Lifeguards on Panama City Beach

The long and short of it is: Should we have lifeguards on our beaches in Panama City Beach? And, if so, why and how will we pay for it?

This comes up almost every year after drownings, and after the tragic deaths of two swimmers over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, it has come up again.

Do we need lifeguards? Could we have prevented the deaths over the weekend if a lifeguard system was in place?

I was listening to the Burnie Thompson Show the other morning and they were discussing that all the beach attendants/vendors are required to be lifeguard certified as part of the permitting process with them running a beach business. It was reported that many of them performed successful rescues over the weekend.

Continue reading “Lifeguards on Panama City Beach” →

Wild Heron Owners Offered Full Golf Membership at Shark's Tooth

Last August when St. Joe bought Shark’s Tooth Golf Course including a 10 acre practice facility, a 21,000 square foot clubhouse, a huge cart storage facility, a 4,000 square foot pro shop, four lighted HydroCourt Har-Tru tennis courts and the private 100? waterfront beach club property, golf memberships were no longer available to Wild Heron property owners.

This was a huge issue with existing owners because it no longer allowed they to purchase a private golf membership, including all future owners. So, if you purchased a homesite and built a home, you could not golf on the course that helps define your neighborhood. Stinks, right?

Continue reading “Wild Heron Owners Offered Full Golf Membership at Shark's Tooth” →

Panama City Beach Seafood, Wine and Music Festival

When Jeffrey Wolfe’s Multi-Media and Beach Events both showed no interest in promoting this year’s Indian Summer Music Festival, a group headed by Marketing Committee member, Jack Bishop, stepped forward to take of the event. They are wanting to rebrand it as the Panama City Beach Seafood, Wine and Music Festival.

Wondering the history of the name “Indian Summer Music Festival” – I actually like the idea of rebranding it to the Panama City Beach Seafood, Wine and Music Festival.

The two things that keep my wife and I from these festivals is the food and the cost. We used to love going to these things, but every time we’d go we’d pay a fortune for crappy food. It sounds like with this, we may still pay a fortune to get in, but at least the food will be good (hopefully).

Check after the break for the full presentation document.

Continue reading “Panama City Beach Seafood, Wine and Music Festival” →

2008 Bay County Tourist Development Council Strategic Plan

Today at 2pm at the Bay Point Marriott is a public workshop discussing the 2008 Bay County Tourist Development Council and Panama City Beach CVB Strategic Plan.

Below is a link to the rough draft outline.

Some of the key initiatives include:

Protect our key asset, the beach
- Seek additional funding from state and federal sources
- Develop additional beach maintenance, grooming, recycling and trash removal
- Work to enhance the overall beach experience
Develop Panama City Beach in a year-round tourist destination
- Look into an enhanced Sports Complex and convention center
- Entice sports promoters to hold sporting events here
- Work with Audubon Society to develop eco-tourism opportunities in Bay County
- Attract new family friendly entertainment venues that operate year-round
- Embrace a strong special events philosophy to assist existing events, foster new events, and attract additional events to the community

Continue reading “2008 Bay County Tourist Development Council Strategic Plan” →

Panama City Beach Needs more Branded Hotels

Kaoru Chikushi from HVS International wrote a piece on Panama City Beach that was published on HospitalityNet.org titled The Need for More Branded Hotels in Panama City Beach, Florida.

You should read it, but I’ll summarize it here.

Chikushi estimates that approximately 7 million visit Panama City Beach each year with around 250,000 spring breakers and 15,000 “snowbirds”. Again, not sure where the numbers came from, but 250,000 sounds much more realistic that the “millions” others in the media tout.

I was glad to see Chikushi references Panama City Beach as “once known as the Redneck Riviera” and describes our area as being in an “era of transformation.” Signaled by the new airport and Pier Park, she finds justification in Panama City being named the #1 place to own real estate in the next 5 years (the Business 2.0 article).

Continue reading “Panama City Beach Needs more Branded Hotels” →

Destinations around the country searching for tourists

“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” has been swapped for “do Vegas right now.” According to the New York Times, the slogan was swapped for something that had a stronger call to action.

