Local News

With a handful of new teachers, maximum enrollment and standardized test results that stayed largely steady during what was a down year throughout the state, the Apalachicola Bay Charter School opened the school year with the wind at its back. Now if it can just keep COVID-19 from wafting into nostrils. Quarantine requirements have sidelined…

It’s not your father’s taxpayers’ association anymore. In fact, the Alligator Point St. Teresa Association is blossoming, having ventured out with a rejuvenated outreach to the community. A July 4 catered affair for members at Kay McCord’s home at Mariner Circle not only celebrated the nation’s independence, but the newfound independence of the association. In…

The board of Carrabelle’s Community Redevelopment Agency on Tuesday approved a proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year that had

some very good news in it.

The accumulated more than $1 …

Hi Y’all, With the troubles brought up at the county commission meeting on August 3 concerning the St. James-Lanark Volunteer Fire Department, it was decided to invite the community to attend the monthly meeting on August 12 at the St. James-Lanark Firehouse. The attendance was good, considering the threat of COVID again rearing its ugly…

Summer in panhandle Florida is primetime for outdoor fun. The heat and sunshine in Franklin and Gulf counties make water-related activities, either salt or fresh, first rate in the local paradise within easy driving distance. However, there is a serpent in this area-wide Garden of Eden. The calendar indicates the approach of hurricane season’s peak…

The first significant storm of the 2021 hurricane season to hit Franklin County stormed in with all the finesse of Fred Flintstone and then left with the nimbleness of Fred Astaire. With students hunkered down at home, Tropical Storm Fred made landfall at Cape San Blas around 3:15 p.m., Monday afternoon, flooding roadways and tearing…

The Florida Department of Health in Franklin and Gulf counties is pushing forward with a clear message on vaccinations – they are effective and a critical tool to keeping what has become a resurgent pandemic under control. And they are taking on misunderstandings and rumors surrounding the shots. “The vaccine helps protect you and the…

With Franklin and Gulf county residents getting vaccinated at about two-thirds the rate of entire state, and a dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases in both counties during the month of July, the Florida Department of Health that serves the population is pressing its message. It’s not about masks, it’s not about handwashing, it’s not about…

A Carrabelle man arrested for abandoning seven mixed-breed pit bull terriers in the county said he dropped them off because he knew they would likely be picked up and later adopted. Following the discovery of six puppies dropped off in a cardboard box July 21 at 300 Ocean Mile on St. George Island, and a…

TALLAHASSEE — With most students expected to be in classrooms next month, after many learned online for at least part of the 2020-2021 school year, retailers anticipate a surge in shopping during Florida’s upcoming back-to-school sales tax “holiday.” The return of students who remained at home last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic is expected…