County lifts all evacuation orders
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County lifts all evacuation orders

As of 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, the county emergency management office has rescinded all evacuation orders, both mandatory and voluntary. Due to a combination of Hurricane Idalia and the rising tide, Bayfront Drive in Alligator Point and Patton Street on St. George Island are under water. Please use extreme caution when in this area. Because there…

Expected hurricane could have local impacts next week
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Expected hurricane could have local impacts next week

Tropical Depression 10, which formed in the Caribbean over the weekend, is forecast to become a tropical storm, then a hurricane over the next few days as it makes its way towards Florida’s northwest coast. Most forecast models show the storm is anticipated to make landfall near the Big Bend region, though direct impacts to…

Tropical disturbance or storm likely to form in gulf ahead of Labor Day
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Tropical disturbance or storm likely to form in gulf ahead of Labor Day

A disturbance entering the Gulf of Mexico is likely to develop into a tropical depression or storm in the next week, according to the National Hurricane Center. The broad area of low pressure is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms as it moves north through environmental conditions that appear to be conducive to development, forecasters said Friday…

Charter school opens under new leadership
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Charter school opens under new leadership

With full enrollment of about 377 students, the Apalachicola Bay Charter School is opening the 2023-24 with two new leaders at the helm, and shifts to the classroom staff tailored for an ever-changing student population.Elizabeth Kirvin, who was among the local citizens who first envisioned the school around their kitchen tables nearly three decades ago,…

Chasing Shadows: Carrabelle downtown headed to National Register
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Chasing Shadows: Carrabelle downtown headed to National Register

A portion of Carrabelle’s downtown is headed for the National Register of Historic Places, the federal government’s official listing of historically significant properties throughout the county.The district received the blessing Aug. 3 of the five-person Florida National Register Review Board, a body within the state’s Division of Historical Resources responsible for deciding whether to submit…

Apalachicola to tighten enforcement over short-term rentals
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Apalachicola to tighten enforcement over short-term rentals

In a move to eliminate confusion, and to give code enforcement the tools needed to regulate the city’s growing number of short-term rentals, city commissioners have turned to a Virginia-based company that specializes in helping state and local governments navigate the issue. By a unanimous vote, with commissioner Adriane Elliott absent, the commission agreed to…

Seiden trial pushed to January
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Seiden trial pushed to January

Nearly six years after Aileen Seiden’s life ended brutally in Eastpoint when she was just 31 years old, the trial of one of her alleged killers and the sentencing of another won’t happen until 2024. At an Aug. 8 case management hearing, Circuit Judge Frank Allman set Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024 as the first of…

‘Dog Days’ do not apply to man’s best friend
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‘Dog Days’ do not apply to man’s best friend

They say we are in Dog Days. I heard that all my life and wondered what they meant. When I didn’t know something, my Mama would always say, “Look it up in the dictionary” (or the encyclopedia). If I still have them, they are both somewhere in the attic. So, I opted for Wikipedia. My…

FCHS opens with teaching slots largely filled
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FCHS opens with teaching slots largely filled

With the opening of school last week, the signs are that the teacher crisis shortage that has swept like a hurricane through Florida has largely missed Franklin County. It’s not perfect, there are still some gaps and shifts that have had to be made at Franklin County Schools, but for the most part the classrooms…

Florida extends record gulf recreational snapper season
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Florida extends record gulf recreational snapper season

On Aug. 11, Governor Ron DeSantis’s office announced Florida is extending the 2023 recreational gulf red snapper season by 17 days, adding every Friday through Saturday in September, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving Day to the previously announced season. The 2023 season now totals 87 days, the longest combined season since the state assumed management of…