It is no secret that the cost of living is going up in real time. With gas prices here quickly approaching 4 bucks a gallon, the cost to travel is also quickly becoming a huge deciding factor on where people are going, if they are going at all.

In the New York Times article, Urgency Replaces Subtlety in Summer’s Struggle for Visitors, the second destination mentioned as making a change in their advertising direction was Panama City Beach. Peter Yesawich was quoted, “There is a palpable nervousness on the part of everybody in the industry.” “We’ve seen some of these conditions individually,” Mr. Yesawich said, referring to problems like high fuel prices and reduced capacity on airlines, “but never all of them at once.”

Continue reading “Destinations around the country searching for tourists” →

Toll From Montgomery to Panama City to be public road

In the Moulton Advertiser it was reported that the toll road to travel between Montgomery and Panama City may revert to public ownership once the toll fees pay off the cost to construct. The road would be constructed and operated by a non-profit organization.

As reported, Luthor Strange, a Birmingham lawyer is pushing the project in hopes of seeing it come to fruition. He represents Focus 2000 of the Wiregrass, an organization that is made up of potential investors and local officials and businessmen in SE Alabama.

Strange beleives that there is a way to construct the highway by using public and private resources, although there is no federal or state funding available for this project.

Continue reading “Toll From Montgomery to Panama City to be public road” →

Panama City Least Drop in Median Sales Price in Florida

Comparing April 2007 and April 2008, Panama City had the least median sales price drop in the state of Florida. In April 2007, the median sales price was $192,200, in April 2008, the median sales price was $188,200, a 2% drop.

ORLANDO, Fla., May 23 /PRNewswire/ — Florida Realtors(R) statewide reported an upswing in existing home and condominium sales from March to April 2008, according to the latest housing statistics released by the
Florida Association of Realtors(R) (FAR). A total of 11,200 existing single-family homes changed hands in April, a 20 percent increase over the previous month when 9,330 homes sold. Existing condo sales statewide rose 21.6 percent, with 3,900 units sold in April compared with 3,207 condos in March.

The median price for existing condos increased slightly as well during the one-month period. The median price of an existing condo in April was $179,200, up 1.6 percent from March’s figure of $176,300.

In the latest National Association of Realtors(R) (NAR) housing outlook, Chief Economist Lawrence Yun predicts that home sales and prices throughout most of the nation will improve in the second half of the year, especially if access to mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac increases. “There are many reasons for people to get into the housing market today, and very few
reasons not to,” Yun says. “With the plentiful supply of homes for sale at affordable prices, interest rates approaching 40-year lows, and the strong track record of housing as a good long-term investment, conditions are ripe for buyers.”

Continue reading “Panama City Least Drop in Median Sales Price in Florida” →

Bootleg Barbeque Serves Local Flavor

Sorry EmeraldCoast.com and Jan Waddy. I know this is your story, and I’m totally copying it word for word on pcbdaily, but I wanted our readers to see this. I give full credit to the story and article to Jan Waddy and Florida Freedom Newspapers.

I love Bootleg Barbeque and was blown away at how good everything was and how well Josh and his staff treated us. The food was phenomenal.

The article:

PANAMA CITY BEACH – “I’ve been in the restaurant business since before I could drive,” said Josh Daugherty, owner of Bootleg Barbecue.

His first job was at “a little barbecue shack in Sandestin,” Pig’s Alley, which is still around.

“Fifteen years later, I was an executive chef at Santa Rosa Beach Club,” said Daugherty. After going the “fine dining route for many years,” he wanted to do “something a little more fun, barbecue.”

“It’s unpretentious,” said Daugherty, “but still has a lot of integrity to it.”

Continue reading “Bootleg Barbeque Serves Local Flavor” →

Cajun Fest is this weekend at Grand Panama

Cajun Fest actually started yesterday and will last through Sunday at the Grand Panama Resort in Panama City Beach.

There should be tons of jambalaya, crawfish and gumbo with Cajun Creole music.

Originally Cajun Fest was held at Hamiltons, and according to their web site, “it just disappeared”. I, for one, love cajun food, and will definitely be taking my kids there this weekend.

check after the break for the entertainment schedule.

Continue reading “Cajun Fest is this weekend at Grand Panama” →