DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, Florida — A four-person scramble golf tournament to benefit the Crestview Lady Bulldogs volleyball team is scheduled.

The tournament starts at 8 a.m. Aug. 27 at Blackstone Golf Course, 108 Blackstone Ln, DeFuniak Springs. The shotgun start is at 9 a.m.

Raffle prizes, an auction and awards — including longest drive and closest to pin — will be presented. 

Registration costs $55 per person ($45 for students), and $210 for four-person team ($180 for students). It includes a cart and lunch.

To register, contact Coach Ligia Willis or Assistant Coach Matt Potts, crestviewvolleyball@gmail.com or 360-550-5277.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview High golf benefit registration ends soon

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — The Department of Veterans Affairs Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System has scheduled a town hall for veterans who receive VA health care services.

Veterans receiving care from any GCVHCS facilities (Biloxi, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama, Pensacola, Eglin, and Panama City, Florida) are welcome to attend this open forum.

The forum is 5 p.m. Aug. 30 in the clinic's lobby, 100 Veterans Way, Eglin AFB.

VA’s goal is to ensure veterans, their families, and beneficiaries have the opportunity to be heard and have their health care concerns addressed by senior GCVHCS officials and/or subject-matter experts.

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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Eglin Veterans Affairs town hall set

CRESTVIEW — Citing the need to continue to invest in the long-term reliability of Northwest Florida’s energy infrastructure, Gulf Power has notified the Florida Public Service Commission that it may seek approval later this year for a price increase that would begin summer 2017.

“Securing our customers’ energy future requires a balanced energy mix that includes renewables and 24-7 energy sources like natural gas and low-cost coal that’s cleaner than ever,” said Stan Connally, Gulf Power chairman, president and CEO. “Energy security also includes reliability — since 2010, Gulf Power has improved its reliability by 40 percent and we must continue that trend of improvement.”

Gulf Power last requested an increase in 2013. In 2012, Gulf Power customers saw the largest price decrease in Gulf Power’s history, a decrease of nearly $10 per month for the typical customer. In January 2016, customers received a decrease that lowered the bill $3.71 per month.

“As we continue to secure future energy needs for our customers, we have to make sure our systems are resilient so that we can continue to deliver safe, clean and reliable energy and continue to meet the energy needs of our customers today, tomorrow and into the future,” Connally said. 

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Gulf Power rate increases possible

CRESTVIEW — It’s a hot summer in the Common Ground Community Garden, but thanks to an Okaloosa County commissioner, a caterer and a California manufacturer of shade sails, there’s a place in the garden to duck out of the sun.

The project started with a fall 2014 celebrity chef fundraiser dinner sponsored by Commissioner Nathan and Crystal Boyles, community garden founder Dr. Cathy Ward said.

The event, held at the family’s home west of Baker, featured cooking demonstrations by A Grand Elegance owner and chef Mary Richard.

While the fundraiser brought in enough to hoist two sails in the Main Street garden, the third came through a grant from the equipment’s San Marcos, California, manufacturer.

“The third shade sail was donated by Shazeebo’s ‘Stay in the Shade’ program, which selects one community non-profit nationally each   month for a free shade sail and hardware,” Ward said. 

“They were so pleasant to deal with,” she said. “When I saw about their program, I called them and they said, ‘Yeah, we can do this.’ Here we are in little Crestview and they did it for us. We are just so thankful for them.”

To help the community gardeners mount their new shade sails, Richard Eldridge of We Can Shade It in Fort Walton Beach drew up a set of technical plans.

This spring, team leader John Bouton and his able assistants Tray Shuford, Bob Benson and Joe Phelps felt like sailors as they hoisted masts into place and hauled lines to raise the sails.

“It’s made a huge difference to the people who work in the garden because they can finally get out of the sun,” Ward said.

And, as an added benefit, “The sails almost look like art!” she said.

Common Ground Community Garden welcomes new gardeners. Plots cost $50 per year. Financial assistance is available. Visit www.crestviewcommunitygarden.org for an application and information, or call Dr. Cathy Ward, 758-8481.

The community garden’s farmers’ market is every third Saturday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at 157 S. Main St. Produce and craft vendors and entertainers are welcome. There is no charge for vendor space.

WANT TO GARDEN?

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview community garden in the shade after fundraiser

PENSACOLA — NAS Pensacola Fleet and Family Support Center, with the National Naval Aviation Museum, will conduct the Bells Across America for Fallen Service Members ceremony.

The event — 11 a.m. Sept. 22 at the aviation museum — is a national program that celebrates the lives of fallen service members. The ceremony, conducted simultaneously across the nation, features the names of fallen heroes read aloud. For each name, a bell is struck one time. 

Guest speaker and filmmaker Jill Hubbs recently produced the documentary, “They Were Our Fathers,” in which she shares experiences of those whose dads died in Vietnam as well as her personal experience of losing her father. 

The Navy Gold Star Program serves families of all who died on active duty, regardless of branch of service or cause of death. The program serves survivors by providing support, information and services as long as they desire.

FFSC asks all Gold Star survivors to participate in the event and is actively soliciting names of those in the local area whose survivors wish them to be recognized during the ceremony. 

Anyone whose family member died while on active duty can contact Kathy Sims, 452-4277 or Kathy.sims@navy.mil. Provide the name, rank and date of death of the decedent and the Gold Star family relationship.

A photograph will also be requested, to be respectfully displayed during the event.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Gold Star survivors sought for memorial

CRESTVIEW — Need something to do this weekend? Check out these fun events:

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 3 things to do this week in Northwest Florida

PENSACOLA — With shrinking habitats and other threats, some coastal and migratory birds are declining in population.

