Tiger King back in Santa Rosa County Jail

The star of Netflix’s “Tiger King,” Joseph Maldanado Passage, 61, was transferred to Santa Rosa County Jail March 27 and is on hold for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Known as “Exotic Joe,” Maldanado-Passage was convicted of charges stemming from a murder-for-hire plot concocted against Florida animal right activist Carole Baskin and for killing and selling tigers across state lines. In 2018, Maldanado-Passage was arrested in Santa Rosa County and eventually sentenced to 22 years. The sentence was reduced to 21 years in 2022.

Need for speed

Navarre High School’s Construction Academy got to test their electric race car at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola ahead of future competition against other schools. Sponsored by Florida Power and Light, the electric car program is led by Navarre High teacher James Fox. The project of building a race car that runs on electricity took two months and lots of work. Going around the track, student Jack Moffa averaged about a minute per lap, hitting speeds of 30 miles per hour. Near the end of the hour long run at the track, the car lost battery power and slowed to a halt. The kit for the car cost $7,000 and Navarre was chosen to represent Santa Rosa County in a competition in April.

Five Navarre students among those nominated to military academies

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz was at Navarre High School Thursday, Jan. 25, to announce the recipients of nominations to military service academies. Amongst the many names called out were five Navarre High School students, four of which were in attendance. Benjamin Johnson, Gennaro Smith, Jesse Lee, Brenner Mavity, and Katelynn Johnson all received appointments to either the Naval Academy, U.S Military Academy at West Point, the Air Force Academy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, or the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

New board members elected

At Holley Navarre Water System’s annual membership meeting on Jan. 16, two board members were voted in. Incumbent director Mark Miller and newcomer Rob Low were selected out a field of four. In addition to the election of board members, the water system’s membership also voted against a change to the utility’s articles of incorporation. The change would have provided a lower threshold for altering the utility’s bylaws to “at least 5% of the members of the corporation” participating in a vote. As it stands now, a change to the bylaws requires approval by the “majority of membership.” The total membership of HNWS is 14,000.

At the Board of County Commissioners meeting on Dec. 12 they announced that a developer whose construction has caused runoff into Mulat Bayou was heavily fined.

Since the resignation of Matt Gaetz in early November, Northwest Florida’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives has remained vacant. With a special primary election set for Tuesday, Jan. 28, Republicans vying for the seat met at Emerald Waterfront (formerly The Grillehouse) in Navarre for a candidate forum.