CRESTVIEW — A local ceremony honoring the U.S. military is scheduled.
The Military Appreciation Recognition Celebration is 1-2 p.m. April 4 at the Crestview Public Library, 1445 Commerce Drive, Crestview.
For more information on the event, contact Bob Lynn, bettybob1234@aol.com.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview ceremony to honor military set
Whether you plan to camp in the U.S. or travel abroad this summer, the Reference and User Services Association has named these best free reference websites:
Woodall’s North American Campground Directory: This website — http://www.woodalls.com/ — also known as Good Sam RV Travel Guide and Directory, features descriptions and ratings of campgrounds, emphasizing travel by recreational vehicles. Facilities rated include RV parks, resorts and rentals in addition to private tent campgrounds.
This is an excellent resource for families or retirees planning vacations or extended winter travel. Each entry has detailed information about the facility, sites, nearby recreation and other amenities. It also includes National Forest and National Park campgrounds, and detailed information about fees and facilities.
Travelers’ Health: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website — wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel — provides information and health recommendations for U.S. residents planning to travel abroad. It helps travelers understand risks involved with traveling to certain parts of the world.
Visitors select the country they want to travel to, and options about their health or whom they’re traveling with, and the site generates a customized report with need-to-know information.
The report includes health warnings that may be issued for that country, information about diseases of concern, and precautions to take before or during their travel.
There are also educational sections on how to keep safe while in the country, and there’s a packing list to recommend what to bring on your trip.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: DREADEN: Going somewhere? Here are some top travel information sources
CRESTVIEW — The Kiwanis Club of Crestview is hosting a charity sporting clay shoot to raise funds for the John B. McMahon Environmental Center.
Registration costs $400 per four-person team, or $100 per shooter. The price includes 100 clays, 12- or 20-gauge shells, breakfast and lunch. Lunch for non-shoot participants is $10 per person.
The shoot begins with registration at 8 a.m. May 14 at Shoal River Sporting Clays, 3985 U.S. Highway 90 E., Crestview. The shotgun start is at 9:30 a.m., and lunch and award presentations begin at noon.
Sponsorship opportunities are as follows:
●Top Playground Sponsor, $2,000: comes with one team registration; top spot on banner; two signs at stations; and top spot on score card.
●Slide AMMO Sponsor, $1,500; comes with one team registration, spot on banner and labels on AMMO.
●Monkey Bar (food) Sponsor, $1,000: comes with one team registration; spot on banner and sign on food table.
●Swings (breakfast) Sponsor, $500: comes with two shooter registrations and a spot on banner.
●Park Bench Sponsor, $250: spot on banner.
●Water Fun Sponsor, $150: sponsor name on one shooting station.
Make checks payable to Kiwanis Public Service Corp. of Crestview and mail to: Attn: Elizabeth Roy, P.O. Box 128, Crestview, FL 32536.
For more information contact Karen Donaldson, 826-2630 or karendonaldson@coastalbankandtrust.com.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview Kiwanis Club schedules charity clay shoot, seeks sponsors
PENSACOLA — Formosan Termites 101: 10 Tactics to Protect Your Home is an upcoming presentation.
Formosan termites will soon be swarming and homeowners can be prepared to protect their homes. Annually, Formosan termites cause $1 billion of damage in the United States alone and the Gulf Coast is a known hot spot for this invasive pest.
Join experts from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension for education on this economically important pest.
Specific topics will include:
●Formosan termite biology and simple ways to ID them.
●Available Formosan termite pest control protection for you home.
●Identifying and fixing the weaknesses in and around your home.
The event starts with check-in at 5:45 p.m. April 4 and the program is 6-7:30 p.m. April 4.
The public may attend free of charge. Preregistration is preferred due to limited space. Call 475-5230 or email bbolles@ufl.edu.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Formosan termite season seminar set
Need something to do this weekend? Check out these fun events:
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 5 things to do this week in Northwest Florida
CRESTVIEW — During spring, residents’ thoughts turn toward gardening.
University of Florida Okaloosa County Extension Director Larry Williams said for the best selection of plants best suited to the local environment, go to a nursery.