Dips for some species, like the common night hawk and Golden-winged and Cerulean warblers, are puzzling scientists, while others race to save the beach-nesting snowy plover from falling victim to Mother Nature’s coastal forces, predators and the public.

Three Gulf Power-supported Power of Flight grants will provide Operation Migration, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and Manomet Inc. researchers the data, tools, strategies and community-based stewardship actions essential to protecting coastal birds.

Researchers will focus on restoring and maintaining the ecology of coastal bird species spanning Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, and gather critical data to better understand how to focus their conservation efforts.

The latest round of grants will build on the success of the Power of Flight program, which, since 2003, restored and enhanced more than 476,000 acres of high-priority habitat for bird species, including the red-cockaded woodpecker, northern bobwhite quail, coastal birds and others.

To date, 88 Power of Flight-supported projects have been implemented across the region served by the Gulf Power and the other Southern Company system’s electric utility subsidiaries.

Operation Migration will conduct monitoring and outreach efforts in support of conserving the critically endangered whooping crane and building a self-sustaining population in the Southeast.

Activities include tracking and monitoring young-of-year cranes following their release, as well as adult cranes in the population during north-south migration flights and spring nesting activities.

The grant also allows conducting web outreach to increase general awareness and provide migration progress updates.

This will be the first time in four years the birds won’t be escorted to St. Marks National Wildlife Preserve near Tallahassee by an ultra light aircraft. For that reason, the Gulf Power service area and west to the Mississippi border and east to the Atlantic coast will be monitored for the migrating birds.

The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute will map the distribution, abundance, timing and habitat affiliations of birds during the spring and fall migrations around the Gulf Coast, including in the Gulf Power service area, using weather radar and citizen-collected data.

Conservation planners and policymakers will use resulting maps as decision-support tools to develop Gulf Power-wide conservation priorities for North America’s migratory birds.

Manomet Inc. will work with federal and state agencies and nongovernmental organizations to develop a framework to achieve long-term conservation and recovery goals for targeted species of coastal waterbirds across the Gulf Coast.

The work will build on the Atlantic Flyway Shorebird Conservation Initiative Business Plan, American Oystercatcher Recovery Business Plan and the recently completed Florida Beach-Nesting Bird Plan. The framework will create strategies with associated actions and costs to guide coastal shorebird and waterbird conservation projects throughout the Gulf Coast region over the next decade.

Audubon Florida is part of the Manomet program.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Gulf Power grants support coastal, migratory bird conservation (VIDEO)

CRESTVIEW — There’s a reason commercial unmanned aerial vehicle operators must be licensed pilots.

A recent near-collision between a sightseeing helicopter and a drone over Crab Island illustrates the point, said Mario Werth, owner, operator and chief pilot of Advanced Aerial Operations in Crestview.

4 THINGS TO CONSIDER

“What most people miss is a pilot next to you to take responsibility,” Werth said, adding operators of many aerial imaging services don’t understand the technicalities that come with flying drones.

These considerations include:

●Air temperature: “The hotter it is, the thinner the air, the poorer the flight time,” Werth said.

●Heating the battery: Drones should have internal battery heaters to extend flying time.

●Decreasing rotor rate when descending. Some pilots damage their vehicles by speeding up the rotor rate thinking it will slow the descent. Actually, it creates greater “rotor wash,” or air disturbance, which gives the rotors less air to “grab,” Werth said.

●Scan air operations scanner radio: “We’re in the middle of military and commercial flight paths,” Werth said.

DRONES’ NUANCES

“People say, ‘Why do I need to know all this? It’s just a little toy!’” Werth said. “But it’s not when you go commercial.”

The near mishap in Destin shows that “you always have to give way to manned aircraft,” Werth said. “The Destin drone operator came within 50 feet of a sightseeing helicopter. He could have an $11,000 fine. That can bankrupt his company.”

It could’ve been even worse. “If that had hit in the tail rotor, it would have been a fatality,” Werth said.

He knows — in addition to operating drones, Werth is a licensed helicopter pilot, specializing in the bubble-canopied Bell 47, “the ‘M*A*S*H’ helicopter,” he said, referring to the TV series.

MONEY SAVER

Rather than charge clients big bucks to survey properties by helicopter, Werth can do it for a fraction of the cost with his FAA-registered, licensed and insured Phantom drone.

Clients include real estate agents who enhance sales opportunities with aerial video of listings. A Baker farmer saved “several grand” after Werth flew an aerial survey of his crops before he did a blanket insecticide spray of the entire field; the video showed suspected crop damage was in just a few areas and was much less expensively addressed.

“This technology can be a real asset and money-saver for small farmers,” state Sen. Greg Evers, a Baker farmer, said.

Equally impressed was John DiGiacomo, a government contracting specialist at the University of West Florida College of Business, who sees potential for working with Werth’s company.

Werth’s efforts aren’t all aimed at expanding his business; he volunteers with area robotics programs, such as Davidson Middle School’s, to create drone education programs.

“I love seeing progress in these programs,” Werth said. “When I can teach a student until he can teach me something, that’s the best.”

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Drones are assets, but be careful, Crestview pilot says (VIDEO)

CRESTVIEW — Crestview High School has cancelled Meet the Bulldogs Night.

A spokesperson said the field is too wet to safely play the middle school scrimmages that were set for Aug. 12.

The event will not be rescheduled due to the varsity Kick Off Classic and all three middle schools beginning spring football schedules next week.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview High School cancels Meet the Bulldogs Night