Get golf carts off the sidewalks and don’t let children behind the wheel. That’s the gist of a proposed City of Gulf Breeze ordinance aimed at answering complaints about the perils of golf cart traffic in residential neighborhoods. Read the full article in the April 19 issue of Navarre Press. Visit www.navarrepress.com/subscribe to view subscription […]
Once closely allied, Holley Navarre Water System and the City of Gulf Breeze are now at arm’s length. Not only is the revamped board of HNWS backing away from a proposed contract under which it would have paid an estimated $8 million dollars over two decades to spray treated wastewater on land that the city’s […]
Growing community outrage about a deceased cat found on a residential street in the City of Gulf Breeze last week has revived efforts to regulate the golf carts that zip about town on roads and sidewalks. “My daughters are crying their eyes out tonight because someone in a golf cart hit and killed a family […]
Patty Burke, an outspoken critic of how the City of Gulf Breeze is run, has become the first official candidate for mayor in the election scheduled for November. “I would just like to bring more fiscal responsibility to City Hall,” said Burke, a 56-year-old former investment counselor at the Dean Witter brokerage firm. Read the […]
The City of Gulf Breeze’s proposed sale of part of Tiger Point Golf Club to the Santa Rosa County School District may be a better deal for Superintendent Tim Wyrosdick’s organization than either side realized. In fact, the results of a new appraisal received by the City of Gulf Breeze this week indicates that the […]
With the unemployment rate on Career Source Escarosa’s turf now about half the 8 percent that it was five years ago, the agency would seem to be working its way out of a job. Instead, Career Source Escarosa finds itself searching for new strategies to help the roughly 7,600 job seekers in Escambia and Santa […]
Amid growing acrimony on the Gulf Breeze City Council, Mayor Matt Dannheisser has decided not to run for re-election in November. Dannheisser’s probable successor is David Landfair, the mayor pro tem and a JROTC instructor at Gulf Breeze High School, who told the Navarre Press on Wednesday that he plans to run. “I’m announcing my […]
In an apparent reversal of fortune from a year ago, Fairpoint Regional Utility now expects a financial surplus that could rise to about $12 million during the next decade. Further, recent changes to Fairpoint’s board are already signaling its increased independence of influence from City of Gulf Breeze officials who campaigned last year for a […]
Okay, we couldn’t agree on an offer to buy the Garcon Point Bridge, so perhaps we should give it back. “Maybe we could just walk away,” State Rep. Jayer Williamson told the Navarre Press after neither the Florida House nor Senate could pass legislation aimed at a state purchase of the bridge during the recently […]
Challenges by some Gulf Breeze City Council members over delays in their requests for specifics about the municipality’s mounting legal fees are putting Mayor Matt Dannheisser on the political hot seat. In fact, in a city where unopposed candidates are the norm, three of Dannheisser’s colleagues on the council are thinking of running against him […]
Although the new Arbors senior living community won’t be fully open until May, 20 residents have already moved into the City of Gulf Breeze retirement spot. “It feels like home,” said Gerald Munday, a retired United Methodist Church minister who—with his wife Sara—relocated from a nearby single-family home to be among the Arbors’ first tenants. […]
Santa Rosa commissioners decided against pursuing their contentious claim to concrete chunks from next year’s planned demolition of the old Pensacola Bay Bridge to be used as material for offshore reef building. They balked partly at competing with Escambia County, which also wants a major portion of the estimated 150,000 tons of rubble that will […]
In a deal that isn’t perfect for either side, the Santa Rosa County School Board has agreed to buy part of Tiger Point Golf Club from the City of Gulf Breeze for $1.9 million. Current plans call for an elementary or middle school to be built there within five to eight years, but School Superintendent […]
After three months of sifting through tips from would-be sources, state auditors are still trying to decide how far and deep their planned look into City of Gulf Breeze operations will be. The Florida Auditor General’s staff had planned to set up shop at Gulf Breeze City Hall by the end of March, but […]
No deal. The prospect of a state government offer to buy the Garcon Point Bridge and reduce tolls has relied on legislators’ reaching agreement to include millions of dollars in this year’s budget. Read the full article in the Mar. 15 issue of Navarre Press. Visit www.navarrepress.com/subscribe to view subscription options. Sign up to receive […]
