SHALIMAR —The Okaloosa County Board of Commissioners has unanimously approved a major step toward developing a new military retirement community in Shalimar On April 15, commissioners voted to transmit a large-scale land use amendment to state officials, clearing the way for the Air Force Enlisted Village (AFEV) to move forward with plans for Victory Village The proposed amendment would reclassify nearly 80 acres at the northwest corner of Poquito Road and Sunset Lane from a federal reservation designation to mixed-use. The land, formerly part of the Eglin Air Force Base reservation, was purchased by the Air Force Enlisted Village in June “The new land acquisition will allow us to develop Victory Village,” said Jeffrey McInnis “It will be a blended residential community comprised of wounded warriors and their caregivers and surviving spouses of retired enlisted soldiers and retired enlisted couples and age-qualified gold star spouses.” Okaloosa County Growth Management Director Elliott Kampert explained that the property was previously exempt from local development rules because it was federally owned it can be included in the county's urban development boundary pending approval of the land use amendment More AFEV: Knife's Edge Cafe at Air Force Enlisted Village could become your next burger destination The proposed mixed-use designation would allow for various residential options to accommodate independent and assisted living residents Plans for the community also include a gym "This is the essence of mixed use,” Kampert added Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel disclosed her affiliation with AFEV as she is a member of the nonprofit's board of directors Commissioner Sherri Cox motioned to approve the measure In a historic moment for veterans and their families, the Air Force Enlisted Village (AFEV) officially acquired 80 acres of land from Eglin Air Force Base on Friday marked a significant milestone in a journey that began nearly seven years ago The event brought together military leaders and community members to witness the formal transfer of land that will enable the development of this unique community opened the ceremony by reflecting on the organization’s history and the vision behind Victory Village.  McLean explained that the idea for Victory Village stemmed from recognizing a broader need within the military community “We used to pat ourselves on the back saying that we were the only service that had the vision to be able to put this in place,” he said “And then we reshaped things a little bit and started thinking about the opportunities that were in front of us Let’s figure out how to take what we have and open it up to more people.” The journey to acquire the land was not without challenges which included meetings with board members a suggestion to seek congressional support led to meetings with Congressman Matt Gaetz and then-Senator Bill Nelson resulting in the land purchase being included in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act Congressman Gaetz showed immediate interest He stated that within approximately four months Gaetz had worked to include the land purchase provision in the NDAA was crucial in allowing the Air Force Enlisted Village to acquire the 80 acres from Eglin Air Force Base The $5 million land purchase was creatively structured to benefit the local military community.  “Rather than have that money go up to the government and into the black hole where it probably wouldn’t have made a ripple in anybody’s budget we were able to keep that money at Eglin Air Force Base,” McLean explained “So we’re able to pour that back into the quality of life for our teammates at Eglin.” Additional support came from the State of Florida, which provided a $2 million appropriation from the Framework for Freedom Budget for fiscal year 2023-24 McLean acknowledged the efforts of State Representative Patt Maney and the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs in securing this funding emphasized the significance of the project within the broader context of supporting military personnel and veterans.  Chaudhary highlighted recent investments in military infrastructure including a $1.1 billion investment plan for dorms and daycare centers across 61 installations nationwide He noted that Hurlburt Field would receive over $60 million for upgrades including improvements to its daycare center which is ranked number 1 nationally among the Air Force A heartfelt moment in the ceremony came when Chaudhary recognized Master Sergeant Joe Deslauriers and his family a 1st Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron explosive ordnance disposal technician lost both legs above the knee and his left arm at the elbow in an IED explosion in Afghanistan in September 2011.  spoke about the importance of community for veterans “The thing that people miss the most when they are detached from the military or retiring is always the same It’s the cohort of people that share your values that you go through life with,” Slife said He praised the vision behind Victory Village noting its potential to provide a sense of purpose “I predict there will be a waiting list a mile long We won’t be able to build facilities fast enough to satisfy the needs,” Slife added Plans for Victory Village include multiple neighborhoods to house 800 residents and a fire and EMS substation to serve AFEV and the Poquito Bayou neighborhood The community will offer a continuum of care and will be open to surviving spouses of retired enlisted service members and retired enlisted couples from all military branches McLean outlined the next steps for Victory Village We have to do zoning and we have to do entitlements We have to explore partnerships and collaboration opportunities,” he said “We have opportunities that could create a national treasure for our nation here in Shalimar which included a presentation of colors by the Eglin AFB Honor Guard the national anthem sung by AFEV resident Ernest Tucker and an invocation by Chaplain Bethel Bateson marked not just the transfer of land but the beginning of a new chapter in supporting America’s veterans and their families Join the best local newsletter read by thousands of locals each weekday morning -- The Air Force Enlisted Village celebrated the recent purchase of 80 acres of land from the U.S Air Force with a Deed Signing Ceremony on Friday Florida will be used to build Victory Village a nonprofit retirement community with a specialized lifestyle for aging wounded warriors and their caregivers Over 200 people attended the event which featured special guest speakers Gen AFEV President and CEO Brooke McLean described meeting with board members and elected officials seven years ago with the idea of how to create this joint base community for enlisted military members “In the 50-plus years that this organization has been in existence we have seen thousands of Air Force widows and retired couples Air Force Enlisted Village has about 600 residents here,” McLean said “I started thinking about the opportunity to help wounded warriors and the caregivers as they go through the aging process They’re going to go through an aging process that’s not going to be like any of the rest of us.” Victory Village will be located adjacent to the Air Force Enlisted Village Plans for the community include multiple neighborhoods for 800 people to reside and an EMS substation to serve the Poquito Bayou neighborhood “Words can’t describe what our wounded warriors and their families have meant to our nation," Chaudhary this impactful for them cannot be understated." Slife says most people in the serving and veteran community miss the camaraderie “When you think about what Victory Village will be for the communities that it serves it provides that sense of purpose and a community of shared values,” Slife said Victory Village will also be home to surviving spouses of retired enlisted service members and retired enlisted couples of all military branches of service with plans to offer a continuum of care complete with on-site skilled nursing The community will be constructed in increments and will take ten to fifteen years to complete The Deed Signing Ceremony can be viewed here. To learn more about Victory Village, click here. Eglin Federal Credit Union donates $1.9M to support local nonprofitsNorthwest Florida Daily NewsFORT WALTON BEACH — Eglin Federal Credit Union has made the holiday season brighter by donating $1.9 million to support local nonprofit organizations The funds will go to groups that address housing and family support in Okaloosa and Walton counties Fisher House of the Emerald Coast and others “Eglin Federal Credit Union is very excited to be able to make this investment in our community,” said President/CEO of Eglin Federal Credit Union Cathie Staton in a news release “Our Charitable Donation Account performed well allowing us to make such a significant contribution The non-profits who benefited from the donation include: "The intention of the distribution is to satisfy needs within our community that align with Eglin FCU’s Mission while making a positive impact to the communities where our members live This work, ACC command team spouses reaffirm commitment to Eglin Airmen, families, by Capt. Benjamin Aronson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright 2022, the 96th Test Wing welcomed its new commander during a change of command ceremony Scott Cain passed the guidon to the wing’s new leader who leaves for Ohio and Air Force Materiel Command The presiding officer and former 96th TW commander Evan Dertien, Air Force Test Center commander spoke about the diversity and complexity of the wing’s missions before speaking about its new leader As a senior pilot with more than 1,750 flight hours Geraghty is no stranger to the 96th TW’s mission The 24-year veteran was both an F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon test pilot as well as a flight commander within the 40th Flight Test Squadron here “It’s a great honor to return to Eglin Air Force Base I look forward to serving you in the various missions you perform Geraghty received his commission from the Air Force Academy in 1997 His career accomplishments include becoming a Secretary of Defense Corporate Fellow at Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and piloting an F-15 during Operations Northern Watch The new general, frocked to the new rank just before the change of command ceremony comes to Eglin after serving as the Arnold Engineering Development Complex commander -- A planned senior living community for retired military and their caregivers aims to bring fellow warriors together for the opportunity to support each other It's called "Victory Village" and it's a project in Shalimar near Eglin Air Force Base Officials are one step closer to bringing the project to fruition CEO of Air Force Enlisted Village Brooke McLean says the property will hold a community of single-family homes multi-family apartments and perhaps some retail space operations that could be for people that receive counseling or special therapy," McLean said It will become a blended community for all service members providing restorative and supportive environment for retired enlisted couples and guardians from all branches of the military but they know the life that they live," McLean said and they feel the same way about certain things," he said "And so that connectedness means a lot to them And they wanna be in a place that feels comfortable." the 80-acre property used to be owned by the Air Force The organization purchased the property in 2024 but it is still technically listed as federal land Jeffrey McInnis with Air Force Enlisted Village went before the county commission this week requesting commissioners transmit a proposal to the state to change the land's designation to mixed-use "Allow us maximum flexibility in providing varying residential and dwelling types and the goods and services to support the life of these very deserving persons who will be eligible to live there," McInnis said Commission Chairman Paul Mixon says congressional district one has one of the highest veteran populations in the state that the entire first congressional district benefits from something like this right here," Mixon said Brooke says his organization is working with the county to establish the needed infrastructure -- things like electricity Once that is complete he says ground breaking is anticipated within two years The proposed amendment will be subject to state agency review by Florida Commerce SHALIMAR – A planned community for retired military personnel and their families received $2 million in the 2023-24 state budget to purchase 80 acres from the U.S Here's a look at the plans for Victory Village Renderings of the proposed community include neighborhoods for 800 residents to live and a fire and EMS substation to serve the community and Poquito Bayou neighborhood Victory Village has plans to offer a place to live for surviving spouses of retired service members and couples from any military branch of service According to the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs Florida has the third largest population of veterans in the nation after California and Texas Where will Victory Village be built?The 80 acres that the Armed Forces Enlisted Village intends to purchase is located near Sunset Lane and Poquito Road in Shalimar The AFEV's current location sits on Sunset Lane Victory Village will be across the street on what is now Eglin Air Force Base property Okaloosa Economy: Consultant says Niceville aquatic center could add $235 million to Okaloosa County economy Okaloosa County New program helps first responders assist those with special needs Okaloosa restaurant inspections Roach activity leads to temporary closure of local deli "We're honored to receive this funding, and we're grateful to our legislative representatives for working in support of our vision for Victory Village," Brooke McLean, president/CEO of AFEV and Victory Village, said in a prepared statement. "Our research for Victory Village has shown that the aging process for wounded warriors with physical and mental injuries of war will not be typical," McLean said. "Victory Village will honor aging injured service members with an expert understanding of their unique requirements that will be needed so they may live their best lives with others who have shared similar experiences.”     State Rep. Patt Maney, R-Shalimar, said in a prepared statement, “I am grateful to Speaker Paul Renner and Governor DeSantis for their support of Victory Village. The Panhandle Delegation led by Senators Doug Broxson and Jay Trumbull understand what an important resource this will be to Okaloosa County and our military widows and aging veterans.” ‘Saoirse’ cashmere-blend coat, €649; ‘Caitlin’ Aran scarf, €45, Triona Design this season’s homage to the country makes oodles of stylish sense.  From jaunty coats and wax capes to floral prints and cosy knits the vibe is that of a pastoral escape.  Leave those wellies at home and prepare to embrace your inner literary heroine traditional fabrics like herringbone and tweed go the distance.  Irish brand Triona’s Heritage Reverie collection features Merino wool and cashmere-blend ‘Saoirse’ coat which layers perfectly over a whimsical dress Essentiel Antwerp’s sequinned rose shirt really is a ‘Godsend’ with jeans and an Aran scarf or one in a contrasting check print from Scotland’s sustainable cashmere purveyors Johnston of Eglin (try Kildare Village for up to 60% off the RRP) high-street retailers like M&S win big with their argyle knitwear offering in modern blue and orange iterations.  Pair with a satin maxi skirt from & Other Stories and suede boots for a 2.0 twist on an old favourite Finish with a wind-worthy waxed cape (Check out Zara’s price-friendly edit) or with a tartan trench coat in soft gradations of grey and teal but I’ve got my prized vintage butterfly sleeve dress and tweed coat from COS at the ready.  All that’s missing is the elaborate estate to which I can flee From as little as €1 a week with our digital introductory offer Already a subscriber? Sign in Stacey Solomon's new kids collection lands in Penneys stores on May 5 The Air Force Enlisted Village (AFEV) has been serving retired enlisted Air Force members and their spouses for 50 years which is located in Shalimar between two major Air Force bases — Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Field — houses around 500 residents That number will grow with a new expansion slated to open in 2020 AFEV held a groundbreaking ceremony for Bob Hope Village 6 a residential community featuring 63 apartments and a clubhouse The last expansion was in 2015 when the facility opened Bob Hope Village 5 With Florida being the third-largest veteran population in the U.S. there is a steady demand for units at AFEV but we’ll have space for 80 more units when we fill up The new building was made possible through grants and donations as well as bank financing AFEV is currently only open to retired enlisted Air Force members and their spouses they are working to expand and allow all branches of the military which offers assisted living and memory support Bob Hope Village is named for the late comedian who was an early supporter of the nonprofit organization The cost of monthly services is needs-based McLean said fees are about “one-third” of the average retirement home however some residents may still need financial support “Many of our residents are military widows and so we have a special program designed for them,” he said “Some may only have a barebones income with their social security so we estimate each of their needs and provide direct support.” The Air Force is a "lifelong endeavor," McLean said AFEV is meant to be an extension of military life and be a place where service members and their families can feel at home “We provide a unique service,” McLean said “Residents here have sacrificed much of their lives...they lived and they served This is our way of paying them back and feeling a sense of community in their later years.” SHALIMAR —- More than 30 veterans of the Vietnam War or their surviving spouses were honored Friday at the Air Force Enlisted Village (AFEV) with lapel pins and certificates honoring their service in Vietnam or on the home front The AFEV observance was part of the ongoing United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration in which 900 Commemorative Partners ensure that the sacrifices of veterans and their families are not forgotten The commemoration began in 2012 and will continue through 2025 Among the veterans honored Friday was Woody Woodall who served in supply and logistics with the Air Force in Vietnam for 18 months from 1968 to 1970 who had already been in the Air Force for 10 years at the time volunteered for Vietnam because he wasn't particularly fond of his stateside duty station in Maine Veterans Park statues: Civil War woman veteran statue at Veterans Park temporarily removed for safety upgrade From last year: Air Force Enlisted Village residents are Nintendo Wii national champions "I thought it was necessary," Woodall said of the war which was not particularly popular among the American public at the time but he stressed that he was "proud to be there" and "glad I served." so he didn't experience the homecoming of many military personnel who were often met with derision as they returned to the United States Woodall didn't have any quick explanation for the less-than-welcoming return.  Woodall retains a sense of sadness for the families of the nearly 59,000 U.S military personnel killed in Vietnam and for the families of the 1,500 American troops still listed as missing in action.   "I'm sad for the families and for the kids who never had a chance to meet their fathers," he said As far as the recognition now being made of Vietnam veterans through efforts like the ongoing Vietnam War Commemoration "It's something that's long overdue."  Others honored Friday experienced Vietnam on the home front served in Vietnam in 1969 and earned a Bronze Star for heroic or meritorious service or achievement Gloria Burgemeister doesn't know what her husband She said that the challenge of raising a family alone while her husband was in Vietnam was eased by the presence of her extended family and by other military wives going through the same thing "We had a good camaraderie," Burgemeister said But how much she missed her husband was revealed when he suggested that they meet in Hawaii — halfway between Vietnam and the United States — whenever he was able to take leave from his duties She said she declined, because she knew that once she saw him Burgemeister said she was never particularly bothered by the angry reception that met many of the troops returning from Vietnam preferring to keep her thoughts close to home Prior to receiving their lapel pins and certificates Friday from members of Chapter 554 of the Air Force Sergeants Association the veterans and surviving spouses heard from retired Air Force Col a local Vietnam veteran who spent more than six years as a prisoner of war Hubbard recounted his experiences as a POW He talked about how he and some fellow prisoners had to work to keep a new prisoner alive by force-feeding him bowls of rice until his health stabilized the prisoner was subsequently placed in solitary confinement and died.  we had to hang on to whatever we could," Hubbard said as he recalled the religious services held among POWs every Sunday "It made no difference what religion you were or if you had any religion," he said Hubbard added that his attitude played a pivotal role in getting him through his experience as a POW Part of his approach was "giving thanks for my good fortune because I was an American and it doesn't get any better than that," he said The nonprofit AFEV provides housing to the surviving spouses of retired enlisted Air Force Air National Guard or Air Force Reserve personnel AFEV serves surviving spouses of enlisted personnel from other military services; retired enlisted Air Force and other military service couples; spouses of active-duty military personnel who die or are killed on active duty; and in other circumstances mothers of active-duty service members or on a temporary basis active-duty personnel who need housing in disaster situations This 82lbs adult Kemp’s ridley sea turtle was found washed ashore on the Eglin AFB Beach property in Navarre on Sunday she was very lethargic and covered with algae and gooseneck barnacles She is currently receiving fluids and antibiotics at the C.A.R.E “We are very happy to say that she is improving and becoming more active each day,” wrote the C.A.R.E “Kemp’s ridleys are the most endangered of all seven species of sea turtle.” this species has an extremally high risk of becoming extinct in the wild in the immediate future.  