DESTIN

26^th Annual Take-A-Kid-Fishing Day

Harbor Docks Charities is hosting the 26^th Annual Take-A-Kid-Fishing Day on Sunday, November 7, 2021. 

For the last 26 years, local children have spent a day fishing aboard 50 of Destin’s finest charter boats. There are 300 openings for kids that do not often get the chance to fish in the beautiful waters around Destin, including the Gulf of Mexico and Choctawhatchee Bay. 

• Off-duty policemen and firemen from Destin and Fort Walton Beach, as well as other Harbor Docks Charities Volunteers, will be the chaperones on these professional charter boats.

Reservations for this free fishing trip start on Friday, October 1 and will remain open until the slots are filled.

• This is for children from 7 to 13 years old.
• To make a reservation or get additional information call Harbor Docks at 837-2506, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday thru Friday and ask for Jackie. 
• Pre-registration is required.

Harbor Docks will assign a boarding time when the reservation is made.  The first group of approximately 150 kids will be signed in at 7am and the second group will be signed-in at 8am. All children will receive a t-shirt, rod and reel as well as a family fish fry.

Teachers, policemen and firemen who are interested in volunteering or chaperoning, please contact Jackie at Harbor Docks 837-2506.

PATRIOTIC

Local Cub Scout Pack wants every home to have an American Flag

Cub Scout Pack 527 (Fort Walton Beach) wants to ensure that every resident in Northwest Florida has an American flag displayed at their home during patriotic holidays.

• This is part of a unique fundraiser for the Pack and will allow the Scouts to enhance their education of the flag while they are serving the community.

The flag subscription is $50 per household, per year. Scouts will install the flag for each of the holidays throughout the year and remove them once the holiday is over. The flags will be all-weather fabric and will be lit at night by a solar-powered light.

• The flags will be a 3’x5′ flag displayed on a white pole.

“Pack 527 Scouts are committed to being an active member of the community and strive to live by the Scout Oath and Scout Law,” wrote the Pack in a press release.

Flags will be flown at subscriber’s homes on the following holidays:

• President’s Day
• Memorial Day
• Flag Day
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Veteran’s Day
• Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

Want to support these local Scouts with their goal? Contact ljpscubs527@gmail.com for more information.

LEAVE NO TRACE

49 divers cleaned up 284.3 lbs of trash from the pier

This past Sunday, nearly 50 divers from all over the area embarked on a sunrise cleanup at The Pier on Okaloosa Island.

Many of the divers on Sunday were involved with the cleanup that happened back in August as well.

“There’s a lot of people that come to fish here at The Pier,” said Alex Fogg, Coastal Resource Manager for Okaloosa County. “Unfortunately they lose lead, they lose hooks, they lose monofilament. Every once in a while, we need to get out there to make sure that we keep it clean up.”

When fishermen lose monofilament and hooks, a lot of times it’s on accident. In many cases, the debris can become an entanglement hazard for the creatures that hangout underneath the pier. It can also become a magnet for a lot of other monofilament and hooks to become tangled in, according to Fogg.

“We need to make sure we get out there every six months or so with a bunch of help from the community and other partners to make it happen,” he continued. “With the Leave No Trace initiative, you want to try and take everything out that you brought in, but unfortunately at the pier, in some cases you have to leave some monofilament and led hooks behind.”

• Fogg says that their job is to get out there and remove those items so that there is no trace of humans being there.

The divers went out with blue and yellow bags to collect the trash. These bags were donated by ‘Keep Florida Beautiful’ and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, who were huge partners for this cleanup.

Trash cleanups at the Okaloosa Island Fishing Pier have been happening for the last 6 years or so. This has mainly been spearheaded by the Gulfarium, Anglers and The Pier, who do about 4 dives each year.

• Now that the event is becoming more of a public event, Fogg says that they are getting partners from all over the area, along with community partners from as far away as Mobile, AL.

In total, 284.3 lbs of trash was removed. A few notable items included:

• A few tires
• Construction fence
• Car keys
• Wedding ring
• 4 fishing poles

🍻 After the event, all the participants enjoyed free beer from Destin Brewery!

NICEVILLE

ALDI grocery store coming to Niceville

Construction has been taking place for several weeks now along Marc Smith Blvd. in the City of Niceville, leading many to question what is being built. 

Well, an ALDI grocery store is coming to Niceville, FL.

The 20,442 sqft. store will be located at 1030 E John Sims Pkwy. That’s the vacant 2.07-acre lot located between Wendy’s and Jim ‘N Nick’s BBQ.

According to documents from the City of Niceville, the property owner (Valparaiso Realty) plans to re-plat the property and realign Marc Smith Boulevard to facilitate the ALDI development. 

The Concept Plan below illustrates the ALDI site layout, showing access to the site from E John Sims Pkwy and Marc Smith Blvd. The SR-20 connection will be permitted through the Florida Department of Transportation (DOT).

Niceville City Council ensured that the new ALDI grocery store would happen by approving a parking variance for the project. As it stands, grocery stores in the city are required to have 10 spaces per 1,000 sqft (147 spaces). ALDI states that they only need 95 spaces. 

• The 95 parking spaces are consistent with ALDI’s corporate parking standard to meet the parking needs for ALDI stores. This is also more consistent with the Special Exception of 4.5 spaces/1,000 sqft. that Walmart in Niceville was previously granted.
• According to Matt Zinke, Jenkins Engineering, if Niceville required 10 parking spaces to 1,000 square feet of commercial space, no grocery company would come in at that parking ratio. 

Back in February 2021, ALDI announced that they planned to open 100 new stores, along with 500 pickup sites, in 2021. This is part of their “coast to coast” expansion that included Florida. 

• Their new regional headquarters and distribution center in Loxley, AL. will serve up to 100 stores in Alabama, southern Georgia, Mississippi, the Florida Panhandle and Louisiana, according to Supermarket News. 

More information about ALDI stores can be found at their website here, https://www.aldi.us/en/ 

MO’ READS

What else we are reading

• INVASIVE PLANT: The Brazilian peppertree, an extremely invasive shrub/tree that can grow to “shade out” and otherwise compromise the growth of native plants, has been found on Eglin Air Force Base, and the installation is asking for the public’s help to weed it out, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News.

• RENTING POOLS: “Did you know people are now renting out their backyards and pools by the hour?,” wrote Destin City Council-member Prebble Ramswell. “I have requested the city investigate this commercial use in residential areas.” Read more on this story.