JANUARY 2013 EDITION OF THE OKALOOSA ISLAND LEASEHOLDERS NEWSLETTER, THE OIL LANTERN

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1 JANUARY 2013 EDITION OF THE OKALOOSA ISLAND LEASEHOLDERS NEWSLETTER, THE OIL LANTERN Page 1 of 7 pages OKALOOSA ISLAND LEASEHOLDERS ASSOCIATION, Inc. P.O. Box 8116 FT WALTON BEACH, FL ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED Next Meeting: LOCATION: Okaloosa Island Fire Station, 2 nd Floor Meeting Room TIME: 7:00 p.m. DATE: Monday, January 14, PARKING: Please park behind the Fire Station next to the water tank IN THIS NEWSLETTER Message from the President Cathy Taylor Minutes Dec 10, 2012 Meeting (Draft ) District 2 Report to OILA Commissioner Dave Parisot Architectural Committee, Fire Dept, Rainfall Reports for Dec Wuzzle Puzzle This January Day in History Free Life & Safety Property Reviews Okaloosa Island Fire Department

2 The OIL Lantern THE NEWSLETTER OF THE OKALOOSA ISLAND LEASEHOLDERS ASSOCIATION, Inc P.O. Box 8116, Fort Walton Beach, FL 32548, Editor: Jim Simpson, (850) Association Website: January, 2013 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Cathy Taylor President 406 Cobia Avenue Jim Simpson Vice President & Treasurer 624B Pelican Drive Paula Hudson Secretary 529 Dolphin Ave Carol Edlund P.O. Box Trisha LaBahn 330 Bluefish Drive Kathy Foster 849 Tarpon Drive Tripp Tolbert 1500 Miracle Strip Pkwy NE ASSOCIATION WEBMASTER Bob Seitz 709 Sailfish Drive Agenda January Meeting Date: Monday, Jan 14, 2013 Time: 7:00 p.m. Place: Okaloosa Island Fire Station, 2 nd Floor Meeting Room I. CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE II. ROLL III. ANNOUNCEMENTS If you speak, please state your name, address and if you are a member. IV. MINUTES December 10, 2012 Meeting V. TREASURER'S REPORT Treasurer, Jim Simpson VI. COMMITTEE REPORTS A. Architectural Committee: (see Newsletter) B. Beautification Committee: Dave Miller C. Membership Liaison: Jim Simpson D. WebSite: Bob Seitz E. Boat Basin: Cathy Taylor F. Street Lighting MSBU: Maryl Bednar VII. OLD BUSINESS A. Up-date on OILA participation in the Mardi on the Island Gras Parade to be held on Saturday, January 19, 2013 Jim Simpson, Shanghaied Float Captain VIII. NEW BUSINESS A. Landscaping on Hwy Tripp Tolbert IX. ADJOURNMENT MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT -- CATHY TAYLOR JANUARY 2013.I guess the Mayans or the scholars that studied their calendars were wrong. Happy New Year from Beautiful Okaloosa Island! I for one am happy to be turning over our calendar to a whole new year. I am looking forward to a brand new year and so glad to put 2012 behind. Who knows? 2013 could actually be the year the medians on Santa Rosa Boulevard become really beautiful. What could we do to make that dream come true? What other goals should we as a neighborhood set for ourselves? What is important to our quality of life here on the Island? What could we do to improve our OILA? A new year is a very good time to reflect back on things accomplished and to think ahead for things we would like to improve. Bring your ideas and suggestions to our next meeting and let s make an action plan for OILA Speaking of action plans. don t forget Mardi Gras on the Island. You are all invited to help us on the OILA float and participate in the parade. It takes many hands to decorate the float and toss the moon pies and beads. The more the merrier, so mark your calendar to join the community fun on Saturday, January 19, Our Shanghaied Mardi Gras Captain -Jim Simpson will have more information at our January membership meeting. I look forward to a great new year for all of us and hope to see you at: Okaloosa Island Fire Station, 7:00 pm, Monday, Jan 14 OILA FLOAT KREWE MARDI GRAS ON THE ISLAND 2012