it was estimated that there were only 22,341 mature Kemp’s ridley sea turtles left in the wild so it is extremely important that we do everything we can to help these amazing animals,” continued to the C.A.R.E Walton Beach community rallied together to help Vietnamese refugees fleeing after the fall of Saigon The book not only shares a slice of local history it’s also being used as a teaching tool at UWF The book - Taste of Ginger – is about the 1975 Vietnamese Refugee Reception Center at Eglin Air Force Base who was stationed at Eglin for almost 12 years and you have to have all of the facilities available to them.” In a recent talk at the Fort Walton Beach Library Woods said he was unaware the Vietnamese Refugee camp existed (at Eglin) in the summer of ’75 he found out the scope of what was involved in setting up the camp when he agreed to help research the material located ‘on base,’ “You don’t know exactly how many you’re going to get is it going to be sequenced out.  Is it going to be even It turned out to be a “tent city” involving over 500 tents that were constructed over the course of about 4-5 days the State Department authorized three other reception centers in Arkansas Woods says the location at Eglin was a good choice because it had plenty of open space which helped the refugees feel more at ease And basically they were supposed to stay within inside the rope.  You didn’t have a chain linked fence up put up most of the camps had a chain linked fence or some way to prevent them from going off the land.” But Woods believes the biggest thing emphasized in the book was the contribution of volunteers at the camp “Because without them this couldn’t have happened And we even heard through letters (that are not in the book) from people who wrote back that left Eglin to go to other camps And that the other camps were nothing like Eglin was.” noting the efforts of the local residents from the moment the refugees arrived “So a volunteer was assigned to someone as he or she or the family got off the plane And then the volunteers got into their cars and the Vietnamese refugees got on to buses and were taken up the road to the camp.” Jans-Thomas is on the faculty of the Department of Research and Advance Studies at UWF and is also the Director of the doctoral program in Diversity Studies and the Director of the Civil Rights Research Lab she found what happened in the food tents to be most interesting and the first meals that they served they used Minute Rice It wasn’t a matter of them being ungrateful; it just didn’t taste like rice to them they graciously said “You don’t know how to cook” and the refugees took over the kitchen Jans-Thomas says she also discovered some special relationships that developed between some of the host families and the refugees…such as the Halls and the Tu family who were separated from their three children when they arrived And they were sponsored by the United Methodist Church and their children all ended up going to FWB High School so the matriarch of the family knew that Mr Hall loved a little taste of ginger every now and then and every time she came over she brought him a little piece of ginger” Jans-Thomas says the idea for the book sprang from her Qualitative 1 research class and highlights her effort to pull in various individuals The refugee reception center at Eglin would eventually house and process more than 10,000 Southeast Asian refugees until it was forced to close by Hurricane Eloise which made landfall near Destin in September of 1975 the resettlement camp was located at Field Two the area is 10 miles north of the East Gate on Highway 285 and is identified on maps as Site C-3 and is currently used as base installation security system testing A tabletop exhibit and slideshow illustrating the times at Vietnamese Refugee camp is now display at the John C Pace Library located on the UWF main campus Thanksgiving has arrived on the Emerald Coast With that comes stress and the possibility of kitchen mistakes below is a list of some restaurants in our area offering a Thanksgiving feast for you and your family Harbor DocksThe 30th annual Thanksgiving Feast at Harbor Docks will benefit Destin Harvest and Habitat of Humanity of Okaloosa County from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is free for all attendees, and officials say they can feed 2,500 people this year. Harbor Docks is at 538 Harbor Blvd.Emerald Grande at HarborWalk VillageFrom noon to 4 p.m. a traditional three-course meal with all the trimmings will be served Reservations are required for service: call 850-424-0622 Harry T's LighthouseThe restaurant will be open from 11 a.m Boathouse Oyster BarThe restaurant will open at 2 p.m. Boathouse will also make to-go orders so you can feed your family at home. Prices start at $150, getting you a dinner for up to six people. A $300 meal will feed up to 10 people. Boathouse Oyster Bar is at 288 Harbor Blvd.Tailfins Waterfront GrillFor breakfast Tailfins will serve you no matter the time of day you can get a full traditional Thanksgiving meal or anything off their regular menu Marina CafeMarina Cafe will offer a Thanksgiving buffet from 11 a.m Reservations are not required but strongly recommended Soleil Destin From 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Soleil Destin will host a Thanksgiving celebration. Guests can enjoy three limited-menu specials: a turkey Wellington, a 14-ounce ribeye, or seared swordfish. Reservations can be made at soleildestin.com or by phone at 850-353-2867 Soleil will also offer online ordering on its website The Crab TrapEnjoy Thanksgiving on the beach in Destin with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner and a limited Crab Trap menu from 11 a.m The Crab Trap in Destin is at 3500 Scenic Hwy 98 E >Sign up here for the News Herald's daily briefing newsletter Brotula'sJoin Brotula's for the tenth annual Thanksgiving Day Buffet Start with the seafood gumbo before diving into a plate of deviled eggs try the house-roasted and hand-sliced herb turkey of grilled mahi Finish with a fruit tart or a classic pecan pie Surf Hut The Surf Hut will host guests with a traditional Thanksgiving menu featuring slow-roasted turkey with pan gravy What's open in Fort Walton BeachAJ's on the BayouFor the tenth time AJ's will host a traditional Thanksgiving meal from 11 a.m All are welcome to eat for free; the only caveat is that you are highly encouraged to donate All proceeds from the event will benefit the Kids on the Coast Foundation and children aged 12 and under are 20$ per person Those who attend are encouraged to park on the property and access the restaurant through the main entrance Reservations are required and can be made by calling 850-337-9182 For those looking to have an experience at home The Island Resort will also offer a to-go option Orders can be made by calling 850-337-9182 The Island Resort is at 1500 Miracle Strip Parkway SE Ocean BuffetFrom 10:30 a.m Ocean Buffet will host an all-you-can-eat buffet for $18.99 Diners can choose a more traditional Thanksgiving meal or a seafood buffet Ocean Buffet is located at 309 Miracle Strip Parkway SW SealandSealand Restaurant will host a Thanksgiving buffet from 11 a.m The buffet will include appetizers like chicken pot stingers and entrees like succulent prime rib and roasted turkey Reservations are not required but highly recommended Vin'tij Food & Wine will host a four-course feast for $100 per person Start with a choice of either butternut squash or chilled cherry spiced cranberry soup move on to a red and gold beet salad before starting your turkey roulade entree Reservations can be made by calling 850-650-9820 CommelfoOffering American styles with a European touch Commelfo offers five courses for Thanksgiving dinner at 5 p.m Commelfo is at 10859 Emerald Coast Parkway Ovide at Hotel EffieJoin Ovide for a Thanksgiving buffet from 11 a.m The buffet costs $95 for adults and $25 for children Ovide is located at 1 Grand Sandestin Blvd Mezcal Mexican GrillThe eighth Annual "Giving Thanks" Thanksgiving Day Feast will have three seatings: 11 a.m. Adults can eat for $39.95 while kids ten and younger eat for $16.95 Did we miss a restaurant? Please email CBestor@gannett.com to get it added to the list Thank you for supporting journalism at your local newspaper This article is available exclusively for our subscribers 850.939.8040 © Copyright 2016-2026 Sandpaper Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Service - Privacy Policy Designed by Sandpaper Marketing FORT WALTON BEACH — With Veterans Day approaching here is a list of scheduled events in Okaloosa and Walton counties CrestviewThe annual Veterans Day Parade returns to Crestview on Monday at Hub City Smokehouse and goes north past the Okaloosa County Courthouse A ceremony will follow the parade at the Veteran's Memorial The city of DeFuniak Springs is hosting its 19th annual Veterans Day ceremony on Monday attendees can walk or run around the lake yard a Veterans Day breakfast will he served at Chautauqua Hall from 8 to 10 a.m the Veterans Day ceremony will occur at The Amphitheater on Lake DeFuniak in Chipley Park DestinHarborWalk Village will host Veterans Day on the Harbor on Monday The event will feature a special ceremony and a veteran-owned business market from noon to 7 p.m The ceremony will include a performance by Reid Soria with Autism Sings a presentation of colors by the Eglin Honor Guard Fort Walton BeachThe Veterans Tribute Tower Committee will host its annual Veterans Day ceremony at Beal Memorial Cemetery on Monday The ceremony will feature remarks from 96th Test Wing commander Guests are encouraged to bring a small bouquet to place on the Community Wreath during the ceremony the ceremony will be moved to the American Legion Post 235 at 105 Hollywood Blvd Mary EstherThe city of Mary Esther will hold the 24th annual Veterans Day parade on Monday on Page Bacon Road before turning right on Mary Esther Boulevard and ending at the southwest entrance to the Santa Rosa Mall Veterans Day celebrations will occur at the Santa Rosa Mall from 11 a.m The city of Niceville will host its inaugural Veterans Day parade on Saturday The parade route will follow the same route as the Rotary Club Christmas Parade which begins at John Sims Parkway and Palm Boulevard intersection turns right on Partin Drive and ends near Ruckel Middle School Please email us at CBestor@gannett.com so we can add it to the list The 44 were all then rushed to a hospital, where 17 remained overnight, according to a press release from Fort Benning.  The class of Army Rangers is the first to include five women none of whom were affected by the lightning they were conducting lightning-protection protocols when lightning struck nearby,” the press release states “The Ranger students and instructors reacted and got everyone proper medical care quickly,” said Col of the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade “Ranger students and instructors are tough [The] students will return to training tonight and continue with increased medical monitoring as they try to earn their Ranger tab.” The incident occured on the seventh day of a 17 day traning cycle where recruits are trained in swamp conditions on things like boat operation and stream crossings The students were in the final leg of the grueling training process recurits undergo to become an Army Ranger Though it affected an unusually large group, lightning itself is very common in Florida. More people are killed by lighting in Florida than any other state, according to the University of Florida The entire state is a high-risk area for lightning compared to 5 storm days in California.  Luckily, all instructors and soldiers have been released and are expecting to complete training and earn the coveted Ranger tabs The Air Force Enlisted Village in Okaloosa County is expanding The latest addition to the military retirement community is Bob Hope Village 5 The Air Force Enlisted Village is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in Shalimar right outside Eglin Air Force Base It’s comprised of Theresa Village and Bob Hope Village two independent living communities for widows of retired airmen and mothers of active duty service members “It’s hard to put it into words and the only way I can express it is home is where the heart is That’s Alice Coffman; after her husband passed away she moved into the Village and has lived there since 2000 Coffman says the quality of life and freedom the community provides is wonderful for seniors such as her they have a bus that takes us to the commissary that takes us to the BX There’s a lady that drives the bus that brings our groceries into the house The main philosophy of the AFEV is called the “Mom Rule.” All staff members are asked to keep three questions in mind while interacting with the residents “Would I do this to my Mom?” “Would I do this for my Mom?” And “Would my Mom approve?” therefore creating a culture where residents are treated fairly and with dignity The new addition has been in the making for 16 months It adds four three-story buildings with 96 new apartments to the campus at a cost of $17 million the AFEV’s original complex Theresa Village in FWB was sold for $4 million in keeping with Florida’s goal of being the most military-friendly state in the country state Senator Don Gaetz of Niceville says the Florida Defense Taskforce provided $135,000 toward construction of the new facility “Northwest Florida is the greatest concentration of retired military of anywhere in the country And the fact that people here are willing to make a commitment to care for the widows of service men and the widowers of service woman and to create the services and resources necessary to do that makes our area special.” Gaetz spoke at a recent ribbon-cutting for the new addition Also on hand for the unveiling was Chief Master Sgt of the Air Force James Cody it’s a commitment; it’s a commitment that started way back when that carries forward today It’s a commitment that’s in line with our Air Force sweat and tears was put into the project by former Chief Master Sgt of the Air Force Jim Binnicker who was the CEO of the village when he passed away in March She says she’s happy to see his vision come true “This is a reality of a dream that he made happen Looking on with a sense of pride is CMSgt Brooke McLean McLean is retired from the USAF and is now the President and CEO of the AFEV He says that this is not the final step in the process and there is more work to do in the future “We have more widows who need our assistance We’re coming together and this property fulfills the dreams of many of our predecessors I know our dear friend Jim is looking down on us and he’s smiling Chief Binnicker is remembered daily and always present in our hearts.” The new addition provides residents with an improved level of comfort and safety with modern amenities such as a clubhouse Dan and Claudia Stevens currently reside at Theresa Village and are moving into the new addition in late September  The Stevens are looking forward to some of the new features and to what the future holds for them while living at The Village the other thing is that we will be able to go from here and then if necessary we’re right here at the assisted living With the new addition of Bob Hope Village 5 all residents will now be housed on one campus the assisted living facility right across the street.  The residents will move-in in phases beginning in mid-August and continuing through October once construction is completed on the last three buildings of the complex Fort Walton Beach and Destin announced their 2024 holiday lineup featuring traditional celebrations and new additions that aim to serve the growing communities along the Emerald Coast “Light Up The Night” Christmas Tree Lighting CeremonyFriday (tree lighting at 5:30 p.m.)Fort Walton Beach Landing Park139 Brooks St SE at 6:30 p.m.Eglin Parkway (Starts at First Street Old Fashioned Christmas at the Camp Walton SchoolhouseSaturday to 3 p.m.Fort Walton Beach Heritage Park and Cultural Center139 Miracle Strip Pkwy SE (both nights)Northwest Florida Fairgrounds1958 Lewis Turner Blvd Santa’s Firehouse Cruz-Thru Toy DriveSaturday to 2 p.m.Fort Walton Beach Fire Department Station #65 Hollywood Blvd NE at 10 a.m.Destin Methodist Church to Stahlman Avenue200 Beach Drive Holly Jolly at the Harbor and Holiday Boat ParadeSunday And the Fort Walton Beach Woman’s Club presents the Holiday Tree Trek Obtain the Tree Trek cards at the following participating business: and Unincorporated areas nearby have significant problems they need to face to become competitive in a 21st-century economy fraught with economic changes and disruption The two cities have an opportunity in front of them – the opportunity to merge – into a more agile more robust municipality which will bring a net benefit to all who live inside the corporate limits Citizens will see more efficient and cheaper services businesses will find it easier to find the area in an ocean of unmined data and set up shop and the significant military presence will have the ability to deal with fewer local governments so it can get its mission done and provide for a higher quality of life for its airmen This paper will outline the arguments for and against the absorption of Valparaiso and give reasons why leaders of the cities should work together to affect a merger this paper will outline the steps to make the union of the two cities a reality The cities of Niceville and Valparaiso have an opportunity to avoid or mitigate deleterious outcomes due to events beyond their control by consolidating into one political unit The Florida Constitution outlines several procedures the cities can take to consolidate formally Should the municipalities come together to form a united polity – they would be able to work more efficiently with the Air Force Base which provides most of the economic activity in the area; more effectively bring in new and diverse business; solve housing shortages through more thoughtful planning that utilizes the land both cities sit on; and reduce the tax burden on the city’s residents by using economies of scale gained initially by residents brought together in the merger and then by those who are incorporated voluntarily into the city due to the lowering of taxes and increase of city services provided Valparaiso has raised its property tax rate from 3.933 mills in 2011 to 5.024 mills in 2023 (Valp.org) After accounting for inflation – the total amount of taxes on property in Valparaiso has increased by 78.68% in the last 12 years Valparaiso has seen its actual revenues (revenues after accounting for inflation) fall for the city’s franchise fees while seeing an increase in its reliance on utility fees These data mean the taxpayer has found themselves on the hook more often for the costs of Valparaiso government which continues to cost more as time goes on Valparaiso will need to enact a new plan to continue funding government services It will either continue its trend of raising taxes a plan rejected five years ago after a heated discussion between the Valparaiso City Commission and city residents or develop a creative solution to provide services while maintaining or reducing the levy on its residents Data from the City of Valparaiso’s annual budgets 2011-2023. All amounts are inflation-adjusted to 2023 dollars. Data taken from the city’s website, Valp.org. Meanwhile – the city of Niceville has held its property tax rate steady at 3.700 mills over the same interval A union of these two cities would give both sets of residents the economies of scale necessary to keep taxes lower in the long term and allow the city to provide adequate resources in the long term the area’s residents can build a more robust and responsive city infrastructure to continue strengthening the area The area including and surrounding Niceville and Valparaiso has a problem familiar to many Americans who watched the decline of the car makers in Detroit through the second half of the 20th century The area is over-reliant on one sector of industry which has significantly smaller bets on the auto industry would feel significant effects from a slowdown in that industry it accounts for about seven percent of the city’s Gross Regional Product (GRP) According to that RAND study of climate change’s effects on military bases around the United States – Eglin Air Force Base is at an elevated risk for flooding in significant portions of its perimeter the military facilities at Eglin could sustain between 3.8 and 4.5 billion dollars in damage from a hit from a hurricane A RAND report from Narayana et. al notes a hurricane similar to Hurricane Michael which would be more likely as climate change continues to make hurricanes more common shows the monetary damage that major Air Force Bases would take if a hurricane Michael-sized storm hit the base The researchers based the cost estimates on a series of simulations meaning federal money has left the economy even though the base has not been officially shut down which hosts many different units with missions that could move their operations “It would be completely devastating for our local economy,” says Tracy Jennette and City of Niceville planning board member with a background in economics about the impact a closure of Eglin Air Force Base would have on the area A chain of actions to remove missions from Eglin Air Force Base would create localized economic destruction on a scale much worse than the .9% experienced nationwide and talked about widely in the media that year the economic effect on the area goes up in proportion to the number of jobs lost on base – which is the biggest employer in the area As long as the area can retain the majority of its military presence one or two missions lost would not end Eglin’s economy as we know it but the removal of a large number of squadrons would “Losing Eglin would be catastrophic,” said Tracy Jennette “just losing a single squadron would not have that effect but we would have a pretty stable economy in the long term because of all of the other bases we have.”  just because something is unlikely does not mean planners should not allocate for it as a potential outcome Charles Wheelan brings up the failure of a risk analysis model used widely in the financial world before the Great Recession to pick up on the fragility of the subprime mortgage issue in the American Economy called VaR didn’t account for unlikey scenarios An unlikey scenario is exactly what happened commercial banks used lending mode for home mortgages that assigned zero probability to large declines in housing prices Housing prices had never fallen as far and as fast as they had in 2007 the residents of the two cities that would merge into a single entity would also get slightly lower tax burdens and the knowledge that the city is both able and ready to respond with efficiency to the needs of its single-largest employer Eglin Air Force Base and the potential disasters which could befall the city such as a hurricane or the moving of mission sets