Graduation for Navarre High School is Saturday, and our seniors will be walking across the stage to get their diplomas. This is the accomplishment they have been working toward for 12 years. It is the culmination of their high school education before they move on to college. To all the seniors, we hope you enjoy and make the most of graduation and the days that follow. We wish you all the successes in the coming years and can’t wait to see what you achieve (we will be here to report on it).

We have an article in this week’s issue regarding bullying and the use of cell phones to bully people. I cringe when I see young children carrying around cell phones. Last week I was looking out my window when children as young as 8 and 9 were walking down the street toward the bus stop – not looking at where they were going because they were staring at their phones.

I always breathe a sigh of relief when the Florida Legislature’s final gavel goes down like it did on Friday, May 5. They can always call a special session, but at least it is officially over for the year. You never know what they are going to do, what special favors will be called in or what might have been added to a bill at the last minute. I have been intimately involved in several bills over the years, especially when it comes to bills regarding public notices in newspapers vs. government websites.

It is almost time for high school seniors to graduate and we are taking “Grad Ads” for the paper. This is a good time to congratulate all seniors, or for a business to congratulate seniors that work for you, or churches to congratulate their seniors, etc.

I was listening to a podcast today while driving to my office. I call my car my traveling university because I use that time to learn. Any business owner will tell you that it is difficult to find people that want to work for their paycheck.

The Santa Rosa County Tourist Development Office is seeking public input for possible future amenities and/or projects for Navarre and the Navarre Beach areas. There is a new poll out that you will see promoted in the next few weeks. There are only two questions – the first one being an order of importance.

At a recent Navarre Beach Leaseholder meeting, a “news resource” want-to-be told Navarre Beach residents in attendance that approval of the setback variance the developer of the new Hilton is seeking would allow them to add more rooms/condos to the development. That was incorrect. However, a lie travels around the world before the truth has a chance to put their pants on … someone famous owns that quote.

This is the kind of stuff that TV movies are made of. Our previous county attorney, Roy Andrews, was fired in December 2020. Prior to his being fired, he told developers that it was A-OK to build an RV park on Navarre Beach even though the Navarre Beach Lease Agreement does not allow for an RV park. It wasn’t brought up for a vote – it just happened.

With so much political drama at the recent county commission meetings, we aren’t sure what county business is being tended to. We have an apology from Sam Parker for using a derogatory term against Jews – of which I’m 26.6% Jewish – and I accept his apology.

Thank you to the people that reached out and said they would love to be a contributing writer for Navarre Press. We will be integrating you into our flow very soon. As I tell new team members, we are going 80 miles an hour down the highway and we need you to merge with us…we can’t stop and pick you up. Well, we could, but then we would get run over.