3 ARCHITECTURAL COMMITTEE REPORTS FOR DECEMBER 2012 for permits and applications submitted to them for consideration. The following information provided by the Architectural Committee. SPECIAL NOTICES: 1) The Committee meets every Thursday from 9:00 am to 9:30 am at the Tourist Development Center building. 2) ASK BEFORE YOU ACT. The Architectural Committee had no activity during the Month of December MARDI GRAS ON THE ISLAND SATURDAY, JANUARY 19 MYSTERY MEMBER? In October, 2012, I received a membership renewal envelope containing $12 in cash (dollar bills and quarters). There was no return address or note in the envelope as to the name of the sender. Are you the mystery member? If so, please let me know so I can credit you to the membership rolls. Jim Simpson, Cell: OILA WILL ENTER A FLOAT IN THE PARADE VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED! The Association will participate in the 2013 Mardi Gras on the Island Parade by entering a float. If you would like to help with the float effort, volunteers will be needed to decorate, to serve as float walkers, to drive and to throw beads. If you can help, contact Jim Simpson by sanleanna@cox.net, call him at or show up in person to help decorate our float as follows: LOCATION: 625 Pelican Drive on Okaloosa Island DATE: Friday, January 18 TIME: 1:00 P.M. OILA NEEDS YOU! Parade starts at 11:00 am on Saturday, January 19 ISLAND RAINFALL FOR DEC 2012: 2.0 INCHES Dec inches Dec inches Dec inches Dec inches Dec inches Avg Rainfall for December. 4.8 inches December Variance to Avg inches Totals for the Year 2012 YTD Variance to Average inches YTD (2012) Total Rainfall 65.5 inches Avg Annual Rainfall :.65.1 inches JANUARY 2013 Avg Rainfall for January 5.0 inches January Record High 80º F (1957) January Record Low 4º F (1985) Jan Avg Water Temperature...64º F Avg Annual Rainfall :.65.1 inches OKALOOSA ISLAND FIRE DISTRICT REPORTS 48 CALLS FOR DECEMBER 2012 Fire Calls....4 Brush Fires.. 0 Misc...8 Alarm Activations...9 EMS, Rescue & MVA JOIN THE LEASEHOLDERS! FOR A MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION CLICK ON THE ASSOCIATION S WEBPAGE: or CONTACT JIM SIMPSON AT (850) OR BY AT SANLEANNA@COX.NET WUZZLE PUZZLE What is a Wuzzle Puzzle? It is a puzzle consisting of combinations of words, letters, figures, or symbols positioned to create disguised words, phrases, names, places, etc. Are you ready to take the challenge and figure out the disguised meaning of this wuzzle? Good luck. The answer is at the bottom of the last page of this newsletter. ON THIS JANUARY DAY IN HISTORY January 1, 1878: Emma M. Nutt becomes the first woman telephone operator. January 7, 1610: Astronomer Galileo Galilei discovers four of Jupiter s moons. January 12, 1966: Batman debuts on television. January 14, 1973: The Miami Dolphins defeat the Washington Redskins in Superbowl VII, and become the first undefeated team in NFL history. January 15, 1943: The Pentagon opens. Construction started on September 11, 1941 January 24, 1935: Beer was first sold in cans. January 26, 1875: The dental drill was patented.

