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Destin is pressing for an interlocal agreement with Okaloosa County on the new Holiday Isle state park – and showed up wearing green on Tuesday. An Okaloosa Technical College graduate lands an internship at the iconic Rolex 24 at Daytona, McCaskill & Company remembers co-founder Elizabeth Campbell, Okaloosa County approves the design phase for a 50,000-square-foot event center at Northwest Florida Fairgrounds, three Okaloosa soccer teams head to the Final Four—Niceville girls, Fort Walton Beach boys and Rocky Bayou boys—and Representative Patt Maney advances a second bill to the Senate with two more awaiting House floor votes.
SCHOOL
Okaloosa Technical College grad lands internship at iconic Rolex 24 at Daytona
Jackson Shirey has wanted to work for a professional race team for as long as he can remember.
- That dream pulled into focus recently when the Niceville High School graduate earned a spot in the SPARK Internship Program, landing him on pit road with Lone Star Racing during the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway.
The internship is the latest milestone in a path Shirey has been charting since high school. During his junior and senior years at Niceville High, he enrolled in the Automotive Technology program at Okaloosa Technical College.
After graduating high school, he returned to OTC as an adult student to finish the program, completing it as an ASE Master Certified Technician — a distinction reflecting advanced technical knowledge and hands-on expertise.
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GAMES
WordroW: February 19, 2026
WordroW is brought to you by Fort Walton Beach Chiropractic – keeping your mind sharp and your spine aligned, one game at a time.
Can you guess today’s 5-letter word in six tries?
WordroW is Get The Coast’s daily word puzzle featuring local words, places, and phrases from our community. You have six guesses to find the mystery word – green letters are correct and in the right spot, yellow letters are in the word but wrong position, and gray letters aren’t in the word at all.
LOCAL LOVE
McCaskill & Company remembers co-founder Elizabeth Campbell
For three decades, Elizabeth Campbell poured herself into the details — the marketing, the personal touches, the quiet work behind the scenes that helped a small jewelry kiosk in Seaside grow into one of the most respected family-owned jewelers in the Southeast.
- On Friday, the Destin community lost her. Campbell, 74, was struck by a vehicle during her morning walk in a residential neighborhood in Niceville. McCaskill & Company announced her passing Sunday, calling her “our Matriarch and the guiding light of what built McCaskill & Company.”
“Elizabeth was one of the brightest, wisest, kindest, most wonderful people I have ever known,” a friend of the family wrote in a tribute shared by the company. “She exuded joy and strength. She was a steel magnolia with a massive heart.”
Long before the jewelry world knew her name, Campbell had already built a career devoted to helping others. She earned master’s degrees in psychology and health education and spent 25 years working in community mental health as a licensed therapist and administrator — all while raising three children with her husband, Bill.
Bill Campbell founded McCaskill & Company in 1994, naming the store after his grandmother, Gussie McCaskill Campbell, who had sparked his love of gems and jewelry when he was a boy. He started with a small kiosk in Seaside, then moved to the Market Shops at Sandestin, where he was the sole employee. As the business grew, Elizabeth began handling administrative and marketing duties in the evenings — a role that steadily expanded.
PARKS+REC
Okaloosa approves design phase for 50,000-square-foot event center at Northwest Florida Fairgrounds
Okaloosa County commissioners unanimously approved moving forward with the design of a 50,000-square-foot multi-purpose event center at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Rigdon Center on Tuesday, the next major step in a years-long effort to transform the Northwest Florida Fairgrounds into a regional tourism and local event destination.
- The board voted 4-0 on both items — authorizing the design phase and appointing a six-member special selection committee to handle procurement. Commissioner Paul Mixon was absent.
Deputy County Administrator Craig Coffey told commissioners the proposed facility would feature a dividable main event hall of 35,000 to 40,000 square feet capable of seating 2,500 to 3,000 people, with 45-foot ceilings, durable floors, a mezzanine, an elevator and a hardened metal structure designed for hurricane resiliency.
“We’re trying to design that right as far as making it a very multiple-use facility that can accommodate a lot of different events,” Coffey said. “Married up with the existing space, it’s going to make us in a whole new market of clients we can attract and bring to our county.”