To that end, Crestview Nurseries’ Dan Horn shares some tips for home gardeners and landscapers.
What should folks plant this time of year?
Bedding plants are doing well. Vegetables are the big thing now. Peppers, basil, tomatoes — now’s the time to get them in the ground.
What should people avoid?
Pansies and snapdragons. We don’t carry them now. We carry them in the fall. Ornamental kale and cabbage are fall plants, too.
What about fruit trees?
Fall is best for most fruit trees. Citrus is OK for spring and summer, unless we have a late freeze.
What’s the biggest mistake home gardeners make?
Not watering enough. Especially in the heat and sun of summer.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Q&A: Crestview nursery owner offers spring planting tips
CRESTVIEW — Drivers will encounter these traffic restrictions in Okaloosa and Walton counties as crews perform construction activities.
Okaloosa County:
●Interstate 10 resurfacing: Intermittent, alternating east and westbound lane and shoulder closures, and partial closure of the County Road 189 (Holt exit) entrance and exit ramps: 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday, March 28 through Thursday, March 31 from the Santa Rosa County line to east of C.R. 189. The speed limit will be 60 mph in the active work zone.
●U.S. 90 eastbound and westbound lane closures, from west of the Shoal River Bridge to the Walton County line: 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 30 through Saturday, April 2.
●State Road 85 (Eglin Parkway): Intermittent southbound lane closures from Yacht Club Drive to First Avenue: 8 p.m. Monday, March 28 to 4 a.m. Tuesday, March 29.
●Lane closures at the S.R. 85N/S.R. 123 intersection: 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Wednesday, March 30 through Tuesday, April 5.
Walton County:
●I-10 resurfacing: Intermittent and alternating east and westbound lane closures, from just west of Boy Scout Road to just east of U.S. 331, 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, March 28 through Thursday, Mar. 31.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 5 Okaloosa, Walton traffic changes to expect
CRESTVIEW — Just as Niceville residents know an F-35’s roar is the sound of freedom, Northwest Crestview residents know an aircraft’s buzz comes from a local economic engine.
Bob Sikes Airport generates more than $174 million in payrolls and spending, a state aviation impact study reported.
Defense contractor L3 Crestview Aerospace has called the airport home since its earliest days as Fairchild-Hiller, when Vietnam War jets used its landing strip, and Lockheed-Martin moved into BAE’s former hangar to retrofit.
Thirty-plus-year tenant Sunshine Aero Flight Test, using its own air fleet, flies military payloads for testing, calibration and evaluation.
Sunshine Aero is part of Dr. Paul Hsu’s Crestview Technology Air Park, which the engineer plans to expand to include technology industries and an educational component. Educators from Northwest Florida State College and the university of West Florida plan an April C-TAP tour.
On the runway’s opposite end, Tepper Aviation, next door to Crestview Aerospace, performs similar functions as Sunshine, flight-testing aircraft for defense contractors.
Midway along the runway, while companies like Lockheed-Martin and Crestview Aerospace build better planes, Qwest Air Parts disassembles aircraft and sells the parts.
Lockheed’s conversion of C-130 aircraft into gunships for special operations is a 24-hour-a-day project, Okaloosa Airports Deputy Director Mike Stenson said. The program has employed more than 200 workers and, “a couple months ago, these jobs were non-existent,” Okaloosa County Airports Director Tracy Stage said.
Not all of Bob Sikes Airport’s business is up in the air. Bay State Cable Ties used state and county business development incentives and relocated there from Massachusetts.
Next door, long-time tenant Asurion employs hundreds of workers in a consumer warranty call center.
Off John Givens Road is the Okaloosa County Industrial Air Park, where Custom Production manufactures metal components for diverse industries, including high-end bicycles and garden furniture.
Pre-approved hangar and industrial sites along Bob Sikes’ taxiway generate interest in businesses seeking to relocate, Stage said.
“We’re trying to attract businesses that want access to the airfield, and to support businesses in the air park that want to support airfield businesses,” he said.
