County to appoint RESTORE council

During tomorrow morning’s board meeting, Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioners is supposed to appoint a 10 person local council to compile and prioritize potential projects that will be funded with future RESTORE Act money.

While the council is being established to recommend which projects are funded, the commission will have the final approval.

According to the county, the council is supposed to be comprised of five members appointed by the commissioners, two members of the commission, one member to represent Navarre, one to represent Gulf Breeze and one to represent Milton.

During an Aug. 20 meeting, Commissioner Bob Cole asked if the council could also include a member to represent the town of Jay.

Commissioner Lane Lynchard said the commission could add additional members. However, he said the council is supposed to represent those affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  

However, some people in Navarre feel like the council make up would not adequately represent Navarre, which was the area most impacted by the oil spill.

Navarre Area Board of Realtors issued a letter to commissioners Wednesday stating the board’s position on the council. NABOR stated the board make up should be determined by population, distance from the spill, miles of affected shoreline and per capita sales tax collections.

“Using these factors the Navarre Beach Area and the entire peninsula, being the most affected and suffering the most economic damage, should have the majority representation on the Santa Rosa County RESTORE Council,” the letter stated.

NABOR and other Navarre residents are urging residents in Navarre to send emails to commissioners asking them to carefully consider who will serve on the council before the 9 a.m. meeting tomorrow.

Emails can be sent to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .