Santa Rosa County plans to upgrade restroom facilities at Lenny James Tolbert Memorial Park in Holley.

The park, located at 3124 Bob Tolbert Road, will receive a double restroom building. County staff identified the need for additional facilities to support current and future use. The park currently uses portable toilets. The total cost of the building is $107,553.79.

Around 100 people packed the engine bay at the Navarre Beach Fire Rescue District on Tuesday, April 21, to voice concerns over a district plan to change how residential properties used as short-term rentals are assessed.

Short-term rentals, also called transient public lodging establishments, are defined by state statute as “any unit, dwelling, building or group of buildings within a single complex of buildings which is rented to guests more than three times in a calendar year for periods of less than 30 days or one calendar month, whichever is less, or which is advertised or held out to the public as a place regularly rented to guests.”

In recognition of April as Sexual Awareness Month, Emerald Coast Victim Services (ECVS) recently held a Bagels and Boundaries event at Navarre Bakery.

The event offered an opportunity for ECVS to showcase its services and inform the public about healthy relationships. ECVS is a nurse-led, trauma-sensitive program that provides medical forensic care, advocacy and other forms of support for individuals impacted by violence, particularly sexual assault.

East Bay K-8 is one of 14 schools in Santa Rosa County to be recognized as a PBIS Model School for the 2024-25 school year. This is the first year the school has been named a model school. It has had a PBIS program for four years.

The smell of Thai food cooking. The sight of a martial arts demonstration. The sound of Thai music over a loudspeaker.

These are some of the experiences that greet visitors at Wat Florida Buddharam. On Sunday, April 12, the Buddhist temple hosted a celebration of Songkran, the Thai New Year.

Community Life Church will hold a special event for people living with disabilities in Northwest Florida.

On May 8, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., the church will host the “Chosen & Cherished Ball.”

The Navarre Park splash pad is expected to open May 1.

Navarre Community Access Road is heralded as a solution to Highway 98 congestion issues through Navarre.

The 16-mile, two-lane Community Access Road, which has already undergone a Project Development and Environmental (PD&E) Study, is slated to be a combination of expanded residential roadways and new roads going east and west from Edgewood Drive to Panhandle Trail. Other alternate plans would have it extend to Fox Den Drive or Whispering Pines Boulevard.

Student Led Academic Teams (SLAT) have become a major focus of Santa Rosa County District Schools in recent years. This teaching technique gives students an opportunity to show and develop leadership skills, while allowing teachers to take a step back and focus on student needs for subjects.

Recently, a teacher at Oriole Beach Elementary School was given an honor only one other teacher in the U.S. can claim for her implementation of SLAT.

A couple of dogs on Quail Roost Drive are causing concern, neighbors said.

In late February, a group of dogs allegedly charged at Leila Flack in what her husband, Brandon Ryan, described as an “attack.” On April 6, one of the dogs reportedly bit Chris Hempel, who lives on El Dorado Court.