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What is the status of the fire this afternoon/evening? Is it any more contained? Last I heard was 60 percent.

Can we make it clear that the beaches ARE still open? The statement that Seaside is closing private accesses is being wildly misconstrued. Public beaches are OPEN, and public beach accesses are OPEN. Events, venues, and shops in the area may be closing. Eating establishments may be doing...

You are definitely welcome and appreciated, as are all visitors. Ask any of the people who own and run businesses, and the people that work in them in the area and you'll get the same, answer. Over the years there are occasional anti-tourist posts as this one seems to have started out as. I...

Many vacation rental workers also live or lived in Panama City. I don't believe trying to turn tourists away from the areas that have not been damaged, or trying to make tourists or locals feel guilty about visiting will help at all. Many friends and family have lost homes. Trying to depress...

I have no personal info, but from the ECP facebook page: Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport Brad Burkemper - please contact the rental car companies directly. Here's a link to the contact information: https://www.iflybeaches.com/airport.../ground-transportation Rental Cars...

I have one report that Mediacom internet is weak and intermittent at Hidden Beach Villas in Seagrove.

Thanks. Where are you? If people can state location, and approx. when it returned, it might help others.

Thanks for sharing.

This morning that portion of the mediacom statement was changed to: "Work continues around the clock on a temporary solution to restore connectivity to our Southport facility and restore High Speed Data and Phone services to Sandestin and surrounding areas. We appreciate everyone's...

This is from the Mediacom Communications web site dated 10/13/2018: Hurricane Michael Special Weather Statement "The temporary loss of Mediacom broadband and phone service in the Sandestin area is due to 14 miles of severely damaged fiber between Highway 77A and Southport. In a second area...

Also, their outage viewer is dependent on power to their SRB office which is affected by the same outage, so it's unlikely to be back up until after they've successfully restored power to the area. So check the facebook page for updates.

Turns out Chelco has a facebook page with helpful information: Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative, Inc. Areas on the east end of our service area south of the bay, such as Point Washington, Grayton Beach and Eastern Lake, are out of power primarily because the transmission line that feeds the...

Good morning. Any info on power restoration in/around Seagrove? The Chelco outage viewer seems to be down since late yesterday. Curious if the pre-staged crews made progress overnight or if they're waiting for daylight?

Does anybody know what the traffic is like on 30A and 331 this morning?

Great deal on a last minute spring break week: 3/17 - 3/24, $90/night in Hidden Beach Villas. Close to beach, real 1 bedroom (no studio), bikes provided. Hidden Beach Hideaway (https://www.vrbo.com/127478) Hidden Beach Hideaway is a 1 bedroom/1 bath condo in the heart of scenic 30A, one mile...

Has anybody heard about this? On the site of the former proposed Hampton Inn just west of the Eastern Lake bridge. Sounds bigger than the Hampton Inn proposal. Public Hearing Notice 12/18 posted in the NWF Daily News and mentioned on A Better South Walton's facebook page: n/m - here is the...

We have internet at our condo through our HOA in Seagrove. Our current renters are saying it's been up and down this past week and is currently out. I'm trying to figure out if it's an issue with our wifi router or if Centurylink itself is down in the area. This is in the central...

Possibly. But it will probably cost less than defending a criminal investigation into the nepotistic relationship between the planning commission and developers that mysteriously changed the comprehensive plan and then the land development code to permit 125 room establishments with inadequate...

Thanks. But I'm curious if chair vendors on "private" beaches, however the county defines those, can set up chairs before 7:30 am, say at 6:30? Or do this and the turtle watch ordinance only apply to "public" beaches. For example, I keep hearing that Adagio has a private beach, or Andy's complex...

How does the county define a public beach vs. a private beach? And are chair setups at properties that own to the water governed by this ordinance, or by the turtle watch ordinance restricting vendor chair setups to after 7:30 am? P.S. If the choice is between chair vendors and those...

USA Today should have used any one of the beautiful pictures regularly posted on SoWal.com. Unfortunately, the one they did put on their web site has to be one of the most unflattering aerial shots I've ever seen of the area.

Do you know why she got the letter? Is the DEP notifying lake-front owners for possible comment?

Everyone that is feeling upset, defeated, disappointed here because of the Planning Commission's decision needs to keep one thing in mind. Mr. Davis may have lots of money, but we have lots of people. The opposing interest this generated and organized in just a couple of weeks came within one...

Are there any plans to make the Eastern Lake neighborhood beach access usable? Due to the drift of the outfall further westward, it's been difficult if not impossilbe to use for quite a while now.

Vacation rentals do take more effort to research and book. That's certainly one of the reasons they haven't replaced hotels and probably never will, despite VRBO/HomeAway's recent attempts to push VR owners to be more hotel-like. My argument against this hotel is the same as against the Hampton...