away from Eglin four options are laid out to affect change in the two municipalities – including pushing for an administrative but not political merger of the two cities a dissolution of partnerships currently in place between the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso or doing nothing to change the status quo and the cities operating as they are now Residents and leadership of the area need to control what they can control – that includes the consolidation of their political strength into one entity that can advocate strategize and assert their influence more effectively together induce the movement of diverse economic activity resilience from issues like storms and recession or military base realignment and help retain property values in the area for residents The cities should use their collective power as a larger area that a merger of the two cities would bring to increase the area’s resiliency to threats to its economic prosperity This paper will lay out a plan to advocate for and execute a merger of the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso in the next decade and what the leadership of the merged city would do next A review of the literature concerning the mergers of municipalities would seem to discourage the mergers of Niceville and Valparaiso this paper will show why the two cities would benefit from a merger despite some conclusions drawn in the academic literature This has to do with the fact that the areas which American cities – specifically municipalities in Florida – have economic control over are significantly smaller and driven by economies of scale than cities in Europe While the ultimate goal should be the incorporation into one city of all land between Eglin Air Force Base to the West and the intersection of John Sims Parkway and State Route 293 to the east – the first step argument of this paper is to argue for the merger of the area’s two municipalities – Niceville and Valparaiso The consolidation of the two cities into one will strengthen the city’s position in the region allow for better coordination of further expansion of services and incorporation reduce tax levies on current residents – and make incorporation more attractive to people in the unincorporated county and improve municipal services to everyone in the region The continuing consolidation of the region will attract more businesses to the area and continue a positive cycle of growth and resilience for generations to come They tend to crack eggs to make omelets and require a heavy lift from the elected officials and citizens who participate in them – whether willingly or unwillingly with strong incentives to merge the cities in place it is time to seriously consider the consolidation as a way to benefit the people who live in both cities Settlers founded the town of Boggy during the tumultuous 1840s. Unrest permeated the Sunshine State through the Seminole Wars for the first half of the 19th century While the area did not see much conflict during the war – there were several incidents close enough to the area to ensure skittishness amongst those who might otherwise move to the area for cheap land close to their places of birth Add in the stifling heat and the proclivity of settlers to die of mosquito-borne diseases and the area was uniquely unappealing for colonization These factors resulted in a small population in Florida in general and the Florida panhandle in particular for the first 100 years of the state’s membership in the United States of America More than 80 years after American settlers moved into the panhandle of Florida, an entrepreneurial Chicagoan named James Plew moved to the area. He became the driving force behind growing a newly created town, Valparaiso Valparaiso became dominant compared to its neighboring town (what is now Niceville) and was nicknamed ‘Old Valparaiso’ while the area that is now called Niceville was known as ‘New Valparaiso’ until an exasperated postmaster put a stop to the practice the city of Niceville is in pink and the unincorporated areas are in yellow After the Second World War, Florida experienced a population boom statewide. Okaloosa County was no exception to that growth. The economic activity associated with Eglin Air Force Base increased Niceville’s population from 948 in the 1930 census to 2,468 in the 1950 census, according to documents compiled by Niceville City Historian Elisa Mitchener the City of Valparaiso saw an even more significant increase the city had increased from roughly 220 people to 1,041 according to the US Census Bureau’s recrods The two cities have since been referred to collectively as the ‘Twin Cities.’ A hospital on the border between the two cities is known as Twin Cities Hospital from transmission repair shops to arborists use the ‘Twin Cities’ name in their titles The earliest discussion of a possible merger between the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso came to the fore in the 1960s when a businessman named Roger Wright – a proprietor of several businesses in Valparaiso and Niceville attempted to get the merger discussion started “Roger was a very progressive person,” said former Niceville City Manager Lannie Corbin “He wanted to merge [the cities] and rename it Bay City you had real strong politicians who are very territorial And you couldn’t get anyone to budge from either side circumstances and sound planning have favored the city of Niceville Niceville has doubled in population since 1980 and has seen an explosion of economic activity within the city Valparaiso vacillated between a high of 6,142 individuals in 1980 and a low of 4,672 individuals in 1990; the most recent count put the city at around 4,752 residents Valparaiso struggles to retain and grow businesses within the city limits has about one-fifteenth of the gross tax receipts according to the US Census American Community Survey (US Census Bureau “You have to go back and look at the history And [Valparaiso] had these commissioners who were larger than life and bigger than god back then And they were [elected] for 50-60 years at a time they used to look at me when I first got here – and by then what happened to Val-p?’ And I’d say ‘you just need to go look in the mirror you guys weren’t changed for the last 50 years You’re the ones who let it disintegrate into what it is You decided that you wanted to be a bedroom community of Eglin and you didn’t want to annex Niceville when you had the chance You could have had Niceville and Bluewater,” said Valparaiso City Administrator Carl Scott [Niceville] was begging Val-p to take them over people would just go to the on-base commissary and then you got to see Niceville – which is at the right distance Val-p was destined to die under this circumstance,” said Scott The City of Valparaiso suspended its fire chief in 2018 and would eventually combine its part-volunteer fire service with the Niceville Fire Department under Niceville Fire Chief Tommy Mayville This arrangement is the first merged-department agreement between the two cities The fire department merger shows promise for further arrangements in the future between the two entities which could eventually lead to a complete consolidation between the two cities which could have financial and other benefits for residents “We did not buy a piece of equipment this year for the fire department,” said Niceville City Manager Lannie Corbin in 2020 Merging with them gave us access to more equipment… Just from a city standpoint we have saved about $700,000 I guess in this first year” Niceville City Manager Corbin said the department merger is a positive sign of collaborative development between the cities Even before we merged… they had a volunteer department with one or two firemen rather than taking 15 minutes for the Valparaiso Volunteer Fire Department to get there That right there tells you about the efficiencies and services provided when you think positively about something like that” The City of Valparaiso is uncertain it will be able to maintain its ability to provide expected services with the resources it currently musters from the population In their budget discussions for Fiscal Year 2021 the Valparaiso City Commissioners proposed a levy increase of 17% according to the now defunct Bay Beacon newspaper the millage rate was 2.8754 – less than half of the proposed new millage “They ended up taking some money out of their reserves – and were able to negotiate a new contract with their health insurance provider – as well as repurpose some restore act dollars,” said Michael Griffith a reporter who covered local government for the Bay Beacon Niceville and Valparaiso together have around 20,000 residents Niceville has the majority of those residents Those who live in Niceville tend to be more affluent and younger Several indicators show that Niceville is the richer and more financially stable of the two cities both individually and on a corporate level – though not so much so that a merger would create undue stress on one population or another Niceville has a larger population and more income per capita than Valparaiso Niceville has roughly three-and-a-half times more residents than Valparaiso has inside of its city limits make roughly $4,000 less than the residents of Niceville every year The Human Development Index (HDI) measures an area’s people based on their amalgamated health The United Nations created the statistic to compare countries to one another as a way to measure development but economists and social scientists can use it on the local level within the United States as well A look at the Community HDI score for the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso shows a small gap between the two cities a similar score to the countries of Poland or Lithuania The HDI score map breaks Niceville into three sections The western portion of Niceville has the lowest score in the city The southern peninsula portion of the city is recorded at .940 That number is comparable to the country of Finland The eastern portion of Niceville has the highest score at .950 comparable to the city of Ireland (Community HDI Score) The four zones’ complete range spans .07 between the lowest and highest scoring Niceville and Valparaiso’s range on their HDI scores is similar to other cities in Okaloosa County has a HDI range of .05 between its best and worst areas of town similar to the the economic difference between Columbia and Norway So while there is a gap between Niceville and Valparaiso regarding wealth it is about the same range as nearby cities and much smaller than in larger cities in Florida This embeded map is a collaborative effort between the University of Chicago  Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation. It aims to provide a Human Development Index (HDI) score for every zip code in the United States The HDI score is a measurement of the overall development and well-being of an area with 1 representing the highest level of development The methodology used to calculate the HDI score follows the framework originally developed by the United Nations the HDI is a composite index that takes into account the average achievement in the following dimensions of human development: Health: This dimension is evaluated based on life expectancy at birth indicating the overall health and longevity of the population in the zip code Education: The education dimension is assessed by considering the mean years of schooling for adults aged 25 and above as well as the expected years of schooling for children of school-entering age This reflects the level of education and access to knowledge in the area Standard of Living: The standard of living dimension is measured using the gross national income per capita providing insights into the economic well-being of the population By aggregating normalized indices for each of these three dimensions using a geometric mean the webpage calculates and assigns an HDI score to each zip code in the United States This allows users to gain valuable insights into the disparities in human development across different areas of the country and helps policymakers and researchers in understanding regional development patterns Businesses with Business Tax Receipts in the cities of Niceville (blue) and Valparaiso (Orange) Compiled from Okaloosa County Tax Collector’s Office Data The city of Niceville levies a lower rate of property tax than the city of Valparaiso – but the smaller city and lower overall land value mean that the city of Valparaiso collects far less tax revenue per square mile than its larger and more dense neighbor to the east Keeping Valparaiso an independent municipality may be an issue of pride for her longer-term residents it is becoming harder and harder for the city commission to keep up standards and not raise taxes Okaloosa County Growth Management Director Elliot Kampert is skeptical the Valparaiso city commission can keep any semblance of past standards in the city and keep the city’s already-higher-than-average taxes from increasing “If the city council of Valparaiso has the political will to enforce standards to keep Valparaiso as it is then it could make sense to keep Valparaiso as it is but I don’t know that it would long term economically pan out They would risk becoming a backwater community that is stuck with property values in decline simply because infrastructure ages,” Kampert said He added in the fact that Valparaiso is next to a city with a lower property tax rate like Niceville the logical argument that Valparaiso should continue to exist gets weaker “If you look at the more rural areas of the county where cities form organically because you need the cumulative power of taxation to provide the infrastructure you need in a more rural setting [it makes sense to have a city like Valparaiso] But Valparaiso is surrounded in an urban area – it’s not a unique provider of any of those resources People can go elsewhere for hospitals and shopping “So there is no organic need to have a city there or they want to control their fate by the way of zoning or land use” could eventually lead to the Air Force deciding to pack up the mission and head somewhere else because of the disruption that residential living would do to a test range that is famous for ensuring that the military can maintain its lethality through the applied usage of bombs the city’s leadership in Valparaiso knows this well The city was built before the Air Force Base and therefore experiences lots of aircraft noise and has homes  situated in what is called the ‘Clear Zone.’ The Clear Zone is the area the Air Force believes is most likely to suffer damage or destruction if one of its planes experiences issues which make up roughly half of the town’s total land mass have issues with loud jet engines regularly The Air Force wants  to remove homes from the Clear Zone Clearing these zone would serve as a way to preserve the mission it has from the Department of Defense the Air Force has offered to swap that property with the City of Valparaiso for other property the base currently owns but does not use Valparaiso’s planning and zoning commission has worked toward a plan that would either see the city buy these homes from residents and give them lots in the newly acquired area – or encourage someone up the chain in the Air Force to offer residents that deal themselves – a project the city planning commission has worked on for the better part of two decades as a way to keep residents safe – and to ensure Eglin’s economically vital mission can continue city leadership must balance the need for more places to put people with the knowledge that if they take too many liberties with the base it could run off the goose that laid the golden egg: the Air Force Base The cities must look at their housing makeup to account for the issues created by living next to an Air Force Base The city of Niceville has been more densely developed – hosting some 1,200 residents per square mile Valparaiso has been less densely developed The imbalance in supply and demand must ultimately include balancing the Air Force Base’s needs which could include land swaps and opportunities to build more affordable and dense housing for people in Valparaiso The State of Florida has put together several methods through which cities can merge in Florida State Statute 165.041. The legislature can create a municipality out of thin air through its power The statute also allows two cities to merge after following a series of steps involving ordinances and referenda The law specifies that the State of Florida can create a city of its own volition The legislature would first have to order a feasibility study and receive it before the first Monday after September 1 of the year before the regular session of the legislature when the charter would become the de jure law of the city The feasibility study would need to contain the following:  While a full-on legislature-backed merger of the two cities of Niceville and Valparaiso is technically an option for the two cities to become one – the option more inclusive of the people it will affect would be the provision placed in the second portion of the same statute “A charter for merger of two or more municipalities and associated unincorporated areas may also be adopted by the passage of a concurrent ordinance by the governing bodies of each municipality affected approved by a vote of the qualified voters in each area affected” (Florida State Statutes) The proposed charter would require both cities governing bodies to pass ordinances allowing for the merger of the two cities and then provide the city’s residents an opportunity to vote on it The ordinances passed by the cities would need to include the new city’s charter the economic changes that would take place and majorities from both sets of affected voters The vote should occur 30 days after the passage of the ordinances the notice of the election would have to be published at least once each week for two consecutive weeks immediately before the election in a newspaper of general circulation in the area to be affected The notice will have to give the time and place of the election and a general description of the borders of the new city More than fifty years have passed since the last major merger of two or more cities in Florida. The biggest example of a true merger took place in 1970, when five cities merged to create Panama City Beach Only two mergers have taken place in the ‘Home Rule Era’ – named after the 1973 law which lays out how cities can merge the literature would not support the merger of the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso Academics worldwide have studied mergers in different countries and the variables and incentives for the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso are vastly different from the ones studied by academics in Europe These key differences come down to a couple of factors The municipal governments studied in other parts of the world bear more responsibilities than a local government in the United States would These local governments in other parts of the world must take care of their resident’s healthcare which do not decrease by any noticeable amount after mergers because people still need the same amount of childcare and healthcare regardless of which local government is in charge of the management of their programs The literature does show cost savings for some of the biggest line items for local governments in the American system administrative and road building and maintenance costs decrease after a merger for many towns and cities Though the authors mentioned in this review also note cities that are likely to merge already share equipment and other resources meaning that the residents may not see the cost savings post-merger because some of those cost savings have taken place due to a de facto merger It does not seem that a vast amount of labor for the current literature has been devoted to the non-financial effects of mergers of municipalities of the nearly 20 local elected officials and appointed leaders of the Twin Cities area almost all of them mentioned specifically that a merger between the two cities would certainly bring about an increase in the quality of life for residents due to an increase in governmental efficiency in the long run According to the literature review: in most cases around the world – the merger of two cities is not a cost-effective way of doing business It does not bring about the reduction of tax burden on residents It doesn’t provide them with any significant benefits to balance the weight of the infighting amongst leaders who do not want to see the end of the city and the desired efficiency results for leaders to point to during their re-election campaigns this is not the case for Niceville-Valparaiso The merged city would bring about desired effects including a reduction in taxpayer-funded costs the ability to use economies of scale to reduce costs apply for bigger grants and throw its collective weight around to get what it wants more effectively but that only accounts for 10% of government costs in Denmark.” While this may seem at its outset to be a death knell for the argument for the merger of cities in general and Niceville and Valparaiso in particular – it is essential to keep in mind municipalities in Denmark are responsible for a bevy of services which Florida cities are not Blohm-Hanson’s study did note that road maintenance costs per kilometer did decrease after the merger and “some public goods have elements of nonrivalty in consumption and restaurant inspections may not cost more to provide for multiple residents than for just one resident the increasing scale of service provision makes possible a more fine-grained division of labor yielding the associated benefits of specialization such benefits of larger size are offset by problems of communication and control so does the need for transmission of information through more and more layers of management Large production processes often suffer from bureaucratic congestion production processes normally exhibit first increasing then constant and finally decreasing returns to scale The typical cost curve is U shaped.” Blesse is more favorable than other authors about the concept of a successful merger but adds that the financial effects of the merger are more negligible than some optimists may suspect our results indicate that mergers result in economies of scale for administrative expenditures: We observe a negative and statistically significant effect on this category we do not identify any significant average effects on staff further analysis reveals significant heterogeneity across different types of mergers we find that administrative cost savings are mostly due to compulsory mergers albeit insignificant effects of compulsory mergers on total and current expenditures; for voluntary mergers our estimates are statistically insignificant and small in magnitude we find that the effect of voluntary and