The Florida Department of Health, after learning that Santa Rosa County is considering what to do with the long-vacant Whittle Building, notified staff earlier this month that a plume of toxic chemicals has collected beneath the building on U.S. Highway 90 in downtown Milton.

Almost 2,000 residents voted for one of four possible names for the new K-8 school being constructed at the intersection of Wallace Lake Road and Chumuckla Highway. Wallace Lake was the overwhelming winner, with 1,301 total votes.

Residents worried about the proposed location of Milton’s new wastewater treatment plant may have a friend in high places. Pam Mitchell of Milton Concerned Citizens, a political action committee leading opposition to the proposed site, said she and other members of the group were encouraged by a meeting they had with U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz at an event the last weekend in October.

Santa Rosa County officials buried a time capsule Wednesday to help commemorate the opening of its new courthouse on Avalon Boulevard. A plaque marking the capsule’s resting place will instruct future county officials to open the capsule 50 years after its burial, on Nov. 9, 2072.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, Nov. 8) is election day. The polls will be open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

The Santa Rosa County Commission will meet at 5 p.m. Monday at the Commissioners Conference Room, 6495 Caroline St., Milton.

It’s not too late for residents to share input about Milton wastewater disposal plans, a Florida Department of Environmental Protection spokesperson said last week. The City of Milton has asked FDEP to allow the city to spray up to 1.256 million gallons of treated wastewater per day on rapid-infiltration basins and a spray field on a 100-acre property next to the proposed site of a new wastewater treatment plant. FDEP issued a notice of the city’s permit application that was published on the city’s website beginning Oct. 2. While answering a resident’s question about how long the public could submit comments to the department, a 30-day time frame was mentioned, which would have ended Nov. 1.

Residents attending the Santa Rosa County Commission’s special rezoning meeting last week, or watching the meeting online, heard what sounded like Commission Chairman Bob Cole accusing a developer of paying residents not to object to a zoning request.

Santa Rosa County’s elections are secure. That was Colten Wright’s message last week to residents worried that “nefarious actors” manipulated 2020 election results and may try to do so again this year.

The deadline to submit qualifications to manage the City of Milton’s almost $70-million wastewater reclamation project passed last month without response.

“This is a big project; a huge project,” Interim Public Information Officer Jay Conrad said Friday. “Our expectation has been that anyone with the qualifications to do this job already is employed; we knew it might take some time to attract the kind of expertise we need for a project of this magnitude.”