Chance Phillips was charged with violation of a protective order, a second or subsequent battery offense and possession of methamphetamine.
Deputies responded to a woman calling about Phillips, who had arrived at her residence with a gunshot wound in his leg following an altercation with his wife.
According to the report, Phillips arrived at his wife’s residence in violation of a protective order before an argument started, during which Phillips threw and held his wife on the floor. After getting out from under him, she grabbed a firearm and shot him in the leg while he wrestled for the weapon.
He left in his truck, arriving at the caller’s residence before being taken by ambulance to Fort Walton Destin Hospital for medical treatment. A K-9 search of his truck revealed a bag with 5 grams of methamphetamine.
Ordinance 2033, which would ban the development of large load centers from all land use categories in Crestview’s city limits, is up for its second reading, a public hearing and approval at Monday’s meeting.
The ordinance echoes concerns heard from residents in both Crestview City Council and Okaloosa County Commission meetings in past months about the ethics of data centers, the burden they may impose upon local electrical and water resources and community well-being.
It follows the Okaloosa County Commission affirming its decision to implement more permanent legislation governing the development of data centers in the county at its Sept. 15 meeting, voting down a 12-month moratorium backed by Commissioners Paul Mixon and Sherri Cox.
Although no data centers have been proposed in Crestview, Ordinance 2033 would prevent their future development within the city. It would not impact those proposed just outside the city.
The consent agenda
The consent agenda, which bundles noncontroversial issues for collective approval, includes annual renewals of the library’s interlocal agreement and a mutual aid agreement between the Crestview Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The interlocal agreement allows the Crestview Public Library to share information and materials with other libraries in the county through the Okaloosa County Public Library Cooperative. The agreement also allocates over $145,000 in funding to the library for operations, staff salaries and new materials.
The memorandum of agreement between CPD and the DEA underlines a partnership in which CPD has an officer who is also deputized by the DEA. According to Police Chief Stephen McCosker, the program has allocated over $75,000 in seized drug money to CPD’s drug enforcement operations.
Mayor Whitten proclaims breast cancer awareness week
Mayor JB Whitten will approve a proclamation that the week of Oct. 11 will be “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Week” in Crestview, in recognition of Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of the Emerald Coast.
The proclamation also encourages residents to wear pink and participate in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk on Oct. 17 at the Northwest Florida State College Niceville campus.
The Josie Music Awards, which have been awarded in Nashville since 2015, recognize independent musicians across the world. It marks the second year in a row that Davis has been awarded the honor.
He also received the inaugural Honor & Harmony Award, which recognizes veteran musicians.
Davis enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1997 before returning to college and commissioning as an officer in the U.S. Army in 2006. He served as an infantry officer until a deployment to Sadr City, Iraq, left him with combat-related injuries and led him to medically retire in 2017.
Alongside his service in the armed forces, Davis said he’s always been a musician. He was born and raised in New Orleans, where he learned to play drums and guitar.
Inspired by the likes of Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings and the storytelling of Gordon Lightfoot, he said he channels the weight of his service and experiences into the deep, gritty sound of outlaw country music.
Outlaw country came about in the 1970s, pioneered by artists like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and David Allan Coe, with a raw, rock ’n’ roll sound that rivaled the clean-cut sound of contemporary Nashville.
“My background growing up – I played heavy metal and hard rock and all that, so the transition was kind of natural,” he said. “I also like the fact that its more geared towards storytelling – just kind of speaking the truth that people need to hear and really just portraying life like it’s supposed to be.”
Davis has been a full-time singer-songwriter for the last four years, playing shows across the Gulf Coast. He was notified that he’d been nominated for six awards over the summer, and despite winning Outlaw Country Artist of the Year in 2025, he said he had only gone to Nashville expecting a fun trip with friends.
“It’s really phenomenal, like I’m still shocked and kind of processing everything,” he said. “You know, now I’m a two-time Josie Music Award winner.”
As of now, Davis said he plans to put his head down and get back into the studio, write new songs and continue performing in Crestview and beyond.
Okaloosa Lane is a collector road east of Twin Hills Park, connecting subdivisions along East Redstone Avenue to U.S. Highway 90. Traveling north on Okaloosa Lane as it stands requires drivers to turn left onto East Chestnut Avenue and perform a harsh, greater-than-90-degree right turn to continue north.
According to the report from Public Works Director Scott Bitterman, “the configuration is not ideal as it introduces a safety issue as well as multiple stops at intersections.”
Bitterman requested approval for a task order not to exceed $181,986 for HDR Engineering Inc., which is already under contract for surveying and design services for the project, to perform CEI services.
District 1 Commissioner Paul Mixon motioned to approve the task order with a comment, and District 3 Commissioner Sherri Cox seconded.
“This is primarily a residential area; however, we have had traffic fatalities there,” Mixon said. “It’s a very peculiar intersection, so thank you Commissioners for agreeing with this.”
At Mixon’s request for a timeline, Bitterman estimated that the department is aiming to have the project up for bid by the end of the year, but that the development is queued behind improvements on PJ Adams Parkway and John King Road.