4 What Are the Origins of the Dollar, the Dollar Sign ($), the Penny and the Cent Sign ( )? The word 'dollar' itself derives from the Flemish or Low German word daler (in German taler or thaler), short for Joachimstaler, referring to a coin from the silver mines of Joachimstal, in Bohemia (now Jáchymov in the Czech Republic). The term was later applied to a coin used in the Spanish-American colonies and also in the British North American colonies at the time of the American War of Independence. It was adopted as the name of the US currency unit in the late 18th century. In 1862, under the exigencies of the Civil War, the U.S. government first issued legal tender notes (popularly called greenbacks) that were placed on a par with notes backed by specie. Many suggestions have been made about the origin of the dollar symbol $, one of the commonest being that it derives from the figure 8, representing the Spanish 'piece of eight'. However, it actually comes from a handwritten 'ps', an abbreviation for 'peso' in old Spanish-American books. The $ symbol first occurs in the 1770s, in manuscript documents of English-Americans who had business dealings with Spanish-Americans, and it starts to appear in print after While the U.S. penny can be traced back to 1787, the history of the penny goes back much further in time. The first pennies (or equivalent value) were made all the way back in 211 BC as detailed in the following line up of coins: The denarius, a common silver coin earned for a day s work by laborers in the Roman Republic. The earliest denarii were coined in 211 BC. English silver pence. 11th century. Current US Lincoln cent British One Penny piece bearing the image of the Roman goddess Britannia. US large cent, made of solid copper, dated US Indian Head cent, in solid bronze, Pennies are actually British in origin. In fact, Great Britain is actually the only country to have a denomination officially called the penny. We in the United States have been calling our one-cent coins pennies for centuries, but that s largely because our one-cent coin was inspired by the British penny. However, the one-cent coin or cent is the official name of the coins we endearingly call pennies. The origins of the cent sign are a little less clear. Some speculate that the cent sign dates to the early 19th century. It was common to place a line through a letter as a way of indicating that it was a currency symbol, so the lower case c for cents became. OKALOOSA ISLAND FIRE DEPARTMENT TO PROVIDE FREE FIRE AND LIFE SAFETY REVIEWS OF ISLAND RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES -- from the Office of the Chief of the Department The men and women of the Okaloosa Island Fire Department will be offering Fire and Life Safety reviews of your home.these free in-home assessments will provide the home owner an opportunity to understand the risks that can be found inside and outside the home. The Fire Crews will, when scheduled, come to your home and look at the various components that can be a fire or life safety risk. Some examples would be your electrical panel, water heater, as well as your garage carport or shed to determine if there are risks that exist. The members will offer tips on ways to prevent fires and to reduce injuries through fall and tripping prevention strategies, as well as clutter and emergency escape issues that you may not know even exist. This in-home review is free of charge and will take no more than an hour of your time, but will provide a great deal of insight into the risks that exist in and out of each of our homes. Please contact the Okaloosa Island Fire Department if you are interested in scheduling your Fire Dept to do a risk assessment. Call and ask for the officer in charge.

5 District 2 Report to the Leaseholders Okaloosa Board of County Commissioners An Update From Your Commissioner, Dave Parisot dparisot@co.okaloosa.fl.us Dave Parisot Phone: Connecting Communities! Co. Radio Show: 3rd Thurs. WFTW 1260, 7:30 AM Okaloosa Today 1-HR Show with City of Destin & Ft. Walton Beach Cox Channel 6 Sun. 7 PM; T/Th 5:30 PM; T/W/F 6 PM Watch Board of County Commission meetings Cox 6 & online. I want to wish all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year! As we look forward to 2013 there are quite a few developments that will be occurring on our Beautiful Okaloosa Island. The new Fudpucker s should be opening in January. Construction on the new Holiday Inn Resort hotel will be an ongoing construction project throughout the year. This will bring significant revenue to our Building Inspection Department allowing it to better function as an enterprise fund. We will see new construction at the Veterans Park site with Wild Willy s, the Marine Life Center, and the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge. (Stay tuned for the exciting theme of Wild Willy s to be announced!) The water tank at the park will get a new paint job for corrosion control. The speed limit on Hwy. 98 has been reduced to 35 MPH to just east of the Ramada Plaza Resort Hotel, so I look forward to seeing the plans for landscaping the median in that area (Tripp??). Work is progressing well on the new sewer lift station near the Okaloosa Island Fire Station and should be in service prior to the 2013 summer tourist season. We should also start the facelift and relandscaping of the exterior of the Tourist Visitor Center near Beasley Park. We will also be doing the joint County/State dune enhancement project on the Island beaches this spring. The much-needed additional boat trailer parking should get constructed near the Marler Park boat ramps as well as other enhancements to Veterans Park to make it usable by the public. Needless to say, these projects will bring trucks and construction equipment to the Island, so please be alert to this equipment on the roadways, primarily on Hwy. 98. A brief review of 2102 saw completion of the much needed relining of the main sewer line under Santa Rosa Blvd. This project seemed to go okay as I did not receive any complaining calls or s. Our Parks/Road Depts. put in three handicap accessible crosswalks across Santa Rosa Blvd. at Accessways 2, 4, and 6. The water tanks near El Matador and the Brooks Bridge received new paint jobs. Hwy. 98 was resurfaced from the Brooks Bridge to the Destin Bridge with work done mostly at night to minimize traffic impacts. Long-term leases were awarded for the three parcels at the east end of the newly named Veterans Park (see above). Construction started on replacing the main sewer lift station. The Convention Center had some exterior facelifting, the handicap elevator finally got constructed, and a new marquis sign was installed. I want to thank the residents of and visitors to Okaloosa Island for bearing with us during these projects and ask for your same consideration during 2013 with the multiple projects to be in work. My very warmest regards, Dave Parisot Your District 2 Commissioner DParisot@co.okaloosa.fl.us; Office (850) Mobile: (850)

