Leo Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina that, “Spring is the time of plans and projects.”