The project, which has been in progress since 2023, aims to straighten the road and construct stormwater improvements. It is funded by a county infrastructure surtax allocation of $1.6 million, which was approved in January 2024.
The raise, which would be standard for general city employees, includes a 2 percent cost-of-living increase and a 4.5 percent merit bonus based on her reviews from staff and council members. She earned $175,000 in her first year as city manager.
Appointed officials, such as the city manager, do not have guidelines for raises and are typically not eligible for cost-of-living or merit-based increases, but her contract gives the council discretion regarding her salary. Mayor JB Whitten, though not voting on the raise, said that Leavins should be treated as any other city employee and recommended the 6.5 percent increase.
Leavins took up the role in August 2025, following Crestview’s first-ever city manager, Tim Bolduc, after serving both as deputy and interim city manager since January 2025 and in other city roles in the five years prior.
“We just changed city managers in the last year for the first time ever,” Mayor Pro Tem Doug Capps said of the transition. “It’s just been seamless; there were no bumps, no hiccups.”
She received an overall score of 2.81 out of 3, which correlates with “exceeds expectations” for typical city employee evaluations. She was evaluated based on the city of Crestview’s core values, receiving a 2.8 in adaptability and communication, 2.7 in knowledge, 2.9 in respect and 2.85 in teamwork.
“The thing that I really admire about your performance is you being proactive and always working for a solution, and finding those solutions,” Council Member Sylvester Echols said to Leavins at the meeting.
Leavins thanked the council, the city department heads and city staff for their support and said she looks forward to the upcoming year.
The Comprehensive Fee Schedule amendment, read by Strategic Initiatives Director Nick Schwendt, includes the annual, across-the-board 12 percent increase to water and sewer rates, as well as an increase in connection fees.
Included within the amendment is Ordinance 2034, which applies a 1.3 rate multiplier to 349 sewer-only customers served by the city. The increase, which is expected to add $171,000 to the general fund in 2027, is intended to fund upgrades to and maintenance of the city’s sewer services.
Also at the meeting, the council approved Ordinance 2019 on first reading, which amends the language in city code regarding taxes paid by city water customers. The ordinance would levy a 6 percent service tax on all water service customers within Crestview city limits.
Previously, customers within city limits who did not purchase water services from the city, namely Auburn Water Service customers, did not pay the city’s standard service tax. City Manager Jessica Leavins said the average affected customer can expect to pay an extra $2.50 per month as a result. The second reading and approval of Ordinance 2019 is scheduled for the next City Council meeting Sept. 28.
Also included in the amendment are increases in planning review fees for new subdivisions, rental rates for the Senior Center, Community Center and Warrior’s Hall, vendor fees for events and festivals and youth sports registration fees.
Schwendt explained that the amendment is a cautionary measure, partially to cover ever-rising costs and partially to hedge against the possible passage of Amendment 3 in the November election. Crestview, like local governments across the state, is looking to bolster the general fund against the property tax revenue it would lose should Florida voters pass Amendment 3 in November.
The increases go into effect Oct. 1, with the start of fiscal 2027 and the new city budget, which is scheduled to be approved at the City Council’s final budget hearing Sept. 21.
Attendees watched, “Choose the View” fans in hand to beat the heat, as Mayor JB Whitten and EFCU’s senior vice president of membership and community development Neko Stubblefield welcomed them and introduced the Arts and Education Center.
A look inside reveals a large multipurpose room, which will host local nonprofit organizations, as well as auxiliary spaces for classes and activities.
Stubblefield hopes the Arts and Education Center will become a “hub of activity,” gesturing toward the children already enjoying the new space after the ribbon cutting. She said the space will have a stage for after-school theater productions and tutoring offered by Stage Crafters Community Theatre.
“I go back to this space being an opportunity for kids, and it’s unlike anything that we have in the tri-county area,” she said. “And the beautiful part of it is it’s going to be free.”
The classroom spaces will host STEM, arts and financial classes offered by the Emerald Coast Science Center, the Panhandle Rebels robotics group and Grow Your Gift Music School, among others in the future. Programming and registration will be available on the city’s website when the space is fully furnished and running.
City and Eglin Federal Credit Union officials cut the ribbon at the Arts and Education Center.
The space, formerly a flower shop, underwent a $170,000 renovation authorized by the Crestview City Council to repair structural issues and revitalize the interior. The process began last spring when the city sought to lease the building for an arts center.
Eglin Federal Credit Union stepped in to pay the first three years of the building’s lease on the city’s behalf, with Stubblefield describing the sponsorship as the next logical step in the company’s partnership with Crestview, following the Eglin Federal Credit Union Skate Park in 2021.
Mayor JB Whitten speaks ahead of the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The Arts and Education Center gives many nonprofits based in south Okaloosa County, especially Fort Walton Beach, a foothold in the north of the county, extending new opportunities to children in Crestview.
City Manager Jessica Leavins believes the Eglin Federal Credit Union Arts and Education Center will provide welcome activities for children and families in Crestview and welcomes ideas about how to use the space.
“Help us to bring more opportunities to these kids for things to do – let us know what your creative ideas are,” she said. “Right now, the space is kind of a blank canvas, so we’re looking to see what we can do next.”
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.
