“In Santa Rosa County, our sense of safety is a testament to the dedication and hard work of my men and women in uniform and the other First Responders, whose partnerships we greatly appreciate and depend on. Yet, this safety net faces a critical threat—one that originates from unsurmountable growth within our county.
“What you win them with,” a seasoned pastor once advised, “is what you win them to. If it is hotdogs, clowns and balloons, you will have to keep the grill going and the clowns on retainer, because the moment you stop, people will leave.” By God’s grace, the church I was serving at the time was growing rapidly, and we who were on the pastoral staff had a healthy sense of inadequacy, so we sought the counsel of pastors of larger churches. That seasoned pastor was not at all suggesting that we hire clowns and start grilling hotdogs, his was a word of caution. Years later, I learned that his advice was not original, but a piece of wisdom shared by discerning pastors.
Milton’s boys basketball team was up 10 points early in the second quarter of a regional basketball quarterfinal on the road, and you couldn’t help but start to believe that maybe the dream of an upset win over the No. 1 seed was going to come true.
I just finished reading in Genesis about Joseph and his grace toward his brothers, who had sold him into slavery. God sovereignly raised him from slave to second in authority in Egypt to ready it for a famine; Joseph invited his family to join him. His father, Jacob, near death, made him promise not to bury him in Egypt. He directed Joseph to do something strange: Joseph was to place his hand under Jacob’s thigh, then give his promise.
I fail to understand how so many people continue to be mesmerized by former president Trump. No one wants to admit they were wrong, and maybe in 2016 they voted for him thinking it was part of some grand experiment. Now it’s time to get real. What will it take for people to realize that Trump is unfit to serve another term as president?
Randy Jorgenson is, or soon will be, Milton’s interim city manager. In an earlier editorial, we argued that bringing Jorgenson out of retirement would be a mistake. The city council – or at least five members of the council – disagreed.
Nothing against the American Flag, but Santa Rosa County needs to throw the idea of the largest flag in the state idea as some kind of tourist attraction right out the window and forget that the thought even entered its brain in the first place.
I am forever losing things – keys, wallets, shoes – you name it, I can lose it. So prone am I to losing things that one year for Christmas, my wife bought me a chip that attached to my key fob that would show the location of my keys on a map on my smartphone. Great idea, but I lose things at home and the mapping feature was not that precise.
It happens every year. Student athletes and their family and friends fill cafeterias, gymnasiums, media centers, and sometimes even offsite locations, to sign national letters of intent.
It happened again last Wednesday, here in Santa Rosa County, throughout the state and across the country.
As soon as Milton City Councilman Jeff Snow learned that City Manager Scott Collins had submitted a letter of resignation, he quickly recommended a short-term fix: Appoint retired former City Manager Randy Jorgenson to fill the gap until the council can find a suitable replacement.
Unfortunately, Snow’s knee-jerk reaction was the wrong move in the wrong direction at the wrong time for the wrong person.
