Santa Rosa County Archive

The Santa Rosa County Commission plans to hire Brad Baker as its new county administrator on Thursday.

Northwest Florida is home to quite a few veterans. In many places, veterans can enjoy designated parking spots but at Santa Rosa County-owned facilities, the only veterans parking spots were for Purple Heart recipients. Other veterans did not have designated parking. At least not until now.

Santa Rosa County will host a drop-in open house from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 10, at the Santa Rosa County Extension Office, 6263 Dogwood Drive in Milton, to discuss broadband. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has rolled out a new national broadband map and Santa Rosa County residents are urged to validate the accuracy of the information on the map. Challenges to the FCC broadband map are due by Friday, Jan. 13. View the map at broadbandmap.fcc.gov/home.

With the Christmas season behind us, Santa Rosa County Public Works is offering an environmentally friendly way to put those live trees behind us as well as. According to Santa Rosa County Public Works, residents who would like to “treecycle” their tree for mulch may drop off their clean Christmas trees to one of five designated areas in the county by Jan. 15. These areas are Jay Transfer Station on Transfer Station Road in Jay, Central Landfill at the Household Hazardous Waste facility at 6337 Da Lisa Road in Milton, Pace Fire Rescue District at 4773 Pace Patriot Blvd. in Pace, Navarre Beach Boat Ramp Parking Lot Recycle Area on Gulf Blvd. on Navarre Beach, and Tiger Point Recreation Area in Gulf Breeze.

Construction crews have temporarily shifted eastbound traffic to the westbound bridge over Simpson River. According to Santa Rosa County, the shift is expected to be in place through March 2023.

During this time, there will be two westbound lanes and one eastbound travel lane using the westbound bridge. Due to the traffic shift, there will not be dedicated bike lanes on the bridge.

The Florida Department of Transportation expects eventually to buy and tear down the Whittle Building to make room to expand U.S. Highway 90 through Milton, Santa Rosa County Commissioner Dave Piech reaffirmed Monday. In the meantime, the county is preparing to lease the vacant, dilapidated former automobile dealership and records warehouse.