City Council members will discuss directing staff to amend the city’s land development code, which would make cottage food establishments allowable home businesses.
Some of the additions to the code, if passed, will include rules pertaining to location, size of additional structures and signage, operating hours, parking, and entry and exit.
The move comes after cottage food stand talk has heated up around the area. In Fort Walton Beach, the council voted 5-1 on Aug. 11 on an ordinance to allow cottage food businesses to sell products from a cart or stand.
Animal control agreement
Following approval by the Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners on Aug. 18, the city of Crestview will have a chance to approve the same agreement, allowing it to run animal control services in north Okaloosa.
The agreement provides a 50-50 cost share between the county and the city, with the county covering 65 percent of the cost associated with renovating a new building for animal control use.
The city will provide officers and vehicles.
The move follows county officials’ decision to start their own animal control operation this summer after the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society declined a new contract, ending a partnership that lasted for more than 20 years.
Sewer utility rate change
Crestview City Council will also discuss a planned 1.3 utility multiplier for sewer-only customers.
According to meeting documents, the city’s utility fund is operated as an enterprise fund and should have a rate structure that is fair, just and equitable to all users.
With the 1.3 multiplier, there is a projected increase to the utility fund of $171,000 in 2027, increasing each year to $320,000 in 2035. These additional revenues, according to meeting documents, will improve its ability to make improvements and maintain the utility infrastructure.
Vaughn came up U.S. 127 at 2:35 p.m. and crossed the line. That was the last one. He had been picking off counties, off and on, for about 40 years.
He saved Defiance County for the end on purpose, and only because he liked the sound of it. Vaughn said he had driven that part of Ohio plenty of times and purposely bypassed the county every time.
John Vaughn, right, stands with Defiance County Commissioner Dana Phipps, who presented Vaughn with a proclamation marking July 18, 2026, as “John Vaughn Day.”
“I was going to save it for last,” he said.
Afterward, the county visitors bureau brought him in, along with the mayor of Defiance and a group from the Defiance County Commission.
“They shook my hand, fed me some cake, fed me some cookies and talked to me about travel for an hour,” Vaughn said. Then they handed him a proclamation making July 18 “John Vaughn Day” in Defiance County, Ohio.
Vaughn grew up in northern Arkansas, in a family that did not go anywhere. His senior trip was to Branson, Missouri, 10 miles north of the state line.
He was living in West Texas, working as a fleet manager, when his passion for travel began. He was bored one night and had a one-page map of the interstate highway system.
John Vaughn stands in front of a sign marking the Arctic Circle while traveling on the Dalton Highway in Alaska.
“I though, man, there’s Des Moines. What’s it like up in Des Moines? There’s Detroit. What’s it like in Detroit,” he said.
Vaughn said he just started driving. He did not have money and started one county at a time whenever there was time. He began in 1984 and finished every mile of the interstate system 28 years later in 2012.
Then the U.S. highways. Then the counties, on a spreadsheet, with mapping software, under rules he made up and stuck to. One direction per highway in a calendar year. Daylight only.
A county is only counted when physically in it.
“Four wheels in, or two feet in, we counted it,” he said. “You get a flyover, that doesn’t count.”
John and Sue Vaughn stand in front of a marker in Rugby, North Dakota, marking the geographic center of North America.
Somewhere in his travels, Vaughn found the Extra Miler Club on Facebook, a group of people essentially doing the same thing. Going to every county, ballparks, national parks and high points. They hold a convention every year.
“It’s a bunch of the most unusual people you’ll ever see,” Vaughn said. “They get in one room in some convention center somewhere and they meet for one hour a year.”
This year that hourlong convention was in Fort Wayne, Indiana, about 40 miles from the Defiance County line. Which is how Vaughn’s welcoming committee came to be.
Vaughn said Alaska was the hardest part. He said he made five trips. One was solo, right after he retired: Key West to the Arctic Ocean, dropping his wife, Sue, off in Crestview on the way through, then north through Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon and onto the Dalton Highway, a 414-mile, mostly unpaved road running alongside the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
He stopped in Coldfoot, where the hotel is trailers hooked together and mostly used by oil field crews.
John and Sue Vaughn stand in front of Denali, the highest point in the United States, while traveling through Alaska.
