The resolution approved Tuesday by Walton commissioners does not mention the renewed legislative push by Rubio and Scott, which Rubio contends is needed to ensure that any potential repeal of Trump s executive order doesn t eliminate the extension of the moratorium.
Broadly, the moratorium is seen as critical to protecting both the tourism industry along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the operations of the Gulf Test Range, a military test range overseen by Eglin Air Force Base s 96th Test Wing that covers 120,000 square miles of the eastern Gulf.
The resolution approved by Walton commissioners Tuesday is effusive in its praise for the former president, for whom Gaetz continues to be a persistent champion. At one point, the resolution notes that Trump reoriented America’s foreign policy towards a brighter and more America First future, and it closes with the sentence, God bless President Trump.
Herring was recently active in opposition to a solar electric power generation facility proposed by Gulf Power for more than 850 acres in the northern part of the county, contending then to commissioners that the facility was not a proper use in an agricultural area.
In a related bit of business, commissioners on Tuesday ratified a decision they made last month to deny a development order that would have allowed construction of the Gulf Power facility to proceed. Tuesday s final vote not to approve a development order was the same as the commission s December vote, with Commissioners Danny Glidewell, William McCormick and Mike Barker voting to deny the order, and Commissioners Trey Nick and Tony Anderson dissenting.
The Confederate battle flag had flown at the Walton courthouse memorial from 1964 until 2015, when the then-sitting commission voted to abandon it.
Peter Horn III, owner of custom homebuilding company Artisan of Seagrove and a Walton County native, will make his request to remove the flag and monument at Tuesday s commission meeting, set for 4 p.m. in the commission meeting room in DeFuniak Springs.
Horn s presentation will come a little more than six months after commissioners voted 3-2 to keep the flag flying. Six months is the minimum time that certain issues must be put aside before being reintroduced to the commission.
DeFUNIAK SPRINGS In a narrow Tuesday vote, Walton County commissioners turned back a Gulf Power proposal to build a solar energy generation facility on almost 900 acres in the northern part of the county.
Commissioners voted 3-2 against an application for a development order for the project, planned for 868 acres between and around Harrison Road and Brown Road, three miles east of U.S. Highway 331 at State Road 2A.
The Chautauqua Solar Energy Center was planned as a 74.5-megawatt generation facility, which kept it under the 75-megawatt generation capacity that would have subjected it to the state licensing process under the Power Plant Siting Act. A megawatt of electricity is enough to power the average family home for a little more than a month.