6 Minutes (Draft) OILA Meeting December 10, 2012 Meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by Vice President Jim Simpson in absence of President Cathy Taylor. Board members present: Jim Simpson, Trisha LaBahn, Kathy Foster, Carol Edlund and Paula Hudson. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Warren Gourley. Jim Simpson welcomed the guest speakers Dan O Byrne of the Okaloosa County Tourist Development Department and Joe Dougherty of Dougherty Architecture + Design who is designing the Gulf Coast Marine Life Center. Also in attendance was Commissioner Parisot. As a board member of the Tourist Development Department (TDD), formerly know as the Tourist Development Council (TDC), Warren Gourley introduced Dan O Byrne to those in attendance. Mr. O Byrne explained the history of TDD in the State of Florida and that State Statues are the main governing documents of all TDDs. Because of recent actions taken by Okaloosa County s TDD the BCC has made the TDD a department under the BCC. The BCC has forced the TDD to apply procedures on how the bed tax dollars are handled and TDD has limited spending authority. Mr. O Byrne has ideas on how TDD could help improve public areas of Okaloosa Island. The first item will be addressed December 18th during a Public Hearing regarding personal items left on the public beach park areas overnight. Abandoned property interferes with the turtle program and the daily beach cleaning. Mr. O Byrne believes that communication between the county and property owners on Okaloosa Island is very important. He also feels that TDD may be able to help improve public facilities on the beach accessways. These improvements would be in addition to the current funds that TDD uses for beach cleaning, lifeguards, turtle watch and dune renovations. Mr. O Byrne commended OILA for having an Architectural Committee to maintain the integrity of Okaloosa Island. The community of Okaloosa Island needs to consider how they want to be presented to visitors and how that is reflective of those that live and own property on Okaloosa Island. Okaloosa Island needs to be kept healthy, vital and engaged. Joe Dougherty addressed the audience about the design of the Gulf Coast Marine Life Center. The complete project is estimated to be 105,000 square feet. They expect to have 50,000 square feet for marine hatchery, 45,000 square feet for education and 35,000 square feet in exhibit space. Phase I which is expect to begin within the next 3 months will be approximately 12,800 square feet to house the hatchery for red snapper, grouper, cobia and some shell fish. They expect Phase I to be completed within 7 months once started. Phase I will include guided walks through the facility for the general public. For more information on the project visit aquagreen.com. Commissioner Parisot advised that all rental income generated from the vendors will go toward the improvement and maintenance of Veteran s Park. He was asked if this included the cost to enlarge Marler Park. He advised that BIF funds are being used for the expansion of Marler Park s boat area. Carmen Parker motioned that the November 2012 minutes be accepted as presented in the November 2012 OILA Lantern. Motion was 2nd by Dave Hancock. There was no further discussion, a vote was called by Jim Simpson and it was accepted unanimously. Jim Simpson presented the November treasurer s report (see attached). Paula Hudson made a motion to accept the treasurer s report with reimbursement to Mr. Simpson. Kathy Foster 2nd the motion. There was no discussion, Jim Simpson called for a vote and it was accepted unanimously. Architectural Committee Report was submitted in the newsletter. No report from the Beautification Committee. Membership Jim Simpson advised that winding up the membership renewal drive. It appears that there will be a 90% renewal rate this year. Website-Bob Seitz advised no activity, Boat Basin- no report.

7 Lights MSBU (see attached report) presented by Paula Hudson on behalf of Maryl Bednar. Jim Simpson reminded the membership that the Mardi Gras parade is January 19th this year. David Miller is obtaining some bulk beads from the ARC Agency that recycles beads. He asked for volunteer walkers and riders. Tripp Tolbert advised the Board via that he is working on the landscaping design for medians along highway 98. Meeting was adjourned at 8:20 pm Wuzzle Puzzle Answer Hi Rise A-part-ments