This weekend starts the Mardi Gras festivities in Navarre. Friday night Juana’s will have a Mardi Gras Glow Party beginning at 9 p.m. and $5 gets you “Glow Bling.” For more information, see their ad in this issue. Don’t miss the after-parade party at Juana’s.
Shortly after the training crash of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter into the waters of the Navarre sound on March 10, the Leadership Santa Rosa Class 29 began planning a memorial project in memory of the 11 service members killed. The Navarre Black Hawk Memorial is projected to cost nearly $100,000 and will be placed to the left of the large pavilion in Navarre Park.
For the third time in recent months Santa Rosa County and the City of Gulf Breeze are at odds, this time over a share of tourist development funds that exceed $100,000 annually.
On Jan. 15, the Navarre Beach Area Chamber of Commerce held its annual Awards and Installation Banquet at the Soundside at Hurlburt Field to honor outstanding members and install a new board of directors. The new Chamber President and CEO, Judy Morehead was the evening’s emcee.
The state grant funding sought by Santa Rosa County to promote Tough Mudder Inc.’s military-style endurance event in April will be limited to about one-third of the requested $30,000.
Gigi Naggatz was affectionately known as “The Turtle Lady” on Navarre Beach and she was a leading volunteer and conservationist who worked tirelessly for the sea turtles. She passed away Jan. 5 after a years-long battle with cancer. While she will be greatly missed by many, her spirit will live on through the many volunteers that carry on her mission on Navarre Beach.
The overthrow of local authority to limit fracking, the controversial method of drilling for oil and natural gas after injecting chemicals underground to fracture rock formations, is being supported by Northwest Florida legislators.
A “notice to proceed” to replace the aging Pensacola Bay Bridge will be given by end of the year if everything falls into place, says Florida Department of Transportation engineer, Kerrie Harrell. Harrell drove from Tallahassee Thursday morning, Jan. 14 to speak to the Gulf Breeze Chamber of Commerce meeting at the Andrews Institute. “My true day job right now is the Pensacola Bay Bridge,” Harrell told the audience of nearly 50 chamber members and their guests. Gulf Breeze City Manager Edwin “Buz” Eddy was also in attendance as well as Gulf Breeze Councilwoman Cherry Fitch.
The lease fees collected by a developer from the owners of 14 Sugar Dunes condominium units since the late 1980s, but never paid to Santa Rosa County as normally required, total more than $180,000.