compulsory mergers varies depending on the additional characteristic of a merger compulsory mergers are more effective in reducing costs when more inhabitants are effective” the jury is out on whether or not municipal mergers or consolidations save the taxpayer any money Some studies swear by the thesis that it does save money for governments to consolidate in the long run while others are more reticent to make such a claim – or refute it altogether Rune Sørenson notes the loss of specialized positions within municipal governments that comes with having splintered smaller municipalities instead of a larger ones that can support more specialized positions – although that economic gain comes at a cost “Small units allow each citizen more influence on local policies so politics are populated with citizens with relatively homogenous policy preferences mobility and competition among numerous local authorities may bring actual policies more in line with voter preferences small local governments are not able to address several important issues They lack the governance capacity to offer some more specialized public services Economies of scale call for a minimum level of production and provision of local public goods requires a certain population base to achieve a sufficient degree of cost-sharing” note that cost savings will have some variability which the cities’ size can explain after their mergers The authors also noted that the cost savings would vary across the types of public services provided by the municipalities “In Sweden, the national government ordered a merger of smaller municipalities to cut costs. Finally, Niklas Hanes and the other researchers who looked back at the mergers and drew conclusions noted “Amalgamations in the Swedish 1952 reform did not have any effect on income growth although amalgamations of small municipalities did have a small impact on population growth” The literature notes a difference between mergers enacted by the force of the national government and voluntary amalgamations The authors indicated the binary motives for mergers; being told by the national or state government to do so and merge voluntarily also had differing outcomes Blesse noted that voluntary mergers could have seemed less effective at reducing costs for several reasons They believe municipalities that decided to merge voluntarily already began the process informally on the road to a merger – and would already have seen some of the benefits of consolidation before officials signed the documents “Voluntary mergers may also be less effective because,” Blesse writes “those municipalities that voluntarily agree may have already coordinated and pooled resources in the pre-merger period there are mixed opinions about the effect of a merger on a city’s rich and poor In their analysis, Researcher Stephen Calabrese of the University of South Florida found that renters in cities that experience consolidation typically end up better off while suburban homeowners end up worse off This reality means that the masses will likely need to “consulate the losers [so that] everyone in all municipalities could be better off through a merger of two or more municipalities Wealthier cities tended to avoid amalgamation with poorer ones according to a study of Swedish mergers in 1952 by Hanes et al “The results show that income differences affected the willingness to amalgamate; high-income municipalities opposed amalgamation with fewer wealth municipalities.” The writers add “Small and large municipalities were most likely to accept the amalgamation decision and equally-sized municipalities were less likely to amalgamate voluntarily” Sørenson noted that more prosperous cities would almost always fight to avoid a merger with a poorer neighbor because they did not want to absorb and pay for a poorer city’s upkeep and felt it would be a drain on their resources believed that the decrease in the approval rating of the services provided had more to do with the type of service itself – rather than the consolidation: “Many of the results of this research can probably be attributed to the type of service provided Labor-intensive services which rely more on interpersonal relationships (such as police services and the tendency to actually complain and receive a response when a resident wants to complain) are sensitive to jurisdictional size since residents in a smaller jurisdiction have a greater opportunity to know those who provide these services Another survey was conducted only a year after the consolidation of Nashville and Davidson County That survey asked if residents were “…generally satisfied with how Metropolitan Nashville/Davidson County has worked in its first year in operation?” The results indicated that a majority of citizens who were questioned believed that the new government was performing well” One aspect concerning the difficulty of a municipal merger was almost universally accepted throughout the body of literature was the opinion that both communities and elected officials would more than likely resist a consolidation vigorously Even in Jacksonville – which would merge with Duval County to form a single government there were stumbling blocks throughout the decade before the merger – including five failed consolidation votes The consolidation advocates prevailed on the sixth effort Journalist and Jacksonville historian Richard Martin noted in his book consolidation proposals also trigger highly emotional debates and local protests and centralized restructuring commonly incurs prohibitive political costs” While this may not be an issue in the Florida panhandle which is beet-red Republican and has been so for the last thirty years – Sørenson notes citizens of neighboring municipalities “commonly have diverging policy preferences the local council may pursue different policies than each of the original councils” Valparaiso and Niceville’s municipalities voted heavily Republican 71% of Valparaiso residents voted for the Republican presidential candidate in 2020 Niceville’s five precincts voted between 68.5% and 72.5% Republican The high incidence of political party loyalty indicates that Niceville and Valparaiso’s citizens hold similar cultural and economic values several scholars identify disincentives specifically for political machines to promote mergers and consolidations as they reduce the number of paid foot soldiers that can advocate for their policies in the general public In their paper about Japanese municipal consolidation Kay Shimizu notes that the Liberal Democratic Party cut their legs out from under them when they advocated for the consolidation of many rural cities and towns to cut the cost of governance The LDP then had to contend with fewer local advocates working on their behalf – and a more politically independent rural Japan the total reduction in the number of local politicians hurt the LDP by cutting the number of paid foot soldiers who had long been some of the most reliable vote gathering forces for the LDP,” Shimizu writes “The reduction includes the mayors and the heads of each merged municipality By reducing the number of prefectural units which have relied more heavily on local politicians for votes than other parties took a disproportionately heavy blow after the mergers they argue that the reduction in the number of municipalities and foot soldiers and the increase in geographic size of each municipality hurt the LDP by increasing the geographic area of representation for each local politician thereby diminishing the ability to monitor the voting behavior of their constituents effectively” Sørenson notes similar patterns a half the planet away in Norway Changes in party strength due to municipal reform mean weakening power bases for some parties in power there Indeed – the current governor of Florida has more than likely noticed this and begun an attempt to shore up the Republican power base in Florida by encouraging the passage of a bill that would make all school boards partisan offices Sørenson claims local politicians will fight to preserve policymaking at a national level and their power at a local level we observe that local politicians and top administrators in small municipalities remain more reluctant to merge than leaders of more populous municipalities Elimination of revenue disparities would certainly further consolidations but local leaders and probably citizens are prepared to pay a price in terms of diseconomies of scale to persist as independent polities” The cities of Niceville and Valparaiso have a hard time recruiting and retaining police officers and other city employees over a long period because the cost of living in the cities has crept up – and the promise of much better wages in other parts of the state is ever-present A quick search of richer fire and police departments cross-tabulated with the cost of living for each city shows that public sector workers can make more money and spend less to live in larger cities A graph of police officer pay versus the cost of living shows a strong financial incentive for someone in law enforcement Niceville has had trouble recruiting in the last year for certified law enforcement officers to go somewhere else The cost of skilled labor – essential for the provision of public goods – will continue to be a more difficult hurdle for local governments They will need to compete for a smaller pool of public servants “It is plausible that small municipalities are not able to efficiently provide certain public goods larger municipalities have more bargaining power vis-a-vis externals (e.g private suppliers of inputs) and can reduce purchase price,” according to Blesse This predicament continues to be dire for smaller cities and towns so merging smaller cities and towns with another could offer a potential solution The increasing expense and difficulty in the procurement of manpower are why Shimizu argues that local politicians should not look at a potential merger as a threat to their power – but as an opportunity to get ahold of more resources and an additional measure of independence for the town or city that results from the merger mergers themselves have made many localities independent by merging fiscally weak municipalities with larger cities and towns Local politicians in these municipalities can now access larger budgets have greater capacity to carry out larger projects often have elevated their statuses within the subnational government hierarchy and can lure bigger businesses and other sources of income,” Shimzu said I contacted elected officials and key unelected stakeholders in the area to gauge their receptiveness to a merger I asked the various elected officials and stakeholders whether or not they thought the merger would benefit the residents of Niceville and Valparaiso and their opinions on whether or not it was a good idea to conduct a merger I reached out to all eleven elected officials in the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso to gain insight into their thoughts on merging Five of the six Niceville elected officials spoke with me and four of Valparaiso’s elected officials spoke with me I also interviewed one elected official for Okaloosa County Boyles was selected because he represents the western portion of Niceville and all of Valparaiso on the Okaloosa County Commission The final elected official I spoke to was State Representative Patt Maney Maney was selected because he represents the area in Tallahassee The six unelected key stakeholders who were interviewed were selected because they have relevant knowledge of planning and zoning; they are appointed to key positions with knowledge of economics and the city’s history; or they have relationships with key business stakeholders in the area The majority of those who responded to my inquires answered that a merger would more than likely benefit the residents of both communities in the long term only two – the combined Fire Chief Tommy Mayville and Niceville Councilman Carl Donahoo believed a merger could become a political reality – at least in the short term Most interviews were conducted via phone calls to the individual being interviewed Except for Representative Maney’s interview Representative Maney’s interview was conducted with the representative’s district aide on the call as well All interviews were conducted with two standard questions “Do you think a merger between the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso is a good or bad idea?” and “Do you think it is possible?” The rest of the questions asked were ad hoc and followed the flow of discussion All interviewees were told this line of questioning would be used in a thesis and would likely see their findings published most interviews were recorded and transcribed initially using otter.ai software and then edited for clarity All interview subjects were alerted that their interview was being recorded for accuracy and that the audio would not be publicly shared Four avenues of action were made clear after interviewing subjects and browsing the literature available for municipal mergers and consolidations in the United States and abroad the leaders of the residents of Niceville and Valparaiso can choose to expand their consolidated departments but keep two separate elected boards; fully merge the two cities; end their current relationship and separate their current joint functions; or do nothing and continue as they are now Four evaluative criteria were considered to determine which policy option was the best for the cities of Valparaiso and Niceville This criterion studied if the option could gain the support it needs from leaders and townspeople to become a reality the administrative feasibility was analyzed This criterion determined how hard it would be to implement the policy option I performed a cost analysis of each policy option I assessed ethical considerations for each option This criterion ensured that all individuals affected by the policy options were considered and none would be subject to unethical policies The four avenues the cities of Niceville and Valparasio can take are:  the best option for the residents of the Twin Cities area is a merger It is the most efficient way to deliver services to residents many of the elected and appointed officials in the area do not believe a merger to be a possibility – and therefore a serious look at merging more departments before a complete merger of the cities takes place may be the Realpolitik option on the table A summary of the key leader’s response to the idea of merging Niceville and Valparaiso can be found in the following table: and love the other: or he will sustain the one and despise the other” (Douey-Rheims Bible The alternative most often praised by local elected officials on both sides of Boggy Bayou – is the merger of more of the Twin Cities departments into one to increase efficiencies and reduce tax burdens on the residents of both cities The argument goes – that the merger of the Fire Department has gone so well that we should look into this with other departments as well This option has some significant advantages – and it may be the most actionable and politically expedient of the four courses of action the cities might see some – but not all – of the financial and logistical efficiencies gained from a complete merger without dealing with the political conundrum of an all-out merger of the two cities new problems may arise from continued mergers of the two cities’ various departments the governmental entities they answer two are not; they will essentially serve two masters with two separate sets of goals and desires This dichotomy of responsibility can lead to adverse outcomes like high turnover and animosity between the two governments that would lead to the dissolution of the merger In addition to the vexation of having two masters the departments may not see the savings typically seen from consolidation Having two sets of masters means everything from two budgets to prepare to two council/commission meetings to attend regularly believes that a significant consolidation of services or a merger will become necessary for the two cities in the immediate future – especially as equipment becomes a larger and larger proportion of the two smaller towns’ budgets “I think that the concept of merging city services is totally necessary… everything is kind of to scale you can integrate Niceville and Val-p public works departments together you wouldn’t need to have two vacuum sewer trucks at $350,000 you wouldn’t need to duplicate a lot of the equipment,” Scott said “So just to share a cost of the equipment would be a big reduction in both budgets and that you can make it up with additional manpower critical to maintaining your streets and you know The cities both recognize these cost-savings He says he has spoken to Valparaiso Mayor Brent Smith about the potential for other cost-saving measures between the cities and mentioned they could do the same with police and public works we might be able to work out something there,” Henkel said “it would be mutually beneficial to both organizations I know we’re short men [in our police department] but I would suspect that it probably is a situation that that they are you will be gaining the use of each other’s equipment to make sure that you fulfill the needs of the community” While it may seem anathema to speak on this topic – it is true that local representatives will fight consolidation if it means the end of their jobs The literature shows this had much to do with the level of organized resistance against the merger of municipalities in Quebec at the turn of the millennium Should the cities decide on a merger of departments without a full-on merger of the two cities – the elected representatives of those cities will be less incentivized to fight a merger They may have reason to support an amalgamation in the long term The cost reductions and the ability to keep taxes low while also keeping the prestige of a city council or commission position in the long term can motivate elected officials to support mergers that might save the taxpayers some money While the vast majority of elected and appointed officials noted they oppose or are neutral about a complete merger between the two cities of Niceville and Valparaiso – they also noted that continued mergers of departments would be a good thing Of the sixteen officials who I spoke with for this report ten said a merger of more departments to improve efficiencies and save money would be a good idea This overwhelming favorability for merging departments from elected and appointed officials indicated that this course of action would have the support necessary to make a pragmatic consolidation of departments between the two cities a possibility soon – especially as department heads for the agencies age and wish to retire the City Administrator with the City of Valparaiso “We’re kind of in a unique position He’s already retired once and came back planning that planning that merger.” this may be the most challenging program of the four options to implement The heads of merged departments would essentially be forced to answer to two groups of elected bodies with different wants which have two separate budgets and two separate sets of HR rules could lead to consequences between the staff of the unit departments and their managers has a city manager who is the only person who reports directly to the city council – the commission form of government that the city of Valparaiso has requires department heads to interface directly with city commissioners a department head like a fire chief would have one person they directly report to on the Niceville side though city councilpersons are likely to attempt to influence and change methodology as well as another five people on the Valparaiso City Commission to answer to the department director of a merged or married department would have somewhere between six and eleven people to answer to at any given time – all with different priorities and needs The Wharton School notes that the multiple-boss scenario happens more and more frequently in the 21st-century private sector. Quoting a 2015 Gallup Survey, the school noted that 84% of the 4,000 workers asked had a reporting structure that included more than one person The key for the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso is how the two ‘bosses’ will respect one another there are times when managers do not want cooperation “When one manager has no particular respect for the other or their line of business or its contribution to the bottom line they are going to think whatever work you do for me is more important,” says Yost “If they cannot see the ROI of that other manager’s function it will never be justified in their mind that the work for the other manager should take any priority the two managers may be competing for that next level up so if they see that person as direct competition it is not unheard of for them to do things to damage the other person’s performance” A department director placed in between this rock and a hard place would have to contend with the fact that one set of elected officials is doing a great job while another set may think far less of their performance An attempt to please both could result in two sets of disaffected elected officials employees would want – let alone a department director who more than likely has decades of experience in government Finding replacements for aging department directors in this scenario might prove difficult – and it may push other directors out of the door early A paper by Seong-Yoen Tun et al in the International Journal of Corporate Communications notes that the ability of managers to imbue into their employees the company’s mission statement has a direct relationship with both the employee’s performance their ability to work within the framework of the organization and their ability to adhere to the values of the company they work in (Seong-Yoen et al. When an employee does not have a clear goal or vision (or two clear Because the two policymaking bodies will have individual ambitions for their departments they will never be satisfied with their department head’s performance like the one the Niceville-Valparaiso Fire Department underwent in 2018 or projects which unify the two city’s efforts like the wastewater treatment plant which both cities and the county use or the sharing of the costs for a building inspector tend to lower costs for the pair of cities – but they are not necessarily as efficient as they could be The two departments still file separate budgets with their respective cities and plan for their future needs with tax revenues as independent government bodies the fusion has rendered some savings despite not being a complete department merger “Because when you purchase a fire truck or maybe a fleet of trucks for like the water department or maybe different things you get them at bulk,” said Chief Mayville in an interview about the subject in 2023 “that is why everybody goes to Sam’s that’s why everyone goes to Costco because there are savings to it And to say there wasn’t savings in municipalities or any type of government would be foolish due to the surpluses of equipment the two departments brought to their marriage they could reduce costs over the short term “We did not buy a piece of equipment this year for the fire department,” said Niceville City Manager Lannie Corbin in 2020 – two years after the merger Merging with [Valparaiso] gave us access to more equipment… Just from a city standpoint we have saved about $700,000 I guess in this first year” Those savings from the fire department could also occur in other departments – and may already happen de facto Valparaiso City Commissioner Tom Browning notes that several intercity loans occur regularly in the Twin Cities for the resident’s mutual benefit “I know our water and sewer guys have lent Niceville equipment and vice versa… by all means,’ because it’s not like we’re using all of our equipment all the time But when we have this heavy equipment stuff as needed it’s nice to be able to borrow when we can especially when our stuff was broken we were able to borrow trucks too while ours were being repaired a couple of days here and there.” merging the Twin Cities’ departments presents the opportunity to cut costs and keep everyone’s pride intact it will not do so as effectively as a complete consolidation between the two cities The two cities may well keep much of the management functions they needed when there were two discrete agencies – and would thereby reduce the amount of savings taxpayers could see over the long term One of the main reasons in the literature that the European and Canadian national governments noted for the impetus of their desire to merge was the potential to reduce costs for the taxpayer many of the elected officials spoken to in the research portion of this paper cited the potential reduction in costs as the main driver for any merger of city functions shortly merging additional departments will not eliminate significant management overhead the CFO for the Walton County Sheriff’s Office recently oversaw the reassignation of the Walton County Fire Department from the purview of the Walton County Board of County Commissioners to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office She found that transferring the department to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office and consolidating the command staff into the Walton County Sheriff’s Office apparatus cost the taxpayer more money when the changeover finished Because the agency relinquished the fire department The Walton County Board of County Commissioners did not eliminate any management or oversight positions associated with their management of the Fire Department “I don’t know about the county side more finance people because of additional invoices to pay additional people and to take care of their insurance and retirement and all of the other benefits.” Bruce added “I don’t think they cut any positions by transferring fire over to us they may have had 600 people – it went down to 450 We probably had to add people to cover payroll and additional vendors and they probably did not cut the same number of people If we had absorbed a totally independent fire station because they still have a lot of other operations” A gradual partial merger has the potential to save lives and reduce costs though the savings and efficacy may not be as significant as they would be in a complete merger Along with some of the financial incentives gained by the merger in the short term City Manager Lannie Corbin noted that the additional level of protection Valparaiso enjoys means faster response to fires and lower insurance costs “Even before we merged… they had a volunteer department with one or two firemen That right there tells you about the efficiencies and services provided when you think positively about something like that” (Saul These efficiencies and a fully professionalized force equate to lower insurance values and quicker response for residents of Valparaiso The most drastic option – a merger between the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso would require either the passage of separates ordinance by both the cities of Valparaiso and Niceville or a successful petition drive – and then subsequent separate plebiscites by the residents of both cities to affirm a merger Both cities would have to determine thousands of variables and when the merger would officially occur While there are a plethora of benefits to the residents of both Niceville and Valparaiso – people tend not to like change and they tend to like the ending of a city even less residents voted against the dissolution of the city – even though the municipality does very little in the way of providing services while still collecting taxes Almost two-thirds of residents voted against the measure to dissolve While the option to merge the cities has many powerful benefits the city leaders of both cities will have to acknowledge some of the weaknesses both cities bring to the table these weaknesses serve as warts that will make the cities unattractive to the other city’s residents and thereby potentially preclude a ‘yes’ vote on a merger Issues like Valparaiso’s lower median home sale price and lack of commercial real estate may serve as a disincentive for people from Niceville to vote for a merger Valparaiso residents may be strongly disincentivized to give up their autonomy in order to reduce taxation costs in the long term four of whom in the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso said they had serious reservations about a potential merger of the two cities may serve as a deterrent in both cities to a merger the only form of support that would be needed for the measure to get on the ballot for a plebiscite is ten percent of the total number of registered voters in each city (FSS 165.041) That means finding 1,155 registered voters in the city of Niceville and 322 in the city of Valparaiso to fill out the petition (Lux it may be the most practical method by which to merge the two cities the complete merger of the two cities would be the most administratively feasible The strength of this option comes from the argument that the two now one cities’ residents would reduce the layers of bureaucracy for citizens so that consolidation of the two cities would reduce the layers of government involved in daily life and simplify the process of citizen interaction with it The newly consolidated city would have the ability to hire more specialists that would be tasked with expanding the city’s ability to secure grant funding from the state or federal government communicate effectively with the public on an everyday and emergency basis and support the city manager in their quest to improve the quality of life housing affordability and other goals for the city in the medium to long term while abiding by the city council’s strategic planning initiatives The most important benefit for a city’s decision must revolve around whether or not it will improve residents’ lives By merging and looking to annex more land into the city the merged city must use those advantages it accrues by becoming larger to make residents’ lives easier By having a single city with easily defined borders instead of the current situation where there are two cities and a county government operating in the area with different rules and regulations residents will be able to conduct business efficiently with the government because they know which government they need to interact with much more quickly Part of the quality of life improvement would be the ease of starting or expanding a business in the area Niceville-Valparasio Chamber President Tricia Brunson believes the consolidation would allow more businesses to see the newly consolidated city as a place that is ripe for economic activity She also sees the potential for consolidation as a way to boost economic activity because it will make it easier for both city residents and businesses to conduct business with the correct local government “Then you would have a standard place to always go for your business license And you would have a standard center to go to to find out about zoning and all of that stuff And our zoning – Niceville’s is bad enough but Val-p’s is even more difficult because their business corridor is so slim but maybe not as slow as they are doing it I think Niceville has its own set of problems with all of these random Because people will literally have no idea if they live in the city limits or not,” said Brunson departments in both cities which provide services to more than 20,000 people would be able to plan with and answer to one city administration instead of two supported and empowered by the city council would be able to plan strategically for the future of the whole area – instead of just one part of it simply by its existence and implementation by one more extensive group of public employees working together As noted earlier – a city manager in Florida earns about $100,000 per year plus benefits on average Other highly-skilled positions in municipal government can cost a budget-breaking amount of money as well – and smaller cities like Valparaiso may have a hard time affording them on the smaller amounts of ad valorum taxes they collect – leaving them forced to raise taxes to recruit qualified individuals currently fulfills several roles for the city of Valparaiso and Niceville would cost $200,000 per year in salary for the city of Valparaiso alone to replace He currently earns around $75,000 annually from Valparaiso and some compensation from the city of Niceville While both cities have a reprieve from paying the extra cost now – they will when Scott a man nearing retirement who also builds homes on the side for more money “I don’t see how [the cities] can afford to [pay for the roles Scott plays separately] you just [these jobs would] all be budget breakers certain jobs would be just impossible to do,” Scott said In order for the cities of Valparaiso and Niceville to be able to continue their functions in areas where the cost for talent Add in the fact that Niceville and Valparaiso are more than 50 miles away from the nearest university that can grant degrees in public administration and the city needs to innovate to find talent The cities will also need to keep up with new positions cities need could be expensive to fill,” said Niceville Mayor Daniel Henkel there’s lots of stuff that’s going on with the city that would be great if we had a public information officer that could get that information out in a timely fashion and would be available to answer questions.” The open channel of communication the PIO would provide would increase the transparency of the city reinforce the proactivity of elected officials and help to disseminate emergency notices to the public more generally – a function that is currently handled in an ad hoc manner (Niceville) or not all (Valparaiso) cities of various sizes have equal standing before the state government; some are more equal than others Larger cities and counties have the resources (staff time and financial backing) to advocate for themselves more effectively at the state legislature level which means their concerns and requests have more weight than others might State Representative Patt Maney made a note in a conversation on the subject that he works just as hard for the smaller cities in Okaloosa County as he does for the big ones – and cited several projects he was able to get funded in the 2023 session for the town of Cinco Bayou While the representatives themselves may put in as much effort on behalf of cities in their district large and small – the cities can advocate for themselves if they have the funds available Those cities with the money and resources available can secure outsized funding because of the number of voters they have in their ranks and the quality of their proposals the more likely they are to get both initial traction in their representatives’ offices and on the house floor “I personally think dealing from an appropriation side when we get requests from whether it be the county or for Crestview,” said Ian Thompson the district aide for Representative Maney “I think definitely dealing with first the county Destin kind of moving down in that order [of population size] that and that kind of order The bigger cities definitely have more professionalism.” more attractive proposal for funding that follows the myriad guidelines and avoids procedural pitfalls of the legislature has a much better chance of getting funded than proposals from smaller cities with fewer resources to ensure the letter of the funding solicitation document is followed the combination of resources to get state and federal funding that would follow a merger would be a boon for the residents of the newly combined city In addition to the ability to lobby for more funding and resources on the state level – a newly-merged city would be nearly as large as the county’s second-largest city While the population size is valuable for its economy of scale – the designation as the county’s second-largest city would also afford it a seat on the Tourism Development Council for Okaloosa County This allowance would mean the city of Niceville would have at least some say on where the tens of millions of dollars in bed tax revenue in Okaloosa County gets spent the representation could turn into a positive cash flow for projects in the Twin Cities region Merging the cities would produce significant benefits for the residents long term The consolidated city would see some cost savings from eliminating positions and duplicated efforts – and creating a city in what both the literature and Okaloosa County Commissioner Nathan Boyles say would be the ideal city size citizens would have more services for less tax revenues Residents would have an easier time figuring out who approves permits Business owners from out of town would more easily know with whom they need to do city business More large firms would look at the area for new businesses as the city would have a larger population city services would have a larger talent pool to draw – meaning service delivery would improve By combining the cities of Valparaiso and Niceville into one city – the residents would be able to get increased municipal services reduced levels of ad valoreum taxation through economies of scale and the ability to bond out for larger projects at a lower rate of interest than they would as individual cities These benefits would stand as large incentives for taxpayers to approve a potential merger between the two cities their ability to generate more revenue through direct taxation gets larger – and their ability to receive more revenues from the State of Florida based on their population does the same,” said Okaloosa County Administrator John Hofstad on the subject “The slice of the pie for state shared revenues go up the bigger the city you are There is value in population and there is a return for every citizen you have on your rolls They would have the benefit of being larger the benefit of having greater access to capital to be able to leverage greater bond issuances Maybe their max they can go out into the municipal bond market and secure is $5-$10 million you grow to a municipality of 20,000 and now your bond ceiling might be $20 or $25 million.” Together the two cities will have a reduction in the need for total support staff per resident due to the elimination of extra IT and other ancillary support services positions – this would mean the ability for the consolidated council to create a win for the residents of the city – either through lower taxes or more services at the same taxing rate the cities would have to determine what to do with the two in-house services Valparaiso offers which the city of Niceville does not – cable and trash hauling Because of the existing franchise agreement with waste management and the fact that Niceville does not have its own cable service – the simplest thing to do would be to sell off whatever assets the city of Valparaiso can from the two services and pocket the money with the dissolution of those assets would come some heartache from residents who like the control of a local trash and cable utility – according to Valparaiso City Commissioner Chris Wasdin And I know exactly who they’re sending ‘We’re sending Bobby in 10 minutes,’ or I know which one you’re talking about that room in your house doesn’t work And the same applies to our garbage service And people are always saying nice things about them Because there’s a lot of senior citizens and the garbage man will come right up to your door practically You don’t have to put it out at the street So that those kind of small-town feel things would be a big loss if we merged.” City Commissioner Tom Browning agrees; “It’s part of our identity of knowing the people that come to your yard every day the people that come to your yard every week People know more about our cable guys than they know about themselves they know when their parties are they know when their kids are graduating They’re in our houses; they’re cleaning up after themselves very well It’s a huge pride for Val-p on those two [functions] alone.”  A city’s water and sewer infrastructure is one of the largest assets or liabilities The cities of Valparaiso and Niceville have miles of water and sewer piping that runs under the ground which must be maintained at regular intervals to ensure it still works for residents and complies with state and federal laws and regulations The longer a water and sewer apparatus is left unmaintained Both cities need to take this under advisement regarding a potential merger – one city’s residents could be on the hook for another city’s years of mismanagement Okaloosa County Administrator John Hofstad a former water and sewer department director for the cities of Mary Esther and Fort Walton Beach “The other thing you have to consider… how up-to-date is their infrastructure Road infrastructure is easy to evaluate… Everything below ground or will you have to go in and out of the gate to make wholesale improvements to upgrade gravity sewage mains and sewage force mains… are the water lines corroded What impact is that going to have on the ratepayer?” But Administrator Hofstad still believes the ratepayer would ultimately win in a merger you should still see significant economies of scale because you have a bigger pool of customers You also have the leverage of additional revenue.”  The most commonly argued-for reason for a merger in the literature is that a merger will save taxpayers money by reducing the cost of service delivery in the municipality The literature shows some cost savings for the taxpayer – significantly as the administrative portion of the government can reduce itself in a merger – along with some duplicate roles such as information technology and human resources notes that because payroll costs are such a small part of the municipal equation roughly ten percent in Europe – they would only see nominal savings through mergers (Blohm-Hansen) payroll accounts for more than half of the cost of running the municipality – according to their most recent fiscal year budget (Valp.org) would considerably affect the city’s bottom line more than it would in a typical European city on which Blohm-Hansen bases their findings While Valparaiso Commissioner Tom Browning prefers the idea of two separate cities for the foreseeable future – he notes that the cost-saving potential is evident to him and would be amenable to a merger it might be cheaper in the long run for the two to combine You’ve got more people in Niceville than you’ve got in Valparaiso It would help us in Valparaiso lower our rates According to a 2020 lecture by Florida State University professor Dr the top enticements for businesses to relocate or expand into a new area that local or state governments can provide are the availability of skilled labor construction cost and existing infrastructure Through the concerted organization and consolidation of resources through a merger the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso could offer businesses streamlined movement to the area more organized construction and maintenance of transportation infrastructure increased quality of life through parks and other services planning and incentives to retain local talent after it graduates from high school or leaves the Air Force in the opinion of the local chamber of commerce president Tricia Brunson I’m not interested in attracting a lot of national businesses because I think that we will then change our whole dynamic of the Niceville area… And so the likelihood of people being interested pull the data from wherever their favorite place to pull it is I want to be in the southeast and we need a population of ‘X’ And so [a consolidated Niceville] is going to come up on searches… In my mind that could be a minus.” By increasing the number of firms in the Niceville-Valparaiso by leveraging the benefits of consolidation to attract those businesses the area would be able to insulate itself from calamities like hurricanes or base realignment the city of Valparaiso has had a challenging time developing economic growth within its limits The City of Niceville has expanded rapidly and has added multiple shopping and dining options in the last ten years and breweries have sprung up on John Sims Parkway in Niceville The Parkway is the main east-west route through both Valparaiso and Niceville no such growth occurred in the Valparaiso area during the same period This lack of growth has resulted in serious budget woes for Valparaiso The city commission attempted to raise the millage rate from 5.024 mills to 5.9 mills to cover increasing costs from health benefits and other cost drivers – but an outcry from the local newspaper caused the commission to about-face (Griffith Both the City of Valparaiso (5.024) and the City of  Niceville (3.7) have had the same mileage rate since 2015 (Okaloosa County Property Appraiser) There are some drawbacks with which the merger of the two cities might have to contend Niceville would have to be willing to assume the responsibility for Valpraiso’s infrastructure Citizens may feel a loss of identity and wish to leave the area the city of Valparaiso – which currently owns and operates its garbage service and cable – would possibly lose its monopoly on those services the city of Valparaiso would lose its more direct “Galveston” model of governance that it has had for more than 100 years in favor of the more modern city manager-council model Carl Scott has a distinct memory from about fifteen years ago in Valparaiso The memory consists of the Valparaiso Volunteer Fire Department scrambling like disorganized madmen to get to their truck for a fire call “Our fire department was hideous,” Scott said “I live down the street [from the fire