EDITORIAL: Navarre Pass: Time to let it go You can accuse Navarre Pass boosters of a lot of things — stubbornness comes to mind — but you can’t accuse them of having short attention spans. They’ve been at it for almost half a century, planning and pleading and strategizing to reopen a boat channel across Santa Rosa Island that was dug in 1965 and closed by Mother Nature soon after. They were at it again last week. Proposed federal legislation would provide fee simple titles to Navarre Beach leaseholders, and the National Park Service wants to amend the bill to prohibit future channels on the island. That would effectively halt attempts to reopen the pass. Santa Rosa County commissioners are fighting the amendment. Whether a move to let leaseholders own their property should be tied to a pass prohibition makes for an interesting argument. Nevertheless, it’s all but certain the pass will never be reopened. It’s time for the Navarre area to move beyond this issue. The original pass was a 15-foot-deep channel gouged into the island in July ’65. A hurricane smacked it shut about two months later. Supporters have worked ever since to have it rebuilt, believing that a boat channel straight from Navarre into the [...] newsinfl/editorial-navarre-pass-time-to-let-it-go/
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 16:30:56 +0000