ARPC wins award for Franklin County map
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ARPC wins award for Franklin County map

The Apalachee Regional Planning Council, based in Tallahassee, has received the 2024 Aliceann Wohlbruck Impact Award from the National Association of Development Organizations for a Franklin County project. ARPC geospatial staff developed a Franklin County Zoning Map Look Up application, digitizing paper maps to allow local governments and citizens to easily access zoning maps, and…

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Unemployment unchanged as labor forces shrink

Unemployment along the Forgotten Coast showed little change last month. According to preliminary data released Friday by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, Gulf County’s jobless rate remained at 3.1 percent in September, while in Franklin, it dropped a tiny bit, from 3.6 to 3.5 percent. In Gulf County, four people left the jobless rolls,…

Festival gives Apalachicola airport a lift 
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Festival gives Apalachicola airport a lift 

I t all started when Phil Shelly, who heads up the Experimental Aircraft Association chapter at the Apalachicola Regional Airport, got together with Franklin County Commissioner Ottice Amison several months ago to discuss scheduling a modest fly-in to the airport. Later at the annual Chef’s Sampler in early spring, the two would meet with Steve…

Dressed for the night
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Dressed for the night

Lighthouse glows with Lantern Fest  Seventeen years after it first started in 2007, Lantern Fest, an outdoor festival known for its display of colorful, hanging lanterns, once again illuminated the night surrounding the Crooked River Lighthouse outside Carrabelle. The brainchild of Carrabelle artist Joan Matey, with contributions by local artists, the festival on Saturday night, Nov….

Red wave sweeps over Forgotten Coast
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Red wave sweeps over Forgotten Coast

Forehand, Cook elected tax collectors If there was any question that Democrats still held a seat at the elected officials’ tables in Franklin and Gulf counties, it was answered last week at the ballot box. Republicans took both of the countywide tax collector spots up for grabs in the two counties, as well as the…

School levies triumph in both counties
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School levies triumph in both counties

Voters in both Gulf and Franklin counties gave an overwhelming endorsement of the school tax measures that were on last week’s ballot. In Gulf County, more than 80 percent of voters, or 6,865, gave a thumbs-up to renewing for another four years the one-mill levy for operational costs, just as they have consistently since 2008….

Eastpoint woman set standard for oyster shucking
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Eastpoint woman set standard for oyster shucking

Nowadays, when the Florida Seafood Festival holds its oyster shucking contest, it is invariably all men, almost always from area raw bars, who compete. But six decades ago, when the festival was first resurrected in the early 1960s from its turn-of-the-century origins, it was an Eastpoint woman who swept the competition. Helen Hicks, now in…

Airport hosts ‘Freedom Festival’ Saturday
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Airport hosts ‘Freedom Festival’ Saturday

The Apalachicola Regional Airport will offer a salute to veterans as part of a day long Forgotten Cost Freedom Festival this Saturday, Nov. 16. Beginning at 10 a.m. ET and ending at 4 p.m.,, the festival will provide free admission and free parking as families are welcome to stop by and enjoy live music, a…

No injuries reported in school bus collision
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No injuries reported in school bus collision

A busload of 24 students at the Franklin County Schools escaped injury Friday morning, when it was struck by a pair of vehicles drying to pass it just west of Carrabelle. According to a report from the Florida Highway Patrol, the schoolbus, driven by a 74-year-old Eastpoint man, was traveling west on U.S. 98 near…