Santa Rosa County Property Appraiser Greg Brown II wants residents to mark their calendars. From Jan. 1, 2025, to March 1, 2025, residents can file for a homestead exemption. Two other exemptions, one for persons 65 and over and the other for deployed servicemembers, has a five-month filing window from Jan. 1, 2025, to June 1, 2025.

According to the Property Appraiser’s website, all persons who own and reside on real property in Florida on January 1 and make the property their permanent residence is eligible to receive a homestead exemption up to $50,000.

Live trees are a festive and fragrant holiday decoration for many families during the Christmas holidays, and Santa Rosa County Public Works offers an environmentally friendly option for disposal. Residents who would like to “treecycle” their tree for mulch may drop off their clean Christmas trees in the designated areas listed below by Jan. 20:

Florida Highway Patrol Traffic Homicide Investigations is looking for information and witnesses regarding a fatal crash that occurred in Pensacola, Florida.

Turtles in Focus

Two photos taken by Navarre resident Jeff Waldorff have been selected to appear in Sea Turtle Conservancy’s annual Sea Turtle Calendar contest for 2025. The photos showcase a sea turtle eating a jellyfish and two hatchlings making their way to the water. Waldorff is known for his nature photography.

Navarre resident makes Broadway debut in ‘MJ’

Julius Raymond Weems IV, 10, is starring on Broadway in the role of Marlon Jackson in “MJ,” a musical based on the life of Michael Jackson. Weems and his family have moved to New York for Weems’s career, but maintain a residence in Navarre. The ten-year-old’s acting career began less than a year ago with the help of acting coach Jossie Harris, an actress and dancer known as one of the “Fly Girls” on the 1990s sketch comedy show, “In Living Color.”