In a deal that isn’t perfect for either side, the Santa Rosa County School Board agreed Thursday to buy part of Tiger Point Golf Club from the City of Gulf Breeze for $1.9 million. The panel’s 5-0 vote came over the objections of a half-dozen homeowners in the Tiger Point area who warned about the […]
There should be plenty of big concrete chunks from next year’s planned demolition of the old Pensacola Bay Bridge to supply the offshore reef-building needs of both Santa Rosa and Escambia for years to come. Although some commissioners from both counties are contentiously claiming shares of the valuable material to construct habitat for sport fish, […]
Tiger Point Golf Club’s defunct west course will be the site of a middle or elementary school—or both—if the City of Gulf Breeze accepts Tim Wyrosdick’s $1.9 million offer for a 45-acre parcel. While only about half the amount forecast last fall by Matt Dannheisser, mayor of Gulf Breeze, which owns the club, the prospective […]
Big Brother is watching and listening–to itself–more intently. Spurred by a landmark public records law settlement in Tallahassee, governments in our area are among those scrutinizing and upgrading their methods of tracking text messages on the cell phones they furnish to employees and elected officials. Read the full article in the Mar. 1 issue of […]
The possibility of building a Santa Rosa Courthouse annex in the Navarre-Midway area with at least one courtroom is gaining traction. While occasionally suggested in the past by various commissioners, making the south-side judicial facility a reality has always taken a back seat to the county’s tortured effort to fund and construct a new main […]
The squeeze could be on soon for City of Gulf Breeze homeowners to pay special assessments for stormwater control now that officials there have acknowledged that the prospect of more government grants is unlikely. That’s a sea change in a city where a blue ribbon Stormwater Task Force got off to a fast start after […]
The proposed expansion of the sewer plant at Tiger Point Golf Club won’t be quite as inexpensive as City of Gulf Breeze leaders have projected, area residents learned this week. Adding on to the plant, known as “Old Stinky” to owners of houses near the golf course, will cost an estimated $17.6 million, according […]
From hand-written signs nailed to telephone poles in the City of Gulf Breeze to a front-page countywide newspaper advertisement, the pitches by would-be buyers of houses for cash and “as is” are hard to miss lately. Such companies as The Sierra Group LLC, headquartered in Nebraska, are touting offers that—while they are likely to be […]
With 44 employees and an annual budget that includes more than $6 million in federal funds, Career Source Escarosa ranks last among Florida’s 24 local employment agencies as measured by the Department of Economic Opportunity’s metrics. Officials at the CSE are looking for answers why and searching for ways to improve their evaluation by the […]
As state auditors prepare to examine the books at the City of Gulf Breeze, officials there are outlining spending plans to showcase the municipality: from a new police station to a children’s park splashpad. Although funding isn’t yet available for all the myriad projects detailed in a new city report, officials say the money can […]
The concerns that prompted Gulf Breeze-based officials of Fairpoint Regional Utility System to press for a controversial debt restructuring last year have largely drowned in black ink. Also gone—at least for now—are fears that an increase in the price of water that Fairpoint sells to the collective’s members, such as Holley Navarre Water System, could […]
Retired Navy Senior Chief Geoff Ross recently looked for hot-button issues in his candidacy for the Santa Rosa County Commission and hit on a controversial target in the red-light cameras used for traffic enforcement. Read the full article in the Jan. 25 issue of Navarre Press. Subscribe online at navarrepress.com for as little as […]
The recent suggestion that Navarre Beach could be the new site of Pensacola’s proposed-but-troubled fish hatchery project isn’t gaining support. Since December, when County Commissioner Rob Williamson floated the notion of moving the planned site of the controversial Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission hatchery, the realities of funding needs and bureaucratic complexities have surfaced. Read […]
Ads that promote vacations on beautiful Gulf Coast beaches are running on the University of West Florida’s radio station—but those leisure destinations aren’t around here. Instead, Visit St. Petersburg-Clearwater is a player on the university’s National Public Radio airwaves with a strategy that Santa Rosa County Tourist Development Director Julie Morgan said she can’t afford. […]
Local legislators want to acquire the Garcon Point Bridge, but first they have to sell the deal to fellow lawmakers and then to current private owners of the bonds that funded the bridge’s construction in 1999. The devil will be in the dollars. “Even if it just costs $100, you know some people are […]