Mariya Calkins, the wife of sitting Santa Rosa Commissioner James Calkins, is officially running for the District 3 seat in the Florida House of Representatives after Rep. Jayer Williamson announced he will not seek reelection after 2022.The new state representative candidate filed her paperwork Friday, and her candidate tracker can be found on the Florida Department of State website.

For more than 30 years, if you visited the office of the Santa Rosa Press Gazette, you’d likely meet Jim Fletcher.

He was editor before he was publisher. He was passionate about Milton and about local news and about his “family” of employees. On Jan. 5, his family learned that Fletcher, who was hospitalized on New Year’s Day, had died of cancer at an area hospital a few days later. He was 64.

Effective immediately, the Santa Rosa Press Gazette in Milton and the Crestview News Bulletin in Crestview are under new ownership.

A Keep Santa Rosa Beautiful (KSRB) audit conducted by an investigator with the Santa Rosa County Clerk of Courts concluded that the organization has “seen better days” and that it is unable to pay its bills.

After a year of internal transitions, Santa Rosa County has a new – and old – attorney in place. Tom Dannheisser, county attorney for more than 20 years, has stepped back into that role after serving as a county and circuit judge.

Construction activities have begun on the U.S. 90 bridge replacement project over Simpson River in Santa Rosa County.

The Santa Rosa County School District checked a number of boxes to provide for future growth in 2021. In 12 months, the district has opened one new school – East Bay K-8 – and has a second K-8 under construction in the north end of the county.

A two-car crash occurred just after 7 a.m. on County Road 184 (Berryhill Road) just west of Regina’s Way in Milton. According to a press release from Florida Highway Patrol, a sedan driven by a couple in their 70s with a nine-year-old passenger failed to navigate the roadway curve and crossed the center line.

The Milton City Council met Nov. 9 to appoint a replacement to fill the unexpired term of David Richardson, who resigned last month due to health issues.

Here’s the text of Rep. Matt Gaetz’s letter, also signed by eight other House members: