Santa Rosa County seems ready to change how it manages parks and recreation.

Commission Chairman Colten Wright recently introduced plans to partner with the City of Gulf Breeze to study building a competition-grade aquatic facility and talks about parks and recreation as “quality of life” infrastructure investments; Commissioner Kerry Smith is negotiating a new agreement with the Emerald Coast Sports Association to ensure a successful revival of recreational sports at East Milton Park; and an economic development strategist has advised the county to investigate sports tourism opportunities.

The highly anticipated review of Santa Rosa County’s Land Development Code got off to a rocky start last week – to the surprise of no one who participated in the contentious 2021 rewrite.

Excited social media posts rippled across Santa Rosa County last week when the school board approved adding a limited middle school sports program.

It’s about time. Our neighbors in Escambia and Okaloosa counties have offered robust middle school sports programs for years while Santa Rosa County families wonder why they don’t have the same opportunity.

For Christians around the world, Easter represents a time of renewal, and a time of remembrance of the death of Jesus and his resurrection.

In this week’s Eye on Government page, we have a story about a proposed bill making its way through the Florida Senate committees that would allow people convicted of sexual battery on children under the age of 12 to be sentenced to death.

The saying goes, “You learn something new every day.” I have something worth sharing. 

During World War II, with all it’s horrible statistics, Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Bible New Testaments with metal covers, a blessing, as follows: To the Army, on the inside cover was our beloved American flag. On the next page FDR, by letter, admonished them to “Read the Bible.”

A budget workshop last month became a political science lecture when commissioners disagreed about how Santa Rosa County should craft its next spending plan.

Staff suggested creating new revenue sources to relieve the county’s dependence on property tax.

Before there was Sunshine Week, there was Sunshine Sunday.

And here’s how Sunshine Sunday began. Just weeks after terrorist planes took down the World Trade Center and slammed into the Pentagon, legislators in Florida rushed to water down, even repeal, some of the state’s best-in-the-nation open government laws.

In this business, you see a lot of press releases come into your email inbox.

A lot of them are very useful, about our communities and the people and events in them that we are happy to share.

The City of Milton is considering a paid youth internship program this summer to give youth ages 16-20 a taste of government service.

It’s not a new idea, but it is, we believe, a great idea, one we hope Milton and more local governments will adopt.