One of the biggest attractions, Stage said, is “we don’t have a problem at Bob Sikes with encroachment.”
“Performing major modification and testing of aircraft is not an issue,” Stage said. “The airport and its boundaries have been protected to make a strong engine for economic growth.”
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BOB SIKES AIRPORT ECONOMIC IMPACT
● Total employment: 2,791
● Direct impacts from airport tenants/businesses and construction: $174,324,000
● Indirect impacts from visitors who arrive by general aviation aircraft: $1,853,000
● Multiplier impacts: $117,516,000
● Total payroll: $108,208,000
● Total output: $293,693,000
Source: Florida Statewide Aviation Economic Impact Study, August 2014
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BOB SIKES AIRPORT BY THE NUMBERS
IATA Airport Code: CEW
Runway ID: 17/35 (17 is north end, 35 is south end)
Runway length: 8,004 feet (2,440 meters, or 1.5 miles)
Runway width: 150 feet (46 meters)
Runway elevation: 213 to 153 feet, north to south
NEARBY GENERAL AVIATION AIRPORTS
Listed by distance from Crestview Bob Sikes Airport (CEW), with runway lengths in comparison to CEW’s 8,004 feet.
DeFuniak Springs Airport (54J): 4,146-foot runway
Florala (Ala.) Municipal Airport (OJ4): 3,197-foot runway
Destin Airport (DTS): 5,001-foot runway
Peter Prince Field, Milton (2R4): 3,701-foot runway
Fort Walton Beach Airport (1J9): 2,100-foot runway
Brewton (Ala.) Municipal Airport (12J): 5,136-foot runway
Logan Field, Sampson, Ala. (1A4): 3,596-foot runway
South Alabama Regional Airport, Andalusia (79J): 6,000-foot runway
Geneva (Ala.) Municipal Airport (33J): 3,998-foot runway
Source: Global Aviation Navigator, Inc.
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CRESTVIEW AIRPORTS HISTORY
Oct. 3, 1929: The Okaloosa Messenger encourages city leaders to improve Savage Field, the city’s landing strip on Juke Hill, where Big Lots and Day’s Tire center are presently located, built on the site of the Savage turpentine still operation.
1937: Crestview Airport’s runway is constructed around the site of present-day Crestview High School. The Civil Aeronautics Authority selects it as an emergency landing field for heavy traffic between New Orleans and Jacksonville. Modern equipment includes a radio beam approach signal and a beacon that could be seen from Alabama in clear weather.
c. 1944: Crestview gets a celebrity visit when entertainer Bob Hope is driven by car from weather-bound Mobile to meet his plane at Municipal Field. An airport worker quickly spread word that Hope was coming, resulting in a large crowd awaiting his arrival.
1944: Johnny Ridgway established Ridgway Flying Service at Municipal Airport, becoming Crestview airports’ first official fixed-base operator.
Spring 1946: The town of Crestview takes over ownership of Municipal Airport from the CAA. Controversy erupts when a resident claims Ridgway’s $2 per hour flying charge for commercial users is too high.
June 28, 1946: The largest plane to date lands in Crestview when a Navy version of the B-24 Liberator bomber lands at Municipal Airport in foul weather.
1961: Okaloosa County Airport and Industrial Commission is established for operating Municipal Airport and surrounding land. Plans are made to move the airport to the Fairchild-Hiller landing strip at the present Bob Sikes Airport location.
Early 1964: Bob Sikes Airport’s Flight Service Station, or FBO, is opened.
May 22, 1965: Bob Sikes Airport is dedicated and officially begins public operations. Airport tenants include the Federal Aviation Agency, Fairchild-Hiller, Republic Aviation Corp. and Brand Flying Services.