department] I used to watch these boys run from the Tom Thumb when they would have a fire call because we used to have an old air raid siren that would go off and there’s just no way we could provide good fire service.” Since the professionalization of the fire service – costs have gone up significantly – almost tripled – but the service has improved dramatically There’s no reason why you couldn’t integrate departments like public works A lot of municpal work is economy of scale.” The professionalization of the fire service in Valparaiso brought on by its fusion with the City of Niceville’s Fire Rescue has done more than change the economics of fire protection for both cities – it has also allowed for better coordination and emergency response on the ground for both cities The City of Niceville can more quickly respond to emergencies on State Roads 123 and 85 In addition – the Valparaiso full-time station allows Niceville to keep its precious ISO Class 2 safety rating for the city of Niceville Because the Valparaiso station can quickly respond to calls in Valparaiso and Western Niceville the calls that take longer to respond to in the eastern portion of the city balance the average response time – and allow the Niceville Fire Department to get to those more easterly calls more rapidly as they are less likely to be stuck on a call in the western portion of the city with the Valparaiso station in support “I don’t know that you’d necessarily see like a cost reduction for budgetary purposes but you would just see an increased amount of manpower because you’re decreasing the amount of equipment as necessary to serve both cities,” said Fire Chief Tommy Mayville It’s kind of like the fire department [Valparaiso] supplied fire trucks and pickup trucks and all that stuff We have a fire station in Valparaiso… they could pull in from [Valparaiso] which frees up their fire insurance to do things that are farther away Like [the new subdivision in Niceville’s eastern half] Deer Moss [Creek] there’s no fire station out by Deer Moss the closest one is over there while they’re out doing a Deer Moss call our fire stations can handle the rest and vice versa The Walton County Sheriff’s Office CFO Minette Bruce says the efficiencies gained may not show up on balance sheets like hers – but that does not make them valueless “I know this will sound strange coming from a finance person but some of the benefits will not necessarily be financial the taxpayer does get some benefits,” Bruce said “If you go to the scene of a terrible auto crash Those people have been working together in the same organization So if you know the person in the fire truck is the incident commander those law enforcement officers know they need to follow their directions Another benefit of that same scenario is because we have the fire department under us [at Walton County Sheriff’s Office] we have trained a lot of our law enforcement officers because they can get to a scene much more quickly because they are dispersed throughout the community where your ambulance and fire departments are not Whereas your ambulances and your firefighters are typically in the firehouse A [law enforcement officer] who is an EMT can get to the scene faster In addition to supplementing and supporting other areas’ needs when required – a merger of the two cities would eliminate an invisible line that can sometimes jeopardize effective service delivery in a city or town Jurisdictional barriers naturally create hiccups and fumbles between agencies Especially when it comes to emergent situations that can take place the reduction of the number of invisible lines in an area to a minimum can mean the difference between safe and unsafe neighborhoods Support departments in a consolidated city would also see greater levels of consolidation as well – reducing manpower and possibly other costs In addition – the larger pool of talent to draw from for a larger city means more options for the positions that need to be filled “there are obvious economies of scale benefits You have a larger talent pool to draw from and you can reduce personnel resources you no longer need You have buying power and leverage because you are larger You have the benefit of a potentially reduced property millage although that is not a guarantee… you are not duplicating IT resources or other internal service functions,” said Okaloosa County Administration John Hofstad While the support that consolidated agencies members can make for one another in a single function are legion – the chance to merge departments also presents the city with an opportunity to reduce invisible lines and red tape The Old Metairie Discount (a gas station convenience store) was right on the parish line and it was one of the most robbed stores in the parish of Jefferson usually to go back to Hollygrove because the [victim] would call into Jefferon Parish 911 It takes time and they would have to dispatch it over the line to Orleans Parish but [consolidation] can keep crime off the streets.”  Eliminating an invisible line of red tape would mean reduced response times for everything from emergency calls to the new municipality’s 911 centers to reducing the time it would take to fix a busted pipe near the former cities’ border Reducing red tape would be a net benefit for the residents of both cities the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso would return to their arrangement before the 1980s when they did not share a fire department The Twin Cities have combined resources for the last half century to meet the needs of residents – and those interlocal agreements and mergers could be nullified easily by one or both city governments If one or both cities decided to take this course of action the assets of the two cities’ united operations would need to be split in half and disintegrated  in a way that is equitable to both cities’ residents Disintegrating the two cities’ established merged functions has precious few benefits and would likely not be supported by either the City Council in Niceville or the City Commission in Valparaiso the benefit would consist of the two cities’ ability to regain complete authority over those departments’ functions The so-called merger of the two fire departments seems here to stay Valparaiso Commissioner Tom Browning and Valparaiso City Administrator Carl Scott expressed a robust favorable sentiment for the arrangement which has brought Valparaiso resident’s insurance costs down – as they have the benefit of Niceville’s ISO class 2 rating The combination of a functioning arrangement the lowering of insurance costs as a deliverable to Valparaiso residents and the ability to leverage tax dollars for both cities to maintain and expand fire coverage throughout the area means it would be tough to sever ties there are two fire departments but one fire chief The city of Valparaiso would need to appoint a new chief to replace the outgoing Chief and have that new chief begin work on cutting costs back down to a manageable level the Valparaiso Department was partially a volunteer force and had significantly lower costs than the department does now (City of Valparaiso The regional wastewater treatment plant owned collectively by the cities of Valparaiso and the Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners would continue to operate as usual – with each part-owner paying for their part of the upkeep of the facility As for the building inspector – more specific arrangements would need to be made Carl Scott is the current building inspector for Niceville and Valparaiso Scott also serves as the Valparaiso city administrator While he may be able to manage both cities’ duties in the short term and a new person may not wish to take on all of those duties – especially at the rate Scott is paid for his expertise That could present a problem for both cities as they shore up their budgets yearly (Saul Should the two cities decide to unhitch from one another the cities’ separate elected officials would have a direct say over the operations of their respective functions – at the cost of building up those functions on their own time and dime Niceville and Valparaiso representatives would no longer have to consult with one another about the functioning of fire safety building regulations and protocol for their cities or how the sewer treatment plant runs or when the cities would need to either build a new sewer treatment plant – or hook into the County’s plant in Fort Walton Beach – a significant expense They would also need to provide their fire chiefs revenues for supporting their departments independent of one another and other ancillary public safety costs The issues that the disintegration of combined services creates would lead to dramatic problems in the area – especially for the city of Valparaiso which has grown its fire department tremendously over the last five years in order to pay the partial salary of Mayville improve its apparatus and increase the number of professional firefighters on staff In addition – should one or both cities decide to pull out of other agreements they have made with one another over the last half-century The budgets of the Niceville-Valparaiso fire apparatus have climbed regularly since their merger in 2018 which supports the larger share of the fire department The most significant single increase occurred between Fiscal Years 21-22 and 22-23 when the department’s budget increased by 22% according to the City of Niceville Valparaiso’s fire protection costs have increased 264% since the department effectively merged with the City of Niceville – more than $450,000 annually accrodinf to the City of Valparaiso.Those costs allowed the department professional outfit with a much quicker response to fires and other emergencies that call for the need for a firefighter While the costs of the departments’ collective services have increased dramatically in the last five years – the city’s ISO rating which determines residents’ home and life insurance rates has dropped by two – meaning lower insurance costs for the city’s residents ending the merged relationship between the two departments could put this rating in danger and lead to higher insurance rates for the city’s residents severing all joint programs for the Twin Cities would require one or both cities to hire a new building inspector for their respective cities Finding someone of this caliber is not easy or cheap – both positions earn about $50,000 per year before benefits are added on Separating the two cities would do more than separate the city of Niceville and Valparaiso’s joint fire protection venture In order to truly accomplish the separation of the two cities – they would also need to end their joint ownership of a long-running sewage treatment plant on Partin Drive in Niceville The cities jointly own and operate the plant along with Okaloosa County They plan to close it down and divert sewage to the Okaloosa County-run Arbennie Pritchett Waste and Sewage Treatment Plant in Fort Walton Beach according to Niceville City Manager Lannie Corbin State Representative Patt Maney has filed bills to receive funding to such an effect (Florida House Bill 4545 Separating the two cities in all things would require the cities to divert off the plant and close it immediately create a crisis for the cities to respond to as they currently have no way to divert their raw sewage to the county plant in Fort Walton Beach The cities would then need to prioritize the connection of their sewer lines to the County plant without the benefit of time to line up state or federal grants to reduce the direct impact on residents In the sphere of fire protection – there may be an ethical dilemma for leaders to deal with in both cities As of right now – the city of Niceville’s eastern flank is exposed began construction of a planned development of 3,500 homes in 2018 About 300 of those homes have been completed The development is about five minutes away from the Niceville Fire Department Headquarters on Partin Drive The cities of Niceville and Valparaiso are also jointly responsible due to mutual aid agreements with the United States Air Force Fire Department at Eglin Air Force Base to respond to traffic crashes and other incidents on State Route 85 north of the city fire fighters based at both the Valparaiso and Niceville stations can effectively coordinate with one another rapidly to cover the highway and the newly developed areas on the east side of Niceville instantaneously the cities would be one close series of calls away from a significant delay for a response that could cost lives and property and absolutely would cost the residents of Niceville a decrease in their ISO ratings meaning higher insurance costs for residents and businesses The twin issues of worse fire coverage for all residents and higher costs for insurance make this option politically unappealing and ethically questionable The chances that the two cities would renege on the deal which created their joint fire department are low is enough for both elected bodies to be happy about the decision “I do like the way that the fire department has worked out We have 24/7 coverage over here instead of just 16 hours via a phone call away,” said current Valparaiso City Commissioner Tom Browning The low chances of a backpedaling on any merged functions between the cities bring the next option – do not change anything about what the two cities are doing to serve their communities now Doing nothing is more than likely the most politically feasible option of the four outlined in the scope of this paper Many of the local leaders interviewed noted they believe a merger cannot occur between the two cities of Niceville and Valparaiso because of the desire of local politicians to retain power in their domains some elected and appointed leaders might lose their positions to a merger “You would lose your city government,” said Niceville Councilwoman Cathy Alley as she explained intransigence against the merger of the two cities She added that elected officials and the people do not “like to give up that power.” By leaving things the way they are and elected officials keep their posts – citizens get the same amount of representation as they did previously as well By doing nothing and remaining on the path the two cities pursue no one would rock the boat or offend residents Doing nothing has broad support amongst the city’s elected officials and appointed officials Only two people interviewed for this paper believe that a merger is feasible politically while many believe that a merger would be a good idea that a political consideration stands in the way of a merger that is not the merits of the idea itself While it may be true that the objections to the merger are political and not practical, they still exist. The status quo, therefore, is most easily left alone. Emergency Management literature discusses focusing events – essentially cataclysmic events that create a strong desire for change that can last anywhere from 12-18 months after a tragedy This period sees an onus for immediate action from the general public though it wanes as time separates the present from the event As of the writing of this report – no event could be exploited or otherwise demand change from two separate cities to one there is a strong incentive for nothing to be done about the issue this would be the easiest course of action to take in the short term this course of action does come with some headaches and heartburn for the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso no leadership replacement needs to take place and no administrative tasks need to be changed But like with many other personal unions – their legitimacy tends to waver over time someone will have to succeed Chief Mayville who has broad support from the city leaders of Niceville and Valparaiso The chief is in the end stages of his career and has mentioned retirement soon This retirement would require his replacement by both cities’ fire departments If the cities wish to continue sharing the cost of a chief this would mean issues that could bring the cities to loggerheads both cities will naturally want a say in who their new fire chief is especially if the departments continue to be led by one person learned the difficulties of navigating what his constituents namely the officials he ultimately must work with the successor at the fire departments will have to deal with a constantly shifting set of wants and needs for each city that can run counter to each other For the record, it did not work out well for Charles. Oliver Cromwell and the roundheads executed Charles at the end of the English Civil War. The conflict laid waste to the British Isles, claiming numerous lives and creating further emnity between the various protonationalistic, religious and economic factions under the reign of the forming British state Will the succession of a fire chief lead to all-out civil war in Niceville and Valparaiso But it could lead to squabbling between cities that could end up costing the taxpayer and reducing the efficacy of governance in the Twin Cities just as the English Civil War did for the British Isles this growth depends on the continued success of its neighbors to the west The lack of retailers in the city limits means that the city only collects property taxes on residential homes with a homestead exemption meaning lower than possible revenues in the long run Niceville boasts a much larger population and a robust commercial footprint along its portion of State Route 20 Okaloosa County Growth Management Director Elliot Kampert says this reality will hobble Valparaiso in the future “If the city council of Valparaiso has the political will to enforce standards to keep Valparaiso as it is [via raising millage rates to keep up with needs] Adding in the fact that Valparaiso is next to a city with a lower property tax rate and people can go elsewhere for hospitals and shopping or they want to control their own fate by way of zoning or land use,” Kampert said The political impetus to raise taxes does not exist in Valparaiso City commissioners say from the dais in their regular meetings that it is their prerogative to keep taxes at their rates – Commissioner Browning reinforced this notion in the  interview I had with him for this paper The last attempt to raise taxes from the current millage rate of 5.024 to 5.9 was resoundingly defeated in 2018 by commission members after the local paper called the commission out for the attempt The resistance to even higher taxes means the city’s leadership cannot pay for more specialized service personnel needed to make itself relevant as an independent entity the town has no full-time manager to coordinate across the elected officials – as the city still has a Galveston-style commission government when the debate about whether or not to move to a manager-council form of government – or some variation thereof that would not force a charter change for the city – the biggest concern for the city was the fact that they would not be able to afford the cost for a city manager the commission will be forced to continue as department heads who can only do the work in their silo – and cannot communicate with one another never mind affiliated support staff like a Public Information Officer costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000 to $140,000 before benefits in nearby cities The cost of a city manager would add a 50% increase in administrative salary to the city alone Citizen outcry from 2018 shows the residents of the town do not want to see taxes go any higher than they already are – and implies that a city manager form of government – whether by charter change or on a de facto basis would not be acceptable to residents if it meant additional costs there are no apparent ethical dilemmas for elected officials to worry about that they would not otherwise be engaged in dealing with during their regular duties Residents empower them through election to act as governmental fiduciaries collectively That responsibility to do the best for the most does not change whether or not those elected officials represent a consolidated city or they represent one of two different cities Before a decision can be rendered on which of the decisions to make – it has to be determined whether or not a merger is politically feasible as an option in the immediate future The overwhelming opinion of elected and appointed officials was ‘no.’ Of the elected or appointed officials surveyed about the merger – only three Fire Chief Tommy Mayville and Niceville Councilmen Carl Donahoo and Sal Nodjomian Okaloosa County Commissioner Nathan Boyles summed it up with one word: tribalism “You have very tribal tendencies amongst us mere humans and we see in something as minor as a rural water utility or a volunteer fire department Even when everyone agrees that a merger would be beneficial to all involved usually the elected officials or the fire chiefs are unwilling to let go of the position of power the decision is made with the individual needs of perception of the individual needs of the decision-making class instead of an objective review of what would be the best for the whole,” said Boyles There is some precedence for this dim view of humanity in Okaloosa County. In 2016, the idea was floated in the northern portion of Okaloosa County to consolidate the eight volunteer fire departments in the area Despite the claims that it would save money and make the fighting of fires more efficient in the area Consolidation and mergers are a messy political business that typically cannot take place because the egos in the equations can outweigh the benefits to the citizens in the long term Some officials believe misinformation also has something to do with residents’ intransigence to mergers – in addition to the hyperlocal autonomy residents would have in smaller cities “they are afraid that their taxes are going to go up,” said Niceville city councilwoman Cathy Alley They don’t like to give up that power.” The cities of Niceville and Valparaiso should merge into a larger city The larger city would receive some savings from an economy of scale gain some fringe benefits like power on county-wide boards including the well-funded Okaloosa County Tourism Development Council be able to coordinate response to emergencies and other local needs with agility attract more and bigger businesses to the area and provide more specialized services to residents face the choice most kids face when they go swimming at the pool for the first time each summer They can scream “cannonball!” and smash into the chilly water and be done with it – or they can inch into the agony of a new freezing sensation as they gingerly acclimate themselves to the situation Both methods have issues – but one gets over the problems after a jarring transition and quickly gets to playing with friends The other one typically got halfway in and splashed by their mates halfway through the icy experience One can’t ignore the vast majority of key elected and appointed officials in both cities who believe the path forward is a merger of departments to reduce costs before a possible full consolidation These leaders have a responsibility to do what is best for the residents of the cities they lead – they also have to prepare to deal with the consequences they face either decision – a formal consolidation into a single polity or a more gradual amalgamation that leads to a full merger – are steps in the right direction There is certainly more political support for the latter which means it may be the practical option the formal merger of the two cities into one would be the most cost-effective and judicious use of the public’s resources in the short term Mayor Henkel of Niceville noted in his interview that he and Mayor Brent Smith of Valparaiso recently had discussions about what other departments of their two cities could merge in the future to increase efficiency and reduce the cost of services provided and determined that good places to look were the city’s police force and the city’s public works units There is a desire among the leadership of the two cities to see more mergers and consolidations like in Option A Leaders in the two cities can use the mergers of individual services to accelerate the movement toward a complete and formal consolidation that would result in more efficient service performance and cost savings for residents in both cities in the long run will encourage members of unincorporated Niceville to incorporate into the city the cost savings will bring the cost of living in the city below that of living outside of it in terms of taxation people living outside the city will have a higher tax levy to pay for fewer services Once promoted vigorously by a marketing and advocacy campaign this realization will make service provision even less expensive because unincorporated homes and businesses will be brought into the city This recommendation will take convincing and changing of minds – and the grace for members of the Niceville community to realize they are asking the members of the Valparaiso community to give up something unique – their city had some angst amongst the rank and file as it took place – especially when it came to the embattled chief in Valparaiso And there’s nothing wrong with that,” said Niceville and Valparaiso Fire Chief Tommy Mayville Because you can be so proud that you hold on to something that it’s just absurd.” Mayville added that the merger would have similar struggles because of the personalities involved “I think the biggest obstacle to overcome is people who have lived here long The land between Eglin Air Force Base’s east gate and the intersection of State Route 293 and John Sims Parkway holds roughly 35,000 people: 5,000 people in Valparaiso and another 14,000 or so in the unincorporated areas in the east of Niceville and Bluewater Bay The merger of the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso creates the conditions for the residents of both cities to retain high levels of service compared to residents in unincorporated Okaloosa County while potentially lowering the cost of services per resident Niceville’s millage rate of 3.7 is still slightly higher than the East Niceville Fire Department’s millage rate of 3.4 Because Residents of East Niceville pay unincorporated parks tax in addition to the fire department obligations – the total cost in property taxes is about 40 cents higher per year on a $400,000 home between the two entities With the merger of Valparaiso and Niceville – it may be cheaper to live in the Niceville City limits than outside of them – because of economies of scale In addition – residents would get police protection and other city services as well This overwhelming benefit for incorporation would mean a rapid voluntary annexation of properties into the city decrease costs even more substantially for all involved This more extensive population base would give the city’s residents more weight to throw around at the county and state level as well-meaning even more funding for the city in the long run “If you merge this whole area at the center of the county it would be a force to be reckoned with,” Chief Tommy Mayville said The city of Niceville is in a strong position The last half century has been much more favorable to it than it has been to the city of Valparaiso Niceville has seen heavy residential and commercial development compared to the development of its western neighbor This development means quadrupling the Niceville population and significantly increasing the city’s tax base Valparaiso has much to offer the City of Niceville’s residents with a merger including rapidly appreciating property values and the potential to house even more people soon – a concern for the two cities Valparaiso is the poorer and less developed of the two areas and currently has a higher tax levy to make ends meet for the city’s government the town has plenty to offer the residents of Niceville – should the two cities vote to merge property values in the city have climbed astronomically – as evidenced by their stable tax levy rate – but their steady 10% increase in received ad valorum taxes While the community would benefit from the merger of the two cities the city of Valparaiso’s residents stands to gain immensely from the amalgamation of the two cities into one they will continue to struggle to find specialists in local government and other positions willing to work at a pay rate that the city can afford Population growth is stagnant at this time and will continue to be because of the lack of available space to build new and more dense housing the contrast between a modernized private sector and a public sector that has failed to pivot change and respond to rapidly evolving worker expectations is stark” Young workers have turned off the idea of taking a government job because they do not believe the message that they can make a difference in the government “Government organizations need to abandon the tired message of “making a difference” by working in the public sector – a dusty adage that is obviously not resonating with a weary and wary younger generation,” Kosek says governments need to do the work within their organizations to provide meaningful attractive opportunities to younger workers.” this means that Valparaiso with a total of 79 positions and just six management positions quickly needs to figure out how to create a path for meaningful advancement if it wants to replace its aging workforce Merging with the city of Niceville would create a larger single unit with opportunities for advancement to middle and upper management for people who want to take a job in government The longer they are on the path to advancement in a city role – the longer they are providing value to the residents that the organization serves Valparaiso will likely not have a stronger bargaining position than it does now The city has seen gains in the value of its land making it more attractive than in the past for a merger and street infrastructure gets older each day “The problem is obvious in Valparaiso,” says Niceville-Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce President Tricia Brunson “They do not have the funds they need But if you look at other areas of the state with a comparable population but that’s because they are willing to pay that for the quality of life And that is what we do not have in Val-p.” Its budget remains stagnant and its’ taxpayers remain recalcitrant to raising taxes even higher especially when compared to Niceville’s rate The fact that there are fewer HOAs will mean less red tape to build in Valparaiso while the Not In My Backyard (NIMBYs) in Niceville would have more power to stop the same thing from happening in Niceville – or at least make it much more expensive and litigious Both cities need the partnership for different reasons regarding population growth – Niceville needs more affordable housing options for service workers Valparaiso needs the economies of scale Niceville has in place for the area to remain governmentally viable In order to execute a successful merger of Niceville and Valparaiso the cities will need to work well within the parameters of the political realities in the Twin Cities This means leveraging the fact that expenses continue to rise to put steady pressure on elected officials in both cities to merge various departments over the long run like the retirement of a police chief in either city (both are at the sunset of their careers) or a hurricane strike that destroys both city’s public works infrastructure would rapidly advance the agenda of consolidation because of the desperate need for a rapid and coordinated response to a public safety threat for both cities the merger of the cities into a single entity takes its direction from Florida State Constitution a charter merger of two or more municipalities and associated unincorporated areas can only be adopted by the passage of a concurrent ordinance by the governing bodies of each municipality affected approved by a vote of the qualified voters in each area affected.” So leaders of the cities and merger effort would need to pass ordinances advocating for a merger between the two cities from the Niceville City Council and the Valparaiso City Commission and then hold two separate referenda of the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso in which voters would vote for or against the merger of the two cities into a single city Every mission needs to begin with a well-thought-out plan and a goal To ascertain the goal and the group’s course of action to achieve it – those who believe in the mission of a merged city must begin to advocate for a specific set of goals in the community like a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) to advance the movement to create the merger and determine what kind of merger it will be and what the government and departments of the new city will manifest The advocacy group’s decisions to make are legion Once a group is founded and its charter and mission are established – the group can advocate for the merger of the cities to improve citizens’ lives in the long run When a mission and method are established – the new group will need to take a scientific survey of the people of both Niceville and Valparaiso which will use statistical methods of randomized selection and other scientifically rigorous principles should gauge whether or not there is an appetite for a merger – and whether or not this is because of the population’s desires or because they do not know about the options there may be a desire to separate Valparaiso and Niceville cities those same voters might also want to see lower taxes or more services more than anything else – based on other questions asked in the survey This survey data would allow the NGO to determine its course of argument in the public square Surveys can be prohibitively expensive to conduct and could be outside of the reach of a small group of individuals the NGO should explore fundraising opportunities such as membership drives and sponsorship events to raise money Alternatively – and perhaps in concert with the fundraisers for the survey – the members of the NGO may be able to recruit college students in statistics courses at Northwest Florida State College or the University of West Florida campus in Fort Walton Beach to conduct the research as a part of their curriculum the answers reaped from the survey should inform the group of the following: Is there a difference between people who are likely to vote in a referendum on a merger and those who would not Based on the information received from the survey the leaders of the NGO would then have to decide whether or not they want to move forward with the effort Once the group decides whether or not the effort is worth the chance of success they must determine whom they will target with an influence campaign and how it will take shape The campaign is necessary in order to invigorate turnout for a merger vote roughly 15-27% of voters will cast their ballots in a municipal election (Brennan Valparaiso turned out for a closely contested mayoral election that turned out roughly one in five eligible voters (Okaloosa Supervisor of Elections) In the city of Niceville’s last series of elections in 2019 A concentrated and funded campaign will need to occur to ensure voters are both educated on the benefits of a merger and show up to the polls when a merger vote takes place The creators of the marketing campaign will have to determine who their likely target is what arguments will most likely compel them to head to the polls in a plebiscite and how to convince them to vote in favor of consolidation Several interviewees for this paper made suggestions as to what might motivate voters what defeats the mindset,” Okaloosa County Growth Management Director Elliot Kampert “is when the citizens look somewhere else and say ‘why are we paying additional taxes when a neighbor like Niceville could lower our taxes?” said Elliot Kampert the Okaloosa County Growth Management Director (Saul it just takes people time to adjust,” said Niceville-Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce President Tricia Bruson “And there are people I know in Val-p that would dig their heels in and the way I think you do that is you start feeding the idea all the great things that would come out of it “that is the educational campaign to build a consensus to do it in two different municipalities lay out the benefits and laying out the costs and the benefits and whether people values political identity of a distinct one city or the name of the larger city” (Saul The NGO should use the advice of community members to promote and market the effort via the many channels available to the petitioners to raise awareness and obtain signatures the NGO should aim to move voters down a kind of ‘sales funnel,’ from becoming aware of a consolidation effort to becoming in favor of that effort to seeking out and signing a petition The members of the NGO will be responsible for making this happen in both Niceville and Valparaiso – as one petition for each city will be required Both petitions do not necessarily need to meet the statutory ten percent of qualified voters to get the measure on the ballot a sizable showing in a short period might short-circuit the need for a continued collection of petitions by forcing the city council and city commission’s hands in both cities and forcing them to pass an ordinance leading to a referendum There are 11,545 registered voters in Niceville and 3,220 registered voters in the city of Valparaiso any effort to put a referenda measure on the ballot would require 1,155 signatures in Niceville and 322 signatures in Valparaiso (Saul the Niceville Council and the Valparaiso Commission would receive the idea of a merger well and pass ordinances calling for a referendum after conversations with one another in working sessions allow the council and commission to ensure equitable representation and funding for their ‘parts of town’ after the merger A referendum that guarantees proportionate representation for Niceville and some guaranteed representation for the (former) City of Valparaiso may be a compromise both councils could make to secure popularity for the merger before the vote Should the elected officials of Niceville and Valparaiso be more amenable to the idea of a merger they could also vote in each city to put a ballot measure on to ask the residents of their city if they would like to merge If this occurs according to the Florida statute the vote would have to occur more than 30 days after the council’s and the commission’s votes and less than six months after that same vote the ordinance would have to provide for the new city’s charter and its effective date and financial and other adjustments needed to realize the merger There would also need to be an advertisement notice of the election that must be published at least once each week for two consecutive weeks immediately before the election in “a newspaper of general circulation in the area to be affected.” The notice would need to inform voters about the time and places for the election and the general description of the area to be included in the municipality That description needs to be in map form and show clearly the area that would become the new city Suffice it to say that there would need to be ample coordination between the two cities for this vote to become a reality The cities would need to decide on the new city’s form of governance and how to choose the city’s leadership In addition to an ordinance concerning the actual merger of the city – the city of Niceville’s city council would do well to consider a charter revision of its own the council should look into two measures to make the merger even more attractive to the residents of both cities – geographic-based council seats and adding two more seats to the council Changing the city’s charter to limit candidates to the different wards of the city would ensure that voters from every portion of the city would be represented on the council any city resident can run for any city council position Niceville city council members are not clustered in any particular area They would not have to run against another council person in the near future for a single spot the city could add a spot for two new council members to the ballot that would should the first part of this suggestion pass represent the former city of Valparaiso on the council This arrangement would assure the residents of Valparaiso that they would have proportional representation in their new city while also providing adequate representation for the residents already inside Niceville city limits Should the requirements for the petition be met or the city leaders of both cities vote to have a referendum on a merger – the two cities would have to host concurrent votes on a set day Should a simple majority of the voters in both votes approve the city merger per the city’s proposed charter approved by the city’s leadership or by the submitted petitioners – we have a united city – soon the leaders of the two cities must get together to decide the details of the new city Who will serve as the human resources manager When will the city of Valparaiso trash service cease to exist and when will Waste Management move in and take over the area City leaders will need to answer all of these questions quickly and effectively to ensure a smooth transition the cities will officially merge on some future date This union will take plenty of minute actions and adjustments to achieve an orderly transition from two cities to one The city of Niceville staff will have to determine what they need and do not need to keep regarding policies and assets of the in-house operations the city of Valparaiso currently has to keep – and which to end Will the city keep all of Valparaiso’s parks intact City leadership must answer these questions before the two cities can successfully merge The Florida State Statutes say a municipality has five core functions (Florida State Statute Title XII Chapter 165) Cities must allow orderly patterns of urban growth and land use assure adequate quality and quantity of local public services ensure the financial integrity of the funds they have been entrusted with eliminate or reduce avoidable and undesirable differentials in fiscal capacity among neighboring local governmental jurisdictions and promote equity in the financing of government services The proposed merger of the cities of Niceville and Valparaiso would accomplish the goals set up by the state legislature and allow for more efficient and expedient use of government resources while also ensuring a ready and willing workforce with opportunities for advancement that would encourage young people to fill the ranks of government – and ensure there are people to do the job in the future consolidating the cities into one would place the populace and its collective leadership in a position to deal with natural calamities like hurricanes or political ones like the removal of missions from Eglin Air Force Base By creating a single representative body for the citizens to work through leaders of organizations from Fortune 500 companies to FEMA and the Air Force would have a single point of contact with which to negotiate on everything from hurricane recovery and building new business in or near town to supply more jobs and economic growth By making this difficult change as soon as possible and working to bring both cities together under one banner – the residents of the city will be better served by a city that is united has the resources it needs to promote and execute the best interests of the residents and set the city up to succeed in the future with a more welcoming and diverse economy the newly unified city would allow the resident government to more efficiently bring more resources to accomplish the goal of a robust and better-diversified local economy – by bringing more businesses that have nothing to do with the military into the area and creating an environment where those businesses can thrive alongside existing commercial enterprises only about 1,800 people need to sign a petition form to start the process advocates of a one-city solution could move quickly to get a referendum on the ballot – with or without the support of the city commissioners or city council members though that would make the process significantly easier – as they could act as public faces for the cause However the residents and leaders of the Twin Cities choose to accomplish consolidation it will significantly benefit the people living there If the literature and interviews with community leadership are any indications – the residents could expect to see lower or stable taxes more critical services that cost less and respond quicker – and the ability to use the framework of consolidation to advocate for the annexation of lands currently outside of the corporate boundaries of both cities With the annexation of the city of Valparaiso and unincorporated areas in Niceville and Bluewater Bay – the residents of the area would have a vital forum that could organize and work toward even more benefits for the residents of the Twin Cities area at the county Abby – a Niceville native – and two children 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Who we are ✝️ Our Patron Saint 🤫 Our Super Secret Hidden Agenda (Don’t Click!) 