“The room was about as wide as that couch,” he said, pointing at his couch in his living room.
At Deadhorse, the northern end of the highway, they gave him a number instead of a key. He kept hauling his laptop out to the truck and back every time he walked down the hall to a shared bathroom.
The rest of Alaska he and Sue did together. The trip entailed village airstrips with a shed and a runway. Bears catching salmon at Brooks Camp. A ferry through the southeast panhandle that makes stops 30 minutes at a time.
“People use that ferry system to get to and from work,” Sue said. “Because there are no roads.”
The Vaughns married in 2007, and that is when counting got more serious. Early on, they used their own cars. Sue explained that John had a daughter attending the University of Southern Mississippi and the driving back and forth “burned up” several cars in the process.
“After that, we decided we would do rentals,” she said.
They tried to travel with as few expenses as possible, staying at cheap hotels when possible. Breakfast and ice cream were often at McDonald’s, most afternoons, which is how they came to be idling in a Nebraska neighborhood watching a woman throw a man’s clothes onto the street.
In upstate New York, they saw a park using toilets as flower planters. A coffin was just sitting on a front porch in Indiana. Their travels resulted in a photo archive with 30,000 pictures.
When you ask John Vaughn what 3,143 counties taught him, he points back to what makes America great in the first place.
“No matter where you go, people are people,” he said. “There’s all kinds of different ways to live life. There’s all kinds of different ways to make a living, but people manage to make a living wherever.
“I’ve seen America, because I think I really have,” he added. “And I think that America is a beautiful, beautiful country.”
Sue has about 500 counties left before she matches the same milestone as her husband. They have not yet decided where she will finish; however, Clinch County, Georgia, is in the running, mostly for the joke.
Going before the City Council on Aug. 10 as Ordinance 2032, the proposal would move land currently zoned as single-family low density to planned unit development. The land is the site of Harrisburg Estates, which is located south of Old Bethel Road.
The zoning change allows the developers to pair residential, commercial, and some civic uses within a single plan. It also allows easier approvals.
Currently, the new development is in Phase II of a four-phase project.
Staff told the board the only change to the project are the setbacks. The developer is asking for 20 feet in front, with nearly 8 feet on the sides and 25 feet in the rear, in place of a 30-foot setback now required.
Current R-1 zoning standards require setbacks of 30 feet in the front, 10 feet on the sides and 25 feet in the rear.
Staff said slopes on many of the lots would leave little room for usable yard under the current rule and noted the requested dimensions are close to what was used during Phase I, which was built with a 25-foot front setback.
The city received a letter from a nearby resident who opposed the rezoning. No member of the public spoke during the meeting.
Board member Larry Metlock asked whether the subdivision would have an entrance on Old Bethel Road, saying that access point just south of where the road curves could create a hazard.
Staff replied that the approved layout only shows entrances on Brenda’s Way and Ridge Lake Road.
According to livabl.com, all of the homes are currently for sale. Each home covers around 2,000-square-feet, offers four to five bedrooms, and two to three bathrooms. Homes range in price as well, from the highest being $360,900 to $269,900.
The homes are built by Express Homes, based out of Austin, Texas.
The recommendation passed unanimously and will be presented at the next Crestview City Council meeting on Aug. 10.
Gordon Martial Arts instructor Master Amanda Sanders is the creative mind behind the market. What started out as a way for her own children to grow their business has grown into a communitywide event for others to gain their own experience.
“So, my youngest was 16 at the time, and she wanted to get into photography. Now, she has her own licensed business because we started the market, and she got that confidence. It was just important to me to keep it going so other kids could see the different options as far as being an entrepreneur, and to also make mistakes, to learn how to talk to people, to learn how to run a business, handle money, the things that is kind of challenging as an adult to learn,” Sanders said.
The selling of their product is one thing, but kids also go through the entire creative process of brainstorming an idea and then creating it months before the market is held. Products ranged from paintings and 3D-printed gadgets to baked goods.
“Some of these kids put in months. You’re talking about two to three months to six months. I have kids that bake, so within the first week before the market, they’re spending all their time, day in and day out, preparing for it. So, it’s a lot of work for these guys,” Sanders said.
Kids from all around the Florida Panhandle participate in the Kids Entrepreneur Market, providing a plethora of products for members of the community to purchase.