Oct. 2010: The world’s third-largest aircraft, an Antonov An-124, delivers a payload of helicopters bound for Fort Rucker at Bob Sikes Airport
Source: “Crestview: The Forkland,” by Betty Curenton and Claudia Patten, reprinted 2016
● Total employment: 2,791
● Direct impacts from airport tenants/businesses and construction: $174,324,000
● Indirect impacts from visitors who arrive by general aviation aircraft: $1,853,000
● Multiplier impacts: $117,516,000
● Total payroll: $108,208,000
● Total output: $293,693,000
Source: Florida Statewide Aviation Economic Impact Study, August 2014
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: IN DEPTH: Bob Sikes Airport contributes hundreds of millions to local economy
CRESTVIEW — When a wasp crawls around your fig tree, don’t swat it. It’s doing its part to assure the tree keeps producing figs.
Home gardeners are generally unaware of how many plant species depend on pollination, and how many critters do the job, Okaloosa County Master Gardener Stacy Taylor said.
“What’s pollination?” Taylor said. “It’s sex, that’s what it is.”
Pollination is technically the transfer of plant sperm to plant ovaries via pollen, Taylor said.
That’s done by transferring pollen grains from a plant’s stamen to its pistil. To do that, gardeners and farmers need pollinators.
Wasps crawl around a front-yard fig tree and, incidentally, lose their antenna and wings trying to get through the fruit to the flower inside.
“So when we’re eating figs, we’re also eating that stuff,” Taylor said. “Isn’t that something to think about.”
Local pollinators also include bees, moths, bats, birds, flies, slugs, gnats and beetles, which, perhaps surprisingly, are more responsible for pollinating than any of the others, Taylor said.
Ants you could go ahead and squish.
“Ants aren’t very efficient pollinators,” she said. “Their feet aren’t furry so not much sticks to them,” and besides, ants produce a substance on their shells that actually kills pollen.
As residents wash their cars and porches of spring’s annual yellow pine pollen dusting, they’re also responding to one of Northwest Florida’s other pollinators: the wind.
In our area, pollination occurs all year, benefiting multiple species. And “flowers,” which are integral to the process, aren’t always the brightly colored, gently waving, pleasant-smelling things in the garden.
Remember that wasp burrowing through the fig to get to the flower inside?
“Flowers have specialized beyond what we could ever imagine,” Taylor said. That includes generating electrical fields to let bees know when their nectar is ready for sipping. “That’s something to think about the next time you’re looking at your pretty flowers.
“Nothing happens by chance.”
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North Okaloosa County plants that rely on pollinators include beans, blackberries, black-eyed peas, blueberries, cotton, grapes, honey, loquats, okra, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, strawberries, tomatoes and watermelon. Corn, peanuts and pecans self-pollinate or are wind pollinated. Local pollinators include honey bees, bumblebees, beetles, birds, butterflies, moths and wasps.
North Okaloosa County plants that rely on pollinators include beans, blackberries, black-eyed peas, blueberries, cotton, grapes, honey, loquats, okra, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, strawberries, tomatoes and watermelon. Corn, peanuts and pecans self-pollinate or are wind pollinated. Local pollinators include honey bees, bumblebees, beetles, birds, butterflies, moths and wasps.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: North Okaloosa pollination is a year-round process (VIDEO)
PANAMA CITY — Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport (ECP) has announced that United Airlines will add additional flights from ECP to Houston, Texas, which provides easy access to their worldwide network.
United Airlines will offer passengers with increased air service offerings with an additional daily flight to Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) beginning on June 9 during the month of June.
Preparing for more passengers, United Airlines will also increase its capacity by utilizing a larger plane during the weekends. By upgrading to an EMB 175, the passenger loads on this flight will increase from 50 to 75.
The service links the region to United’s Houston hub offering one-stop connections to other cities in the airline’s global route network, as well as connections to additional cities in the Star Alliance network. The increased air service will also bring in additional tourism to the area.
“We are excited United Airlines will offer our passengers additional nonstop flight options,” said Airport Executive Director Parker W. McClellan, Jr. “United continues to offer our passengers a one-stop connection to worldwide destinations throughout their global route network.”
United Airlines celebrated one year of service in the region in March. ECP continues to grow and offer additional air service to passengers in the region. This announcement comes on the heels of a record-breaking year for ECP, with a total growth year over year of 9.35 percent.
Check out www.United.com for reservations and flight status.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Expect more United Airlines flights at Panama City airport
