The St. Joe Co. is continuously monitoring the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. And if the oil reaches St. Joe’s oceanfront property in the Florida Panhandle, the company is confident it will be able to clean it up, CEO Britt Greene told shareholders at St. Joe’s annual meeting today.

Former state attorneys general Jim Smith and Bob Butterworth will head up an oil-spill legal advisory council, offering advice to individuals making claims against BP, as well as any demands Florida may make. Attorney General Bill McCollum and Gov. Charlie Crist — the current and immediate-past attorney general — said the former elected officials would be working for free.

As a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico lingers off Florida, local officials are bristling at a top-down, “unified command” that has the U.S. Coast Guard, two state agencies and British Petroleum signing off on their spill response plans.

State officials from around Florida as well as county representatives from throughout the big bend met Monday morning to share information about how our area can fight and defeat the oil spill.

A massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico drifted farther away from Florida’s Northwest coast over the weekend, giving emergency responders and local officials more time to prepare. After an intense, two-hour meeting attended by a handful of officials from mostly rural Panhandle counties, it was clear they’re going to need it.

Tallahassee Community College trustees took crucial steps toward selecting a new president Tuesday.

AdTech Ad

Three different sub-committees met throughout the day. They ranked a list of search consultants, planned a board retreat and discussed compensation for outgoing TCC President Bill Law. Their issues, however, can not be finalized until the full board votes on May 17.

Seafood workers and business owners were praying Tuesday that the oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico wouldn’t make its way to the Big Bend coast, which one businessman said would amount to “Armageddon” for communities already hit hard by the recession and new fishing regulations.

Wildlife experts say the massive oil slick approaching the shores of Florida’s Panhandle and the Big Bend couldn’t be coming at a worse time for marine species and birds and its impact could be “catastrophic.”

“Universities are large employers in their cities,” says Alexander Von Hoffman, senior fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. “In the long term, not only do you have that employment, but you have an educated population, and you have a large youthful population which tends to be a consuming population.”

Regionalism is an important topic now. At its root is the belief that we can do more together than any of us can do alone. Toward that goal, the communities of Arnaudville, Cankton, Grand Coteau, Leonville and Sunset are coming together to form the South St. Landry Community Development Coalition.