Lee's Contract With SRIA Renewed

Buck Lee, general manager of the Santa Rosa Island Authority (SRIA), had his contract unanimously approved Wednesday. This will extend his contract for at least another year with the SRIA.

His current contract was set to expire in May 2006.

Lee received praise for his work in dealing with the aftermath of several hurricanes that struck the area. Buck Lee also received another vote of confidence from the SRIA, in the form of a pay raise of 5%. Lynette Wilson, of The Pensacola News Journal reported Thursday that Lee's current salary is $82,628 plus benefits, which includes $700 a month for travel expenses.

Buck Lee assumed his current role with the SRIA after General Manager Monte Blews retired in May 2005.

Here are previous post from the Pensacola Beach Times weblog that mention Buck Lee:

http://pensacolabeachtimes.blogspot.com/2005/07/general-mgr-of-pensacola-beach-gets.html

http://pensacolabeachtimes.blogspot.com/2005/07/pensacola-beach-general-mgr-talks.html

http://pensacolabeachtimes.blogspot.com/2005/07/bob-sikes-bridge-is-open-for-residents.html

http://pensacolabeachtimes.blogspot.com/2005/07/pensacola-beach-to-open-to-general.html

Wishing You All A Merry Christmas

U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree 2005
Washington, D.C. (AFP/Tim Sloan)
I wanted to take the time to wish each of my blog readers a Merry Christmas! Each of you are appreciated very much and I would like to thank you for taking the time to stop by and reading the Pensacola Beach Times weblog.

2005 has been a tough year for a lot of people. Keep your head up and look forward to what the future brings.

I hope each of you have a very Merry Christmas and a safe holiday.

Blogler

County Road 399 Unlikely To Open Until Late 2006

Photo courtesy of NOAA

The road leading to Pensacola Beach from Navarre Beach, County Road 399 seen above, will probably not be repaired until late 2006. The same could happen to Ft. Pickens Road, as the repairs for it are currently under the same schedule.

The Superintendent of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, Jerry Eubanks has stated that road design is expected to be completed by March 2006. After that repairs could take nearly eight months to be completed.

Estimated cost of repairing both Ft. Pickens Road and County Road 399 could possibly be upwards of an estimated $27 million.

Let's hope that the roads are opened sooner than is planned. Currently the only way to get to the Ft. Pickens area is by boat. Then again you could take a "day hike" by foot, like some of the more adventurous people in Pensacola Beach have :).

Saucer Shaped Home On Pensacola Beach To Be A Museum

Photo courtesy of " mamamusings", a Flickr member.

Looks like the spaceship like home, a fixture on Pensacola Beach, won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

The saucer shaped house is slated to become the home of the newly organized Pensacola Beach Preservation and Historic Society. The unusual home, which has suffered hurricane damage, will undergo repairs and is expected to open sometime around Easter.

The Futuro home, located at 1304 Panferio Drive in Pensacola Beach, is one of only 20 worldwide. It is expected to be open to members by reservation only.

Lynette Wilson of the PensacolaNewsJournal.com has written an excellent article on the unique home, which has been a Pensacola Beach icon for over 30 years.

Today Marks The End Of Hurricane Season

Hurricane Katrina 8-29-2005 at 1215Z. Photo courtesy of NOAA.

Today officially ends the six month long hurricane season. And quite a season it has been.

With a record number of named storms at 26 and 13 hurricanes, this hurricane season has been a costly one.

There have been seven major hurricanes this season, and of those hurricanes Katrina was the costliest, with reconstruction cost estimated to be around 200 billion dollars.

I'm sure no one in Pensacola Beach will forget what damage Hurricane Dennis did to the area when it made landfall on July 10, 2005. (For those interested, the complete history of Dennis can be found at the excellent Wikipedia site).

Some fear next hurricane season could be just as bad as the 2005 season was. Seems these things run in cycles. Let's hope the cycle has finally come to an end.

Thanksgiving: Just Another Day At The Beach

Note: Looking West towards Ft. Pickens area 6/20/2004. Photo by Blogler.

Would you go to the beach on Thanksgiving? Nicholas Kilrain, a visitor from Indiana did. Kilrain dunked himself into the Gulf of Mexico, afterwards saying "that's what you do".

Read the story by Nicole Lozare of the PensacolaNewsJournal.com.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo courtesy of "red clover" on Flickr

Just wanted to wish each and every one of my valued readers a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope your turkey day is a good one and many thanks for reading the Pensacola Beach Times!

Special thanks goes out to "red clover", a member of Flickr.com, for permission to use her original image.

Again, thanks to all of my readers. Without you there would be no Pensacola Beach Times. Thanks for stopping by!

Blogler

I updated the "Ft. Pickens Update" post

Today I updated the weblog post titled "Ft. Pickens Update" (posted July 16, 2005) that includes a link to the NOAA satellite images of Pensacola Beach. Look at the bottom of the post for an update about browser compatibility.

The images by NOAA were taken days after Hurricane Dennis made landfall. The images are fairly high resolution.

Earlier versions of the Firefox browser would not work with the NOAA satellite images. I know Firefox 1.5 works with these images because I just tried it. Updated post has a link to a page where you can download it if you like. Just look for the "Download Firefox" link after clicking the "Get Firefox" button from this site.

Below is a link to the post "Ft. Pickens Update" (posted July 16, 2005) for your convenience. :)

http://pensacolabeachtimes.blogspot.com/2005/07/ft-pickens-update.html

Blogler