This has been an interesting week. A few months ago Navarre Press signed a book deal with Arcadia Publishing to produce a primarily pictorial history of Holley-Navarre, Fla. All proceeds on our part will be set aside for a historical society and we disclosed that to everyone we have spoken with.  Since that time, our writer, Jon Crider, has been talking to our neighbors in Holley to obtain photographs. We were told that if we were interested we should come up to Holley on Saturday and help with the Holley Point Cemetery clean-up to “prove” that we were really interested. Jon Crider and I were there at 8 a.m. Saturday morning to help clean up with three others. Five more helpful people showed up a little later. Those that could not physically help out provided food.

This issue is full of great information and I can brag because it isn’t about me – it is about our wonderful staff. They have really stepped it up. However, this level of great coverage is considered normal around here. We have a core value which is “Excellence is our ordinary.” I love that value and it is so true at Navarre Press. We don’t want to settle – we never settle. We didn’t like to settle even before the DirecTV settler commercials became popular.

My column is a little shorter than usual because of Sunshine Week and the opportune timing of our commissioner deciding to answer a constituent’s letter to the editor by posting his answer to Facebook and not sending his reply back to the constituent.  Mr. Cichy, veteran, copied Commissioner Rob Williamson on a letter to the editor that he sent to Navarre Press. He didn’t want to blindside Williamson – because – he is nice. However, Cichy is not on Facebook. He didn’t even know of Williamson’s reply until we emailed it to him. Instead of talking to the people, Commissioner Rob Williamson wants to talk to Facebook and have a one-sided conversation. And, he bans constituents with whom he doesn’t agree. The banned constituent has told us he is filing an ethics complaint against Commissioner Williamson. There may be more than one banned constituent. I find it ironic that the very day Commissioner Williamson leaves for Washington D.C., on his constituent’s dime (and many of them) for meetings on Defense Initiatives (of which his participation will show us zero dividends), he lashes out at a veteran who is just expressing his opinion.

“Spotlight” winning best picture this week at the Oscars is a testament to the hard work of local investigative reporting that should be occurring everywhere. We know we are committed to the calling of investigative journalism at Navarre Press. If you see people squirming after a story it’s because we have hit a nerve. And, we saw them squirm on social media this week. We appreciate investigative journalism and feel it is our responsibility even though it involves a lot of time and effort – and we get a lot of grief. However, we are very responsible with the information we gather. We have been told on several occasions that we uncovered more than the subjects of our articles even knew themselves.

This Friday, the Pensacola Ice Flyers will be playing the Louisiana Icegators at Home.   Santa will be there and you are asked to wear your ugliest Christmas sweater.  Don’t forget, if you are a Navarre Press All Access subscriber, we have tickets for you!  We also have tickets for this weekend to the Pensacola Little Theater for the showing of “White Christmas.”  Last weekend we had tickets to the Pensacola Children’s Chorus and a Sinfonia Concert in Destin with a Broadway star. It really pays to be “All Access.”