The new building would join roughly 50,000 square feet of existing renovated space, 20,000 square feet of storage and 15 acres of outdoor area on the Rigdon Center campus, which sits on more than 35 acres.
SPORTS
Three Okaloosa soccer teams headed to Final Four
Niceville girls soccer: For the first time in a decade, the Lady Eagles are Final Four bound after a dominant 3-0 shutout of defending state champion Bartram Trail. Michelle Melancon scored twice and Niceville’s defense continued its postseason shutout streak. The Lady Eagles, who have allowed just seven goals all season, will face Lakewood Ranch on Monday at Spec Martin Stadium in DeLand. (Read the full story)
Fort Walton Beach boys soccer: The Vikings are headed to their second straight Final Four after a 2-1 overtime win over Wakulla. Neither team scored in regulation before Brian Velazquez and Juanma Cotes found the net in overtime for Fort Walton Beach. The Vikings will face American Heritage next Thursday at Spec Martin Stadium in DeLand. (Read the full story)
Rocky Bayou boys soccer: The Knights made program history, claiming their first regional title with a 3-2 penalty-kick victory over University Christian. Dominic Ferguson converted the decisive PK after his earlier goal in regulation forced the tie. Rocky Bayou will face The Pine School on Friday at Lake Myrtle Sports Park in Auburndale. (Read the full story)
FROM THE STATE
Maney advances second bill to Senate, two more await House floor votes
State Rep. Patt Maney passed his second bill off the House floor this week as the 2026 legislative session enters budget negotiations.
- HB 351, which seeks to establish concurrent jurisdiction between the State of Florida and U.S. military installations, passed the House floor Tuesday and joins HB 199 in moving to the Senate. The veterans treatment court bill passed earlier in the session.
Two bills remain ready for House floor votes. HB 177, which would expand flexibility for the offices of criminal conflict and civil regional counsel when handling capital cases, and HB 227, which would clarify that individuals holding residential leases of 98 years or longer qualify for Florida’s homestead tax exemption, are both expected to be heard next week.
HB 139, which establishes guidelines and additional protection for state employees who report misconduct, is on the agenda Wednesday for its second committee. HB 447, which would make court hearings for mental health and substance abuse cases confidential, should go before the Health and Human Services Committee next week.
HB 613 is not moving forward.
PARKS+REC
Destin presses for interlocal agreement with county on new Holiday Isle state park
More than 20 speakers lined up Tuesday morning inside the Okaloosa County Commission chambers – nearly all of them from Destin and wearing green – to deliver a message about the state’s newly acquired waterfront property near Norriego Point: work with us.
- The City of Destin’s attorney, mayor, city manager and a quorum of its city council traveled to the county meeting in Shalimar to formally assert the city’s land use authority over the 4-acre parcel on Holiday Isle and urge commissioners to sign an interlocal agreement before any park plans advance.
Hours later, at a Destin City Council meeting that evening, council members voted 4-0 to place a rezoning of the property to conservation on their next agenda.
The property sits entirely within Destin’s municipal boundaries. Florida’s Board of Trustees approved the state’s nearly $84 million acquisition of the former condo development site in September 2025. Under the state’s approval language, Okaloosa County is designated to manage the new park “in collaboration with the City of Destin’s Norriego Point Beach Access and Park.”
But what “collaboration” looks like has become the central dispute for Destin.
Destin Mayor Bobby Wagner told commissioners the city delivered a proposed interlocal agreement to the county on Jan. 22 and questioned why it had not yet appeared on a commission agenda.
- “Why am I using my three public-comment-meeting-minutes to advocate on this behalf?” Wagner said. “We are supposed to be a team. We talk about partnership. We celebrate it when we’re at a ribbon cutting.”
Wagner asked commissioners to approve the interlocal agreement at their next meeting, saying it would simply put on paper what the county already promised to the state – collaboration with the city. Outside of his role as mayor, Wagner said he believes the county should “do the bare minimum, let nature be and allow this park to be what it was bought for – conservation.”
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