After three months of research and a roughly $14,000 tab, a strategic plan presented to and approved by the Tourism Development Committee board Friday would request additional tourism staff be placed on the county’s payroll.

As 2016 said farewell, states across the country said hello to new regulations and laws. Florida was no exception.v

Santa Rosa County Animal Services is near full capacity at the moment, although that isn’t anything new for the shelter in Milton, according to county animal services director Dale Hamilton.

After more than 70 percent of Florida’s voters approved an amendment to the state’s constitution broadening allowable use of medical marijuana, law makers at the state and local level were scrambling to put regulations in place and sort out fact from fiction as Amendment 2 went into effect Jan. 3.

For the first time in 16 years there is a new sheriff in town, or at least in Santa Rosa County.