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Good morning!
The City of Fort Walton Beach is weighing an ordinance to allow cottage food carts and stands, following recent code complaints against home-based bakery operations like Austin’s Cookies. Fort Walton Beach Police will run DUI checkpoints during Labor Day week, and Niceville Tutoring’s owner is offering back-to-school advice as the team grows to 78 tutors.
PUBLIC SAFETY
Fort Walton Beach Police to run DUI checkpoints during Labor Day week
The Fort Walton Beach Police Department has scheduled several DUI checkpoints in the city to coincide with the Labor Day holiday week, part of a national effort to deter drunk driving.
The checkpoints are part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign.
“DUI checkpoints in Fort Walton Beach aren’t about making arrests; they’re about preventing them,” said Officer Seth Williams with the Fort Walton Beach Police Department. “Our goal is simple: to deter impaired drivers before they make life-altering decisions, and to keep all of our community safe.”
The Fort Walton Beach Police will conduct the following DUI checkpoints:
- Friday, Aug. 28, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Wright Parkway and Rogers Street.
- Thursday, Sept. 3, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Wright Parkway and Rogers Street.
- Saturday, Sept. 5, from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. at U.S. Highway 98 at Fort Walton Beach City Hall.
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GAMES
WordroW: August 3, 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.
SCHOOL
Niceville Tutoring owner offers back-to-school advice as team grows to 78 tutors
With the new school year about a week out, Niceville Tutoring owner Rebecca Beard says the most useful thing parents can do right now has nothing to do with textbooks. It is sleep.
In a back-to-school conversation with Get The Coast, the licensed teacher and mother of three shared practical advice for the weeks ahead:
- Reset the routine. Ease kids back onto a normal sleep schedule before the first bell.
- Watch the summer slide. It hits hardest for kids who were already behind, often within the first couple of weeks.
- Build habits early. Planners, organized folders and checking Focus set older students up.
- Know the warning signs. By six to nine weeks, falling grades or a defeated attitude mean it is time for help.
- Test prep hinges on Algebra 2. Timing the ACT or SAT starts there.
Now grown to 78 tutors, the company has also added $99 online ACT and SAT courses.
Families interested in tutoring can reach Niceville Tutoring by phone, text or the contact form on its website, nicevilletutoring.com, with staff answering 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Beard said two local team members spend time learning about each child before matching them with a tutor, and the company will tell a family when it is not the right fit.
“Is this in the best interest of the child? That’s always our bottom line,” she said.
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WEATHER
Today’s weather outlook
TODAY: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 7am. Sunny, with a high near 87. Northwest wind 5 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. New rainfall amounts less than a tenth of an inch possible.
TONIGHT: Mostly clear, with a low around 78. West wind 5 to 10 mph.
BUSINESS
Fort Walton Beach weighs allowing cottage food carts, stands amid code complaints
The City of Fort Walton Beach will consider an ordinance that would let home-based cottage food businesses sell goods from a cart or stand, a change that follows recent complaints from stand operators who say code enforcement has forced them to close.
On Wednesday, July 22, the operators of Austin’s Cookies, a Fort Walton Beach stand, said in a video posted to social media that a complaint had been filed and that code enforcement was shutting the stand down. The business shared the city’s current home-based business code, which bars any outside evidence of a home business beyond a single small nameplate.
- Around the same time, operators of similar stands in other area municipalities posted on social media that they had received comparable complaints. Fort Walton Beach appears to be the first area city to propose easing its rules.
The proposal, Ordinance 2227, would amend Section 5.01.01 of the city’s Land Development Code. That section now bars any outside evidence of a home-based business other than a single unlighted nameplate no larger than 1 square foot.
The Local Planning Agency is scheduled to consider the ordinance Aug. 6. The City Council is set to take it up on first reading Aug. 11 and second reading Aug. 25. If approved, the ordinance would take effect immediately upon the second reading and the mayor’s signature.
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Jared
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