The unpredictability of nature is a known unknown for most farmers; blueberry growers included.
The weather and feathered visitors have set back what seemed at one time to be an early opening for Blue Basket Farms’ “u-pick” blueberry season.
Santa Rosa County District Schools Student Services Department is hosting a Wellness Expo from 6-7:30 p.m. tonight in the Pace High School gymnasium. The expo will feature local agencies and organizations connecting the community to mental and physical wellness resources.
Pete Griffin and Dewayne Vasquez grew up together in Milton. As boys, they built a tree fort from which they hunted guinea hens with pellet guns in a field near their neighborhood.
“We never wound up killing any of them, but we tried for months,” Vasquez remembered last week. “We were 8 or 9 years old; we didn’t really know what we were doing, but we kept at it. We knew we were definitely doing something most kids don’t get to do.”
The Santa Rosa County Tourist Development Council agreed last week to fund development of a Native American cultural gallery in Milton.
Dan Helms, chief of the Santa Rosa County Band of the Lower Muscogee, described the project and asked for $70,000 from the TDC at its April 6 board meeting. After a brief discussion, the board voted unanimously to provide the whole amount from its reserve funds.
Local leader Rev. Murray Hamilton Sr. was recognized posthumously with a road designated in his honor during the annual scholarship luncheon held March 25.
Former District 3 state Rep. Jayer Williamson unveiled the sign during the event, which will be installed marking the portion of U.S. Highway 90 between Canal and Stewart streets in Santa Rosa County.
The Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioners will hold a day-long public hearing on proposed changes to the LDC from 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday, May 8, at the County Administration Building at 6495 Caroline Street in Milton. Staff has scheduled a lunch break between noon-1 p.m.
The teenage son of Rebekah Jones, a data analyst and former Democratic Party candidate for U.S. House, has been charged with intimidation, a second-degree felony.
Jackson Jones, 13, was arrested for allegedly threatening to conduct a mass shooting at Holley Navarre Middle School, where he was previously a student. The threats first came to the attention of Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office March 20, when an East Bay K8 student told school officials about a school shooting threat she saw on social media.
The Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioners tentatively approved spending $1.5 million to help bring rural broadband access to communities along Munson Highway in the northeast part of the county. Just hours earlier, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced an award of almost $3.4 million to expand access in the communities of Allentown, Chumuckla, Pace and Wallace in the county’s northwest.
A soldier from Milton was killed in a helicopter crash at Fort Campbell in Kentucky March 29. The crash killed nine other soldiers as well.
Warrant Officer 1 Jeffrey Barnes, 33, of Milton, had been flying in a Black Hawk medical evacuation helicopter during a training exercise when his helicopter and another Black Hawk crashed around 10 p.m. During a news conference the following day, Brig. Gen. John Lubas said the helicopters were flying a multiship formation and using night vision goggles.