“On the kids’ side, it’s phenomenal because we usually have anywhere from 80 to 120 kids show up with all their small businesses,” Sanders said. “We get kids from Fort Walton, Niceville, I had people come from Pensacola to participate.”
The market has continued to grow each year, with new and creative products making their way to Gordon Martial Arts’ parking lot, but Sanders wants to cast a broader net across Florida kids.
“One of the things that I truly want for the market is to reach at risk youth kids. So, I want to get enough sponsorships to eventually buy a bunch of different kits that the kids can make and have a day where sponsors from the community, business owners, and community leaders come out and meet one of the kids, and they do the crafts together. And then they come out and sit with them and help them run a booth and help them see that. So ideally, that’s what we’d like to expand it to, to have every kid,” Sanders said.
Thanks to all the sponsors, the market was free to any kids who wanted to attend. All young entrepreneurs received free shirts and free food provided by Killa Kones as they spent the day growing their small business.
Aubrey Kelley is a reporter for the Crestview News Bulletin.
On Saturday, July 11, the swords — and crêpes — will fly at the Crestview History Museum, located in the historic Bush House at 198 South Wilson St. as the tricolore flutters overhead. And it’s free!
The occasion is the celebration of France’s National Day, better known in the U.S. as Bastille Day. As a tactical maneuver, the June 14, 1779, storming of the Bastille prison fortress in Paris was something of a flop.
Local chef Mary Richard demonstrates crêpe making for visitors to last year’s Bastille Day celebration.
Revolutionaries expecting to liberate the fortresses’ prisoners found only seven inmates, but the siege quickly became a lasting and endearing symbol of the abolition of the monarchy and the founding of the French Republic. The holiday continues to stir hearts throughout France.
At the Bastille Day Celebration, visitors can meet members of the Sister City Program, learn about the city’s 31-year-old relationship under Sister Cities International with Noirmoutier-en-l’Île, and view a museum display about the congenial island community off the west coast of France.
Members of Unity Fencing Academy will demonstrate the time-honored sport of sword fighting and explain its elegant moves. Visitors may try on the protective gear and take a few practice thrusts, just like the renowned Three Musketeers of Alexandre Dumas’s famous 1844 novel.
Past Bastille Day French food samples include macrons (top tier) and éclairs (bottom.
In the kitchen, samples of various French foods will be served, while the Sister City Program’s favorite chef, Mary Richard, will demonstrate the art of flipping a crêpe and searing it to perfection. Try a sample, smeared with the deliciousness of several fillings, including chocolatey Nutella.
“French food is rightly renowned for its delicious taste, but also for the art of creating and presenting it,” Mrs. Richard said. “We’re looking forward to sharing it with our visitors.”
The June 11 celebration of Bastille Day and all its French culture runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Crestview History Museum, 198 South Wilson St. Admission is free. The celebration is presented by the Crestview Area Sister City Program and the Crestview History Museum.
Allison wants one more term of service for the citizens of Crestview.
“One of my motivations is to give back to a community that gave so much to me growing up,” she said.
Allison grew up in Crestview and has fond memories of playing ball at Twin Hills Park. Her mother graduated from Crestview High School in 1954, and her grandmother worked at the concession stand at the Fox Theatre in downtown Crestview.
“I graduated high school here in 1976 and OW (Okaloosa-Walton Community College) in 1978,” Allison said. “The only time I left was to go to the University of Florida for two years. I graduated in 1980.”
Allison retired from the Florida Department of Corrections with just over 27 years of service working in the probation and parole department. She has a master’s degree in religious education. Her husband is retired military and a retired teacher from Crestview High School.
With all of that history, they are rooted here.
“I don’t do politics,” is what she told friends who approached her about the council seat when Blocker resigned. But she realized it was a way for her to give back to her community.
What did they see in her to suggest the position? “I think my authenticity. I am who you see I am — there are no facades,” Allison said. “I am honest and I love the city and the people of the city.”
She went to her pastor first and then discussed it with a close circle of people. They said it was the right move for her.
“Serving the people of Crestview and getting these projects done has been a blessing,” Allison said.
Since Allison joined the council, the city has purchased the old ROC and renovated it into a recreation center, added improvements to the RC track, renewed the City of Crestview Fire Department’s chaplaincy program and moved forward with plans for a new ladder truck.
