Year: 2008

Education in Bay County – Let’s market what we have!

juliann

By: Juliann Talkington

Juliann Talkington is the administrator of the Panama City Renaissance School. She can be reached on 850-215-8712 or jtalkington@pcrschool.org.

What do employers and employees look for when they consider an area for relocation? Schools are always at the top of the list. Employers want skilled workers and potential employees want quality education at a reasonable cost.

So what is the state of primary and secondary education in Bay County and the nearby areas?

Within the past five years the number of schooling options has increased substantially. Most follow the standard US education model, but the area now hosts a Montessori school (South Walton Montessori Academy in Rosemary Beach) and a school that offers academics to the higher European and Asian standards and foreign language immersion (Panama City Renaissance School).

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Letters to the TDC – Opposing College Spring Break

In support of the College Spring Break opposition, Mark Canfora is presenting several documents to the TDC at Tomorrows meeting.

Quote:

To TDC Board Members,
To sit by and watch this ongoing devastating PCB College Spring Break tragedy and TDC promotion (Event Failure in TDC terminology) continue and do NOTHING would be a form of Passive Collusion: Failure to confront known abusive, harmful or catastrophic behavior.”

Money, in many cases, is motivating factor and a total disregard to the loss and despair of families and the victims. This ongoing dangerous spring break promotion furthers the pain and suffering of the past and present victim’s families with constant reminders of the pain caused during this annual event.

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Churchwell Road CRA Update and Pictures

The Churchwell Road CRA (Community Redevelopment Area) is pretty much done. They were painting the yellow stripes last week and painting the 127 space public parking lot yesterday. The ribbon cutting is on April 16, 2008 at 10:30 am on the new Churchwell Bridge, unless it rains, in which case it will be under a tent in the new parking lot close to Front Beach Road. More after the break.

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TDC Meeting Agenda for 4/8/2008

On Tuesday, the main line items are:

  1. Discuss and Consider for Approval CVB/TDC Financial Statements Dated February 29, 2008, Mr. Dan Rowe, President
  2. Discuss and Consider for Approval TDC Visitor Information Center Brochure Display Racks Policy, Mr. Dan Rowe, President
  3. Discuss and Consider for Approval Funding Request, Seabreeze Jazz Festival, Mr. Dan Rowe, President
  4. Discuss and Consider for Approval Board Resolution in Support of the Recreational and Local Charter Fishing Industry, Mr. Dan Rowe, President
  5. Discuss and Consider for Approval Board Resolution on Visual Blight Created by Inactive Development Projects on Panama City Beach, Mr. Andy Phillips, Chairman
  6. Discuss and Consider for Approval Coastal Planning & Engineering Invoice #80274-R, and Invoice #80347, Mrs. Lisa Armbruster, Sustainable Beaches, LLC
  7. Discuss and Consider Florida Department of Environmental Protection Grant 05BA2, Modification #2, Mrs. Lisa Armbruster, Sustainable Beaches, LLC

View or download the entire agenda by clicking below.

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Foreclosures and what the government is going to do about it.

Thursday the Senate began a debate on taking measures to help curb foreclosures nationwide. Highlights for the bill:

  • Make loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration more widely available
  • Makes $4 billion available to communities to buy and rehabilitate foreclosed homes
  • Provides tax credits of $7,000 for buying a foreclosed home
  • Provides tax credits to homebuilders and businesses hurt by the housing downturn
  • Returning soldiers will be given an extra 6 months before foreclosure procedures could begin

This came after outcry that the government was more interested in bailing out the financial industry and less interested in the suffering American public. Many lawmakers are criticizing this bill saying that it isn’t going far enough.

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Notes from the April 2, 2008 TDC/CVB Marketing Committee Meeting

9 of the 11 committee members were present. Absent was Debi Knight and Paul Wohlford.

Indian Summer Festival

  • Two organizations interested in taking over operation of the festival made presentations. Both proposals are for Columbus Day Weekend, October 10-12, 2008.
  • Jeffrey Wolfe, from Multimedia Publishing, Inc. (http://www.multimediapp.com), would like to provide a “Family oriented food and entertainment venue, which focuses on wholesome family fun.” The festival would remain at Frank Brown Park and retain the name Indian Summer Seafood Festival. Wolfe’s vision includes a cooking demonstration stage, a kid-oriented stage that would include the involvement of Bay County Schools, and a music stage. The music stage would have a unique music theme each day, such as margaritiville, country, and big band. Although the possibility of a Jimmy Buffett concert was subsequently reported by WJHG, it is my understanding that Wolfe is only proposing a margaritiville-style concert. Multimedia listed their affiliations with the Niceville Mullet Festival, the Seabreeze Jazz Festival, and Blue Angels events in Pensacola; however, I believe that they only provided services to these events rather than acting as event promoter. The presentation was silent as to what financial support they would be requesting from the TDC/CVB; however, their handout did refer to “seed money” being used for operations. Although and exception was made recently for the FSU Flying Circus, it is TDC/CVB policy to only provide advertising support to special events. Wolfe anticipates a total attendance of 18,000.

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Solace Day Spa Opens in Pier Park – Grand Opening April 17

Press Release

Solace Day Spa & Salon Announces Grand Opening at Pier Park!

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (April 3, 2008) -Solace Day Spa & Salon-Aveda, now open for appointments in Pier Park, invites you to its Grand Opening Celebration on April 17, 2008, 5 – 9 p.m.

Guests are invited to join Solace Day Spa & Salon to celebrate the opening of their second location now in Panama City Beach. Enjoy an evening of beauty and wellness with complimentary mini-services, hors d’oeuvres, 20 percent off of Aveda products and up to $50 in free products with services booked that evening.  As the area’s newest full service salon and spa, you are invited to come and experience something more!

After the break, the rest of the press release.

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County to help local builders by waving impact fees

Impact fees, highly opposed by the building community when set in place in 2005 in Bay County, were all but eliminated this week. The fees that are associated with fire protection, parks and the library needs were cut in half and the transportation impact fees were dropped all together for the next 18 months. Not all commissioners agreed, but developers were happy.

On the Burnie Thompson show on Talk Radio 101 yesterday morning, this issue was discussed with Daryl Day of Dayco Construction and a couple of callers that disagreed with the impact fee reduction. More after the break.

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Proposed US Financial Overhaul

In an effort to help prevent future financial crisis, the Bush Administration has proposed a complete overhaul of the financial system currently in place.  Included in this plan is increasing the role the Fed plays in the financial market; “rather than checking on the health of a particular organization, the Fed’s focus would be on whether a firm’s or industry’s practices pose a danger to overall financial stability. . .”

Democrats say the administration needs to be focusing on relief right now, not attempting to prevent future problems.

“The Consumer Federation of America accused the Fed of failing to heed warnings about risky mortgages that triggered the meltdown in credit markets in the first place and questioned expanding its scope. ‘Giving the Fed new responsibility to monitor market risks will do nothing if it is not accompanied by much broader authority for the Federal Reserve to act than this proposal provides, and even more important, by a willingness for the Federal Reserve to use the authority it has.'” (more)