🪤 🐣 On Social Media 🗞️ Through our Newsletter 👨🏻‍💻 Email Us 📱Download our app 💥 Advertise With Us 🫱🏾‍🫲🏻 Our Advertisers 🔼 Support Us 📎 Terms and Conditions 🌀 Hurricanes ✏️ Niceville Area Schools The Emerald Coast is in the Florida Panhandle along the Gulf Coast The townspeople are friendly and welcoming There is plenty of natural beauty interspersed with historical sites and lounging on the sugar sand beach are popular activities Here are eight lovely small towns on the Emerald Coast this summer to visit Panama City Beach The pure white sand and clear water draw college revelers in the Spring but there is more to PCB than just partying Besides the beautiful beach are two state parks: Andrews and Camp Helen Each state park offers hiking and biking trails and a chance to see native wildlife in their habitat Hidden Lagoon Golf and Racetrack offers a one-mile go-kart racetrack and mini-golf Shipwreck Island Waterpark has a wave pool and children-friendly water slides Panama City Beach offers everything for thrill seekers and families There is a reason why this slice of paradise is a highly sought-after destination Niceville is near Eglin Air Force Base and borders the Boggy Bayou This quaint and friendly town is only about ten minutes from the beach Niceville is one of Florida's oldest continually habited communities Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park is a great spot for tremendous saltwater fishing and watching sunsets there are breweries and restaurants like 3rd Planet Brewing a great way to end a day of hiking and exploring Niceville is perfect for nature lovers and provides plenty of photo opportunities Turkey Creek Nature Trail is one of the best spots and provides a serene hiking trail Known as "The World's Luckiest Fishing Village," Destin is an angler's dream Its white sand beaches and clear water attract beachcombers from all over the world A key attraction is the Destin Harbor Boardwalk which is ideal for coastal anglers and watching sunsets While water adventures are Destin's biggest draw The Destin History and Fishing Museum features 75 fish species on the walls and in other exhibits Seaside is a picturesque resort town with pastel-colored houses and the birthplace of the New Urbanist home design The town and the beach are so picture-perfect that "The Truman Show," with John Carrey you can find a wide variety of shopping and dining options Airstream Row is a collection of retrofitted Airstream food trucks that serve gourmet food along a tree-canopied sidewalk The best way to get around town is by walking or biking At the end of town is the 18-mile Timpoochee Trail Bud and Alley's Waterfront Restaurant is a favorite spot for locals and the perfect place to watch sunsets Just east of Destin is the quaint town of Rosemary Beach The town center has a variety of restaurants and shopping centers This beach town offers a sophisticated yet relaxing atmosphere with cobblestone streets for a romantic getaway Pescado Seafood Grill and Rooftop Bar has unbeatable sunset views and great food making it a top spot among residents and guests La Crema Tapas and Chocolate are ideal for small plates and desserts The Rosemary Beach Inn is a great place to stay It is a European-style boutique hotel in the heart of town The Pearl is a luxury hotel on Main Street that gives you immediate access to the shops and restaurants Navarre locals consider their tranquil beach town "Florida's most relaxing place." This small town on Santa Rosa Island has outdoor recreation is the longest in Florida and the 15th longest pier in the US The Navarre Beach Marine Science Center opened in 2009 and visitors are encouraged to become one of over 4,000 students Fort Walton Beach, or FWB as locals call it, is a quaint town with white sand beaches on Okaloosa Island. The main attraction for visitors is the Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park. The park has dolphins, alligators, and even penguins. FWB has several cultural attractions, including the Temple Mound Museum. The museum showcases the prehistoric mound and Native American exhibits. The Camp Walton Schoolhouse is a historic one-room schoolhouse constructed in the 1930s. After visiting the sites and attractions, stop at Dewey Destin's Seafood for seaside dining. The restaurant has a long history on the Emerald Coast and a fascinating back story. Port St. Joe is a charming bayfront town with a laid-back atmosphere. It is a hub for anglers and boaters, and its downtown is walkable. Standing on St Joe Beach, you can see the TH Memorial Stone across the Joseph Peninsula. The peninsular stretches 20 miles into the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The historic Cape San Blass Lighthouse was relocated to Port St Joe in 2014 due to beach erosion, and visitors can climb it for a nominal fee. There are plenty of good restaurants like Sisters Bistros and Krazyfish Grille. Port St Joe has an old Florida feel and is a perfect location for a summer vacation. The Emerald Coast has some of the prettiest beaches and water in Florida. The eight towns are ideal for a summer visit because of the sugar sand beaches, outdoor activities, and exquisite dining options. Seaside is a beautiful town with sophisticated amenities and a relaxed atmosphere. Panama City Beach is a well-known party beach, but the smaller beaches of Navarre or Port St Joe are perfect for a relaxing vacation. The Emerald Coast has everything you need if you are looking for historical sites, tropical beaches, or a relaxed atmosphere. All maps, graphics, flags, photos and original descriptions © 2025 worldatlas.com The Okaloosa Arts Alliance would like to thank all of the Okaloosa County school students who participated in the 10th annual OAA Okaloosa County School Poster Contest. Although not everyone won first place, all 245 entries were on display at the OAA Poster Reception at the Young Philosophers Society. Participating schools were: Rocky Bayou Christian School, Crestview High School, Liza Jackson Preparatory School, Edge Elementary, Destin Elementary, Destin Middle School, Youth Village and Eglin School Age Program. Each 1st place prize was a $75 gift card donated by Eglin Federal Credit Union. Each 2nd place prize was a $50 gift card and each 3rd place prize was a $25 gift card, all donated by the Target stores in Destin and Mary Esther. The winners were announced at the reception and the winners and honorable mentions are as follows: KCSN attracts thousands of online listeners a day with their 24-hours a day The radio station plays a wide variety of music from iconic rock to contemporary music; KCSN plays a vast selection of musical genres that appeal to any audience The student media organization of California State University Northridge WASHINGTON (Army News Service) — Just before dawn Sept Swenson and a contingent of Afghan forces made their way slowly on foot crunching the gravel under their boots through a mountain valley in Kunar Province With one tour in Iraq and on his second deployment to Afghanistan Swenson was serving as an embedded advisor for the Afghan Border Police he wasn’t there to lead the Afghan police or the Afghan National Army soldiers one cannot overtly lead — they are their own military but you can also influence them with advice and your presence,” Swenson said then you exhibit leadership when they don’t even know it’s there Was I offering an example for them to follow in support of the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) working directly with just one other American Soldier Together the two were mentoring along with a U.S Swenson said the Soldiers and Marines worked very closely together harmonizing and collaborating on similar objectives This was a routine mission — Operation Buri Booza II — one like the Afghan soldiers and police as well as the Americans had done dozens of times before The column of 106 troops moved from the Observational Rally Point towards the village The road they trekked melded into a boulder-ridden gravel-strewn washout which led directly to the hillside village made up of thick-walled mud buildings with mud-thatched roofs Swenson recalled the village structures had the appearance of World War II pillboxes with small about half the coalition and Afghan National Security Forces split off to the north and south to establish support positions Swenson and Westbrook continued toward the valley with the remaining troops At the front of the column approaching the village were four ETTs — three Marines and a Navy Corpsman — and their ANA counterpart a Marine ETT operations officer; First Sgt ETT first sergeant; an ANA radio telephone operator To the rear of the TAC and their ANA counterparts were Swenson and Westbrook The column of 65 men moved cautiously toward their objective a village fixed on a mountainside situated on man-made farmland terraces three and four meters tall The village terraces extended all the way up to where the trainers were expecting to have tea with the elders who had invited them up to assess possible improvements to the village mosque we were there to have the Afghan forces prove to an unreceptive audience that the government was fair Though a large or heavily-armed enemy was thought to be unlikely and no intelligence reports suggested any evidence of insurgents historically patrols would get hit by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades but that usually happened as coalition units were moving out of a village methodically the column moved nearer the village studying the landscape that could be hiding improvised explosive devices the first clue that bad things were about to happen “The valley is notorious for welcoming you in and your farewell present is always fire — always,” Swenson said “This time they were changing things up and greeted us with fire but the seriousness of that did not become immediately clear.” Just as the lead Marines moved within 100 meters of the village an RPG motor ignited from the front of the column the combined force was hit by crew-served machine guns RPGs and AK-47s from the valley to the east accurate fire hit the formation on its way to the village An estimated 60 insurgents had infiltrated and maneuvered into Ganjgal from the north and south through unseen trenches as heavy fire spewed from houses and buildings village women and children could be seen shuttling ammunition and supplies to the Taliban fighters As the Afghan forces scattered to take cover and return fire command and control via radio began to break down Swenson and Westbrook pulled alongside the Marine command element in their Afghan Police Vehicle (a Ford Ranger truck) to find out the TAC was becoming untenable The decision was made to withdraw when it became apparent that ANSF and coalition forces were losing the initiative “The enemy realized they were gaining the initiative and that our fires were ineffective,” Swenson said and they saw that as a deficiency on our part and exploited it and a new enemy.” Coalition forces had been flanked and were taking rocket and artillery fire on three sides from multiple angles and elevations by the advancing Taliban The TAC lost communication with the forward Marines Wounded Afghan soldiers and border police were calling for help Swenson called repeatedly for white phosphorous smoke to shield the coalition and allow them to withdraw He was repeatedly denied the incendiary rounds on the basis that the drop would be too close to a populated civilian area The closest obscuring effect of the shells was placed 400 meters away too distant to be effective as cover for the withdrawal “A difficult decision was reached that we were no longer combat effective but it was not the decision we wanted to make because we still knew we had the Marines up ahead,” Swenson said just hoping they’d taken cover inside a building and stayed there but what we did know was that we’d be no good to them where we were with additional casualties.” The Marine leader had been shot in the arm and his first sergeant Unable to physically evacuate the wounded down the steep terraces and out of the kill zone Swenson coordinated for combat helicopter support then learned his partner Westbrook had been isolated and lay in the open zig-zagging and returning fire as they raced for Westbrook Despite the maelstrom of direct fire which had killed two ANA soldiers and wounded three others the team was holding their own in the kill zone As Swenson administered first aid and kept in radio contact with the helos he’d called for Fabayo saw three insurgents moving from a house to within 50 meters of the TAC Fabayo made direct visual contact with one insurgent wearing fatigues body armor and a helmet who began waving at him and demanding surrender Fabayo called to Swenson about the insurgent’s demands halted the first aid and replied with a personal message by throwing a hand grenade the ANA soldiers and policemen of the TAC rallied to push the insurgents back and beyond hand grenade range a team of OH-58D Kiowa Scout helicopters carrying a combination of missiles rockets and .50-caliber machine guns came on scene it’s in their best interests to find somewhere to hide they’ll be found and that will be a bad day for them.” The arrival of the Scouts gave the TAC the time it needed to move Westbrook and other wounded down the steep terraces to the Afghan Border Police trucks which then carried the wounded to a landing zone where a UH-60 Black Hawk medevac waited Swenson and Fabayo then manned one of the unarmored ABP Rangers and re-entered the kill zone twice to evacuate wounded and bringing them to a casualty collection point Next Swenson and Fabayo went in search of the missing Marines while staying in constant contact with one of the helicopters Dakota Meyer were retrieving wounded in an up-armored Humvee and still no contact with the forward element and their truck on its last legs Swenson called in a Combat Search and Rescue helicopter but it became clear the LZ was too close to enemy positions and RPG teams Ground recovery of all remaining casualties would be the only way to do the job and it would mean moving into the kill zone again Swenson called a quick planning session at the casualty collection point and made the decision that he would move toward the village to search for the still-missing Marines and their corpsman the CSAR helo spotted the location of the missing five men who had all been killed in an open courtyard area Swenson called for smoke to mark the location of the bodies and to provide cover for Swenson’s up-armored Humvee to get in to extract the fallen As their Humvee climbed to the top of the hill with Fabayo operating the M240 machine gun and the vehicle coming under heavy fire the Kiowa helicopters continued to suppress known and suspected insurgent strongholds Coming to a stop adjacent to the forward group’s position along with help from ANA soldiers and border police found and removed the bodies from a deep trench The casualties were placed in the back of an ANA Humvee as Fabayo and Rodriguez-Chavez provided covering fire the Humvees drove back down the wash and straight to the rally point to verify accountability of all ANSF soldiers A mission that started as one of good will became a struggle for survival The immediate cost to the coalition was the loss of four Americans and eight ANA soldiers The battle would eventually cost one more American life Westbrook was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and seemed on the verge of recovery then complications developed as the result of a blood transfusion in Afghanistan said she was grateful to Swenson for all he did in giving her husband the extra time to spend with family his family was presented a posthumous Silver Star for his gallantry during the battle The end of that long day in September four years ago was not the conclusion of the Battle of Ganjgal and Afghan forces came together on a larger scale but we brought forces in to continue that mission and to show what our resolve was and what our response would be.” Editor’s note: Former Capt Swenson is scheduled to be awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama The Emerald Coast is a beautiful coastal area along the Gulf of Mexico known for its green waters and soft white beaches It covers long parts of the Florida shoreline providing a peaceful escape with loads of chances for water activities and experiencing the historic culture nearby The region’s history is rich with tales of Spanish explorers in the 16th century and strategic significance during the Civil War this once peaceful place grew rapidly thanks to new roads and development It was not long before it turned into a famous spot for vacationers start by learning about these must-see historic towns on Florida's Emerald Coast Pensacola has definitely seen a lot of changes over time It has been ruled by five different governments giving the town the nickname "The City of Five Flags." Right in the middle of this beach town is the Historic Pensacola Village with dozens of iconic spots covering over 450 years of American history This open-air area is perfect for strolling through and taking in the town's heritage and legacy either through visiting one of the many museums or by seeing history play out through various demonstrations The Pensacola Museum of History and the Children's Museum are just some of the many options to see the Pensacola Lighthouse offers incredible sights of the Gulf Coast Maintained immaculately throughout the years this towering beacon remains a favorite for those in love with history Apalachicola is a small coastal community on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida's Panhandle There is a distinct seafood industry legacy in town Historically, many oysters served in Florida are sourced near Apalachicola This spot has provided around 90% of Florida's wild oyster harvest and 10% of the United States' supply environmental stressors and overharvesting pushed the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to shut down oyster harvesting through the end of 2025 to help replenish the population you can feel a sense of history with aged brick buildings that are proudly preserved and still beautiful and lots of other old-timey shops set up in old brick buildings the John Gorrie Museum State Park is dedicated to Dr a pioneer from the 1850s who played a big part in creating the cool air and fridge tech we have now After checking out the historic spots around town do not forget to visit the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve The massive space is one of the biggest and richest estuary systems in the U.S Feel like fishing? Well, welcome to Destin which is considered one of the luckiest places around to fish It started as a fishing town in the 1850s and still has deep ties to ocean life with many families traditionally making their living by fishing through the years The Destin History & Fishing Museum celebrates the story of this area and teaches how Destin grew from a tiny fishing hub into a popular spot for visitors The town's harbor sits at the core of the city's fishing scene and boasts the biggest group of charter fishing boats in all of Florida you can find the Indian Temple Mound Museum showing how Native American cultures lived in this area long ago The museum and the ancient mound created around 850 AD helped to paint a picture of the region's deep history Joe is a small town in the Florida Panhandle Joe is often called a lost city because of the population plunge during the 19th century But the town rebounded and reinvented itself and now is thriving again The town's lively city center has kept much of its historic charm with historical gems like the Art Deco Port Theatre step into the Constitution Convention Museum State Park Visitors can explore this park to journey into Florida's past learning all about how it reached statehood Joseph Bay Buffer Preserve is the place to see and it is an excellent spot to watch animals living freely amongst nature Panama City has a thrilling past with pirates and privateers sailing its waters giving the town an exciting history and background Panama City was a noteworthy location that saw several small battles and attacks at sea It also had a big operation for making salt set up by the Confederate side which was very important for feeding the soldiers The Historic Downtown Panama City area of town brings the magic of old Florida by the shores of St Bay County Historical Society Museum is at the heart of this area It acts as a key spot for keeping and spreading the stories of Bay County and Panama City It offers one and a half miles of sandy shores and is an ideal spot for a beach day Passenger boat traveling under bridges on a wide river in Milton The town is one of the oldest in Florida, founded back in the early 19th century. During the Civil War it was an essential site for building Confederate ships and was a blockade-running port Milton holds the title of "Canoe Capital of Florida" and is well-loved for its Blackwater River This river gets its name from its unique dark waters History lovers should stroll the town's historic district which takes up several city blocks and is filled with old houses and buildings the Imogene Theatre stands out as a vital piece of the area's history this place has been everything from a cinema to a spot for live shows it was bought by a church and will become a place of worship The tale of Niceville began in the 19th century It took many years before it was renamed to what we know today as Niceville People say this new name was inspired by a local builder named William H Niceville stands out because of its proximity to Eglin Air Force Base Eglin AFB is one of the most significant military bases globally and is vital for creating and checking out new military planes and weapons During World War 2 the area near Niceville and Eglin Air Force Base was necessary for the war as Eglin AFB was used to train Allied forces Henderson Beach State Park is close to Niceville and offers beautiful white sand beaches and clear waters by the Gulf of Mexico If you are looking for a great outdoor walk Turkey Creek Nature Trail is a wonderful spot This trail has stunning views and features a clear creek with a sandy bottom perfect for activities like tubing or kayaking Seaside might not have the most extended history but it certainly has one of the most unique ones The town is considered the first built example of New Urbanism Seaside's layout was meticulously planned in the early 1980s by architects Robert Davis and Andrés Duany and its pastel-colored homes were made semi-famous in the 1998 movie "The Truman Show." Central Square in town acts as the heart of the community where people come together for exciting events like local farmers' markets The town is also famous for its nine beach pavilions Each sits at the end of a road and acts as a doorway to the beach These pavilions do more than look good; they help protect the dunes from people walking on them they are a feast for the eyes with all their different designs Travel from Pensacola's old roads to Seaside's calm shores and Port St Every place on this gorgeous coast shows a unique side of Florida's history and the Emerald Coast is all about adventure and finding new things to see and do whether you are up for a swim or want to snap pictures in museums the Emerald Coast offers something for everyone's interests photos and original descriptions © 2025 worldatlas.com