Niceville Florida Newspaper - The Advertiser is Niceville's Neighborhood Newspaper

The Neighborhood Newspaper
of Niceville, FL

Okaloosa County | Niceville Visitors Guide | Schools in Niceville | Niceville Community Web Site | Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival

Okaloosa County Legislative Delegation To Hold Public Hearing

Members of Okaloosa County’s state legislative delegation will hold a public hearing Wednesday, December 11, from 6 pm until 8 pm at the county water and sewer building in Fort Walton Beach.

The address is 1804 Lewis Turner Boulevard. The meeting will be held in the County Commission Chambers.

Public comments will be heard on proposals for the 2008 regular session of the Florida Legislature. The delegation will also consider and vote on requests for what are called “local bills,” state legislation that only affects a particular municipality, taxing district, or school district within the county.

“Because of the continuing revenue shortfall, which is expected to worsen over the next year, it is highly unlikely that there will be funding for community budget requests,” said delegation chairman Senator Don Gaetz (R-Niceville).

To request a spot on the agenda, individuals should contact Lindsey Watson at 850-897-5747 or by email at watson.lindsey.s04@flsenate.gov no later than 5 pm, Monday, December 1, 2008.

The Okaloosa County legislative delegation includes Speaker of the House of Representatives Ray Sansom, Representatives Marti Coley and Greg Evers, newly-elected Representative Brad Drake, Senator Durell Peaden and Senator Gaetz. Each of the delegation members also represents portions of other counties in Northwest Florida.

Science Friday Seminar on Hummingbirds November 21 at NWF State College

The free Science Friday seminars hosted by the Science Department at Northwest Florida State College continue on Friday, November 21 at 11:00 am in the Robert E. Greene, Jr. Science building on the Niceville campus in the main lecture hall, room S-110. Fred Bassett will speak on “Alabama and Florida Hummingbirds – A Lot More Than Most People Know”. The program will discuss ruby-throated hummingbirds in depth and introduce several western hummingbird species wintering in Alabama and Florida as well as show how the birds are banded.

Fred Bassett is a certified master bird bander who works with the Hummer/Bird Study Group, a non-profit organization dedicated to the study and preservation of hummingbirds and other birds. He is a retired Air Force officer who has worked with birds for over fifteen years. Fred bands all types of birds each April and October at the Fort Morgan banding station on the Gulf Coast and travels each summer to study hummingbirds in western states. During the winter he documents western hummingbirds wintering in south Alabama and Florida. During the past ten winters he has captured more than 1,600 hummingbirds of ten different species in that area.

The monthly Science Friday seminars at NWF State College cover a range of science topics. The free series is open to the general public as well as NWF State College students or high school students. Groups are encouraged to call ahead to ensure seating.

This will be the last seminar of the semester. The first seminar of the spring 2009 semester will be Dr. Ken Ford, founder and director of the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition, on January 23. For more information about this or future seminars, contact the NWF State College Science Department office at 729-5376.