The Navarre Beach pier operator has averted a debt default and takeover of its operations by Santa Rosa County, but Coastal Concessions nevertheless says sharing business responsibilities could help avoid a future financial crisis.
Santa Rosa County officials now concede that there was no effort to negotiate before agreeing to pay Tough Mudder Inc. a $110,000 subsidy in return for staging its military-style endurance event near Milton next April.
Financial woes enveloping the Navarre Beach Pier manager, Coastal Concessions, are prompting Santa Rosa County officials to demand two months of past-due admission fees by Dec. 11 amid questions about whether the company’s previous payments were properly used.
Downtown Milton has emerged as the most likely site for the proposed new Santa Rosa County courthouse if the challenges of environmental permitting and stormwater control at the low-lying locale can be met.
Tourism business leaders have rebuffed a move by District 4 Commissioner Rob Williamson to sidestep the rules of their Florida Legislature-authorized Development Council in overseeing $55,000 to fund the sixth annual Sand Sculpting Festival on Navarre Beach.
Navarre Beach hoteliers are balking at a solicitation by New York-based Tough Mudder Inc. to pay commissions of 15 percent on rooms they book for the scheduled April 9-10 event in Milton.
Bob Richards watched stormwater creep up the driveway toward his garage on Dracena Way in Gulf Breeze on the first Sunday in November and had visions of the record flooding on April 29-30, 2014.
The cost of substitute teachers in the Santa Rosa County school system will rise an estimated 8.5 percent this year to $1.8 million, probably the largest annual increase ever, but officials say that could be a bargain.
On Oct. 23 signs were placed in each school of Santa Rosa County that read, “Students are invited to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of our country, but they are not required to do so.” Santa Rosa County Director of Middle Schools David Gunter says the signs were in response to a complaint from a parent who alleged that her son was forced to stand during the pledge of allegiance even though he expressed his unwillingness to do so. The school stood firm referring to F.S. 1003.44 and the Code of Student Conduct and referenced a section that states: “When the pledge is given, civilians must show full respect to the flag by standing at attention.”