But her favorite moments on the council haven’t necessarily been while sitting on the dais. Her heart is with first responders, so any time she gets to spend with them is a bonus.
“One of the highlights is when I rode with Santa on the fire truck for the Christmas parade,” Allison said. “It was so much fun. Jessica (Leavins) and I have also worked with the ladies for May Day. I have enjoyed getting to know those ladies. It has been such an honor and pleasure to come alongside them.”
Allison says the most challenging item coming for the City of Crestview is a budgeted plan forward if the governor’s bill to increase homestead exemptions to $250,000 over two years passes by the voters in the November election. It will require a 60% supermajority approval by voters.
“We (the city staff) are already making preparations,” Allison said. “Every department across the board has to show this is a want and not a need.”
Allison believes the city will be ready for whatever decision the voters make.
“We are here to support our citizens,” Allison said. “So, if that is what they want, we will figure it out. Adjustments will have to be made, but we will do our best to keep the services we have at the level they are at if we can do that.”
And speaking of giving back, Allison also volunteers at the Saving Grace Women’s Home in Baker. She has served them for the past five years and is now the Christian education director for the organization. And at home? She and her husband have two teenagers they are fostering.
Her campaign slogan is, “Serving with heart, leading with integrity, rooted in Crestview.”
City Manager Jessica Leavins said other cities in neighboring counties have already drafted similar ordinances, which the city’s attorney is now reviewing to ensure they comply with state law.
“It seemed like there was a general consensus…that is not a development direction we want to go in,” Leavins said.
The ordinance is allowed under SB 484, which was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May. The law allows local governments to enact ordinances banning the development of data centers and establishing guidelines to ensure water and power costs are not offset by the public.
Currently, Santa Rosa County and Walton County are also discussing bans on data centers, with Santa Rosa County considering a 12-month moratorium.
The proposed ordinance will not appear on the July 15 agenda, as that meeting will be reserved for a budget workshop. The ordinance is next expected to be discussed Monday, Aug. 10.
The city acquired the facility, known as the ROC, in December 2025. The building includes a gym and outdoor pool and will be renamed the Crestview Recreation Center.
Leavins told the council the city’s parks and recreation department lacks the certification and experience needed to run the pool.
Crestview High School swim coach David Hernandez works his team out during a recent practice. The Bulldogs have 45 swimmers in the program requiring them to split the team for practice.
“We are not suited to maintain the pool facility,” she said. “We have partnered with an individual who does have the appropriate certifications and is very used to working with and procuring lifeguards and scheduling swim time.”
Hernandez, who has been the head coach of the Crestview High swim team since 2022 and is a former Navy diver, has previously maintained the pool for several years. Under the proposed contract, he would handle scheduling, swim classes, free swim times, member payments, pool maintenance and staffing.
Leavins described the arrangement as a temporary measure while the city builds out employees to manage the facility. The city said the contract will carry no financial impact to taxpayers, as fees would be covered by pool revenue.
The final contract will return to the council after negotiations are complete. The motion was made by Councilwoman Dusty Allison with a second by Councilman Shannon Hayes.
Under the memorandum of understanding, DAN will provide $10,000 annually over five years, for a total of $50,000, to support the SS United States project and related dive safety and marine conservation initiatives. The county retains discretion over how the funds are spent, with eligible uses including safety infrastructure, a potential visitors center and public education.
Alex Fogg, the county’s natural resources chief, framed the agreement as much about expertise as dollars.
“What’s most important about this potential partnership is the knowledge that they bring,” Fogg said. “They have dozens of medical doctors highly trained in hyperbaric medicine who can provide guidance to our facilities, to our staff — and guidance on establishing a hyperbaric chamber in the destination, because they’ve done it worldwide.”
The region has no hyperbaric emergency treatment facility. The nearest is in Mobile, Alabama; if that facility is unavailable, injured divers must be transported to Orlando. Fogg said the county’s public safety department has cut response time from injury to treatment from more than 12 hours to roughly six, which he said was significant progress but not a substitute for a local chamber.
“That still doesn’t satisfy the issue of us not having hyperbaric treatment facilities,” Fogg told the board.
