Governor appoints Croom to county commission
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Governor appoints Croom to county commission

Governor Ron DeSantis has appointed Anthony Croom, Jr. to represent District 3 on Franklin County Board of County Commissioners. Croom, 36, a Republican, fills the position vacated by the death of Noah Lockley, Jr. who passed away at age 72 on Nov. 14. Croom works as district safety and security administrator for the Franklin County…

Laser show climaxes Carrabelle holiday festival
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Laser show climaxes Carrabelle holiday festival

Carrabelle celebrated the Christmas season under the glow of harbor lights and the dazzle of laser beams Saturday with the Holiday on the Harbor Street Festival and Boat Parade of Lights. “The festival was a great success and we could not have asked for more perfect weather,” said Lori Dougherty, director of the Carrabelle Chamber…

Changes in primary care for Gulf and Franklin
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Changes in primary care for Gulf and Franklin

The relocation of Apalachicola family practitioner David Newton M.D. this month to a practice in Port St. Joe signals a change to primary care in Franklin and Gulf counties. Weems Memorial Hospital is reassuring Franklin County patients that all their primary care needs will be met by its existing providers as they continue to seek…

Island party unveils ‘Salty Boots Songwriter Festival’
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Island party unveils ‘Salty Boots Songwriter Festival’

Jennifer Stradtman has a dream, to create the Sandy Boots Songwriters Festival of St. George Island in the spring. To help awaken it, she hosted a launch party at her West Gorrie Drive home Saturday, featuring two of the best songwriters in Nashville, to help generate interest and whet the appetite for the spring festival….

African-American Museum plans taking shape
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African-American Museum plans taking shape

It probably won’t be completed before fall 2025 at the earliest, but planning for a proposed Apalachicola Museum of African American Culture and History is now well underway. The two architects at work on the project – Bret D. Hammond of the Tallahassee-based Hammond Design Group, LLC, and Ruffin Rhodes, with the Orlando-based Rhodes+Brito Architects…

Christmas cookie crumbles
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Christmas cookie crumbles

Forget your fruit cake and your figgy pudding. If there’s one sweet delight that best symbolizes Christmas, it’s a cookie, and area school kids, from Wewahitchka to Apalachicola and parts in between, got in the spirit of cookie decorating last week. In Apalachicola, it was a chance for Head Start kids and pre-kindergarteners from the…

Apalachicola airport to begin car rental
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Apalachicola airport to begin car rental

There soon will be car rentals at the Apalachicola Regional Airport, after Franklin County commissioners unanimously approved a request from the airport’s fixed base operator Tara Blauth, who along with Andrew Hartman are principals for Centric Aviation LLC, which runs the airport, appeared at the Nov. 21 meeting to ask for permission to offer the…

Candidates emerge as Lockley’s successor
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Candidates emerge as Lockley’s successor

The county on Saturday celebrated the life of the late Noah Lockley, Jr. in a ceremony at the Matchbox gym that recalled the kindness and good cheer the longtime county commissioner displayed over the course of his career. And as a politician who served his community for nearly two decades, it is now a matter…