You seem to be arguing that since LSVs are cheaper to insure, they are safe ("Opponents say they're dangerous, yet insurance companies continue to beg to differ." If that's not what you are arguing, let me know. In fact, insurance companies do know that LSV's are dangerous and they have their...

My only issue is that it's a 90 room hotel. It's way too big, and if this one goes in, what is there to stop others, which will be way too big x2 x4 x8, etc. The ordinance that was changed to allow larger bed numbers in specialty lodging should NEVER have been changed, and certainly with no...

Insurance companies set rates based on relative values and their risk of loss. Given that an LSV costs maybe 1/10th of the average car (maybe 1/20th of the average SoWal SUV), it's obvious why insurance rates would be lower for an LSV. It's got nothing to do with safety. Ford Pintos were...

Thank you. So does anyone else find it suspicious that an ordinance restricting the number of rooms is changed in May of this year, and 7 months later there's a development submission for a 90 room motel? Seems like these two went hand in hand. Plans like this take a while to develop. What's...

Someone mentioned in the facebook group about a county ordinance that had changed, allowing the number of rooms in a hotel to go from 75 to 125. Does anyone know which ordinance that might be, and, if it did change, when, why, and who changed it?

If runoff is coming from the north side of 30A, then it is related. Brown St. is 5 blocks away from Eastern Lake so it's proximity to the lake is not the only issue. If sufficiency of nearby accesses isn't a consideration for the bureaucracy and politicians, it should be. They're not proposing...

What does happen? Do you know of any impact on the politicians or the bureaucracy?

For one, the density. There is already insufficient parking with the current condos and houses in the area. At what I'm guessing will be 4 person occcupancy for 90 rooms, and between 90 to 180 more cars on 30A, where will 360 more people park, access the beach, go to the bathroom, etc...

I can't say I understand the difference between land use codes and zoning requirements. Has the topic of adopting stricter controls ever been debated? I'm sure there are large property owners and development proponents that would oppose putting more limits on what they can do with their own...

The thought of something like this even being considerd is frightening. The additional load on small neighborhood beach accesses, the environmental impact, the density. Is there precedent for the county denying development permits for such projects, or do they just approve anything brought...

If I had to choose, I'd pick either the top left or the middle left. Don't like the font on the top left one, and the middle left needs something graphic like the umbrellas along with it. I think the top right one can be too easily confused for "fort walton" instead of "south walton". Why don't...

You get the best pictures, Kurt. Do you use a drone to get those aerials?

Thanks for the info. I have a couple of questions if you could answer them since you seem knowledgeable. I wish I could attend the info sessions, but I can't. 1) Where there are exising public walkways, will the current walkways be extended to climb up and over the new dunes, or are they...

These types of signs are definitely proliferating, and one set of signs seems to encourage another. I propose that posting of such signs is undesireable. I suggest that the next time someone does it, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, should go sit in the area bounded by these signs until such time...

30A really needs a couple of personal weather stations. Getting data from Destin or PCB or P'cola airports isn't the same.

From the WCSO Facebook Page: Road Closure and Openings as of 5 am today. They are still listing 30A as completely closed? NORTH WALTON Status Time 1A Clear Springs Rd (water over the bridge) Open 1A Adams Rd/Punch Bowl Rd Open 1A Co Highway 0605 Open 1A Dean Rd/Co Highway 285 Open 1A...

Thanks. What's it like on the ground now? I can't tell from the web cams if it's still raining or just cloudy.

I have nice guest arriving May 10th for a week's stay. They have a 9 month old baby boy and would like a baby sitter to help out, 4 – 6 hours a day for 5 – 6 days. If you have reliable contacts or referrals, please let me know.

What's the latest on the spring breakers? Has it settled down or is it getting crazier? Has the rainy weather put a damper on people behaving badly?

Gee, thanks! Now I can go tell my Mom that my lower motorcycle insurance premiums proves definitively that motorcycles are inherently safer than cars. She'll be so relieved to hear that. The insurance companies can't possibly be wrong .... unless ... um ... hmm ... maybe they don't actually...

Dude, that's not a dude.

I'm just waiting for them to come out with the eyeball based personal advertising like in Minority Report: http://youtu.be/7bXJ_obaiYQ

I just got this from VRBO/Homeaway in my email: Anyone have opinions on how this would likely affect short term rentals in South Walton? I always thought Walton County had the authority to pass ordinances governing short term rentals, but it seems like this bill would have to be passed to...

If they really are changing it to 25 mph in Seagrove I'm glad. They've had the Alys Beach stretch at 25 for years, while the stretch past the very busy Tom Thumb/downtown Seagrove has been inconsistently higher. But regardless of the speed limits, I still think it's a mistake to sanction...

There ought to be an exception for water breaks. In our neighborhood there were enough breaks that it was lowering water pressure for other houses. Regional Utilities shouldn't be saying they can't turn obvious breaks off just because they don't have a currently absentee owner's permission...