Hyperbaric cylinders exist at facilities in Destin, Niceville and Fort Walton Beach, but commissioners noted those units are not configured for dive accident emergencies. Fogg said the county has pursued partnerships with local hospitals and private practices without reaching a final agreement.
“We’ve gotten very close, but we still aren’t quite there yet,” Fogg said. “We’re hopeful that in the coming months we will have a solution.”
Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel, who said she has researched the hyperbaric issue at length, welcomed the DAN agreement as meaningful momentum.
“We really need to work this out if we are to be the nation’s greatest diving destination,” Ketchel said. “I applaud you for taking this step.”
Commissioner Paul Mixon floated an additional proposal: using tourism dollars to seed a startup grant program for businesses willing to establish a qualifying hyperbaric facility locally, without directing funds to any specific operator.
“I think there’s plenty of things we could do to be more aggressive in helping the industry come here,” Mixon said, adding he hoped the concept could be taken up during the county’s upcoming budget workshop.
Ketchel called the grant idea promising but noted funding is only part of the challenge.
“It’s not getting the facility up — it’s the management of a 24/7 operation, all the logistics, beyond the funding,” Ketchel said.
The memorandum of understanding also calls for a DAN-provided commemorative plaque to be affixed to the SS United States before deployment.
Fogg said the county has also been working with PADI Worldwide, a major dive training agency, to push safety information to certified divers, dive shops and charter operators ahead of the ship’s reefing.
“Sometimes a diver gets certified, maybe they haven’t been diving in a while, and they may get complacent,” Fogg said. “Trying to prevent those accidents is really important.”
The resolution, sponsored by Commissioner Trey Goodwin, passed in a 4-1 vote, with Commissioner Paul Mixon dissenting, after commissioners rejected a proposed amendment that would have narrowed the ban’s application outside municipal boundaries.
The resolution targets two categories of devices: traffic infraction detectors, commonly known as red-light cameras, and speed detection systems deployed in school zones. According to county officials, the county does not currently have either type of camera on county rights of way, but staff have received requests from cities to install them there.
Goodwin said the issue was prompted in part by a ruling from Broward County Judge Steven DeLuca, who found the statutory framework governing traffic camera citations violates constitutional due process. DeLuca ruled in a case involving the city of Sunrise that the camera enforcement system improperly shifts the burden of proof onto the accused.
“The cameras don’t identify a person, they identify a vehicle,” Goodwin said. “Instead of the government bearing the burden to prove the driver, it puts the onus on the accused to prove their innocence, and that violates all fundamental principles of procedural due process.”
He said the ruling does not directly bind the county but called it a likely preview of more legal challenges to come. The resolution applies only to county rights of way and does not affect camera programs operated by municipalities on their own roads or rights of way.
The board also said the resolution is unrelated to license plate reader systems, commonly known as Flock cameras, used by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.
During public comment, speakers offered differing views.
Okaloosa resident Tim Bryant told the board he supported the ban, arguing camera-based enforcement bypasses Florida’s driver’s license point system, meaning dangerous drivers are not identified or removed from the road.
“The cameras don’t make us safer, they just collect money,” Bryant said.
Crestview Mayor JB Whitten, who voted against red-light cameras in the past, said he supports speed zone cameras in school zones despite his general opposition to traffic cameras. Whitten said he approved the speed cameras after data showed persistent speeding near schools.
Whitten said a 30-day test phase at a middle school on Old Bethel Road recorded 847 violations, including one driver clocked at 56 mph in a 20-mph zone. He also said 89.1% of drivers issued tickets last year received only one, suggesting the cameras were changing driving behavior.
“The intent is not to make money, the intent is to change driver’s patterns,” Whitten said. He urged the board to vote against the resolution or, at minimum, to table it until the state determines whether to appeal DeLuca’s ruling.
During deliberations, Mixon proposed a “friendly amendment” that would have restricted the ban to county roads outside municipal boundaries, arguing the county should respect the home rule authority of its nine municipalities. Goodwin rejected the amendment, saying the existing resolution already preserved city and state authority over their own roads.
“I will live and die on due process,” Goodwin said. “It is dangerous to use safety as an excuse to override our Constitution.”
The board also noted past incidents in which private vendors working for municipalities placed cameras on county rights of way without board approval, requiring Public Works staff to remove and store the equipment after vendors did not respond to removal requests.
