Christopher Saul (00:00.206)
Hey everybody and welcome to yet another installment of Boggy Update. I am one of your hosts Christopher Sall and that beautiful man over there is Paul Schoberg of all famed. Multiple hometown local boy fame, IT fame, real estate fame. I’m doing what I can over here. I’m not perfect, all right? That’s my weakness. That’s my Achilles heel.

Paul S. (00:18.413)
We’re gonna have to work on our intros.

Paul S. (00:25.165)
That’s okay, none of us are perfect, sir.

Christopher Saul (00:28.334)
Anyway, this week we’re going to cover some controversial stuff and some other stuff that you’re going to want to know as we go through this week. This week’s stories include talking about the LGBTQ Pride Day that’s going to take place on June 1st and the controversy over the community center acquisition for that event. Live Oak Fiber has finished up a decent part of its rollout to put fiber cable down into the ground below us so that…

faster internet can become available or at least competition. Eglin Federal Credit Union launched a partnership with the school district to teach kids about financial literacy. The accused Mike Ledford killer was in court for hearing and police chief announced a anti speeding campaign and dropped some knowledge that he wants Eglin Air Force Base to quit it with the ID checks. And finally, we’ll have some stuff about a savage race, frankly.

and talk about the big topic and what’s coming up in your neck of the woods this week. Thanks, Al Roker, including a decision on Florida Poly’s new president, which could have implications here, a audit result for Niceville, which I’ll tell you a little bit about, and the vendor fair at Third Planet that’s taking place this weekend where you can see me and probably him. Anyway, let’s run right into it. Paul, we had a lot.

Paul S. (01:49.517)
I’ll probably be there.

Christopher Saul (01:54.702)
of comments and thoughts and shared opinions about the LGBTQ group PFLAG Niceville getting or trying to get the Niceville Community Center on a story that I’m going to release later today, Monday. You’re going to find out that PFLAG was able to negotiate with the city of Niceville to get the community center rented out for the June the first date. A lot of people talked on Tuesday, mostly in the negative.

with the exception of city councilman Salma Jimian who stood strong by himself and made his points clearly and ultimately won the day. What did you think about all that?

Paul S. (02:36.653)
Well, I mean, I think it was a good healthy debate, but in the grand scheme of things, it was sort of like, people aren’t going to like it, but it’s sort of like a non -story. What do you want the city council to do? These decisions have already been made at the federal level. You know, they’re going to be allowed to use the community center as long as they stay within some guardrails and rules of which I don’t think will ever be made public unless Christopher, you go dig them up.

or somebody tells you about them. So, you know, I think they’ll get to rent the community center and life will go on. In regards to the event itself, and I guess it’s an entire day of event, I took a look at the agenda. You know, I think it’s pretty standard events for what the LGBTQ plus community puts on.

And so as long as I guess it’s within the guardrails of the law and what the city is comfortable using it’s space for, then it will go on. I personally do have one tiny issue with the event. I guess maybe as part of a communication banter, I’ll ask you the question. When you think of the term prom, what do you think about?

Christopher Saul (03:38.446)
Yep. And, yep.

Christopher Saul (03:49.678)
Yeah.

Christopher Saul (03:54.158)
Probably the most uncomfortable night of my life personally. I was not a cool kid in high school. But I guess like a dance, I don’t know. Like that’s, I…

Paul S. (03:56.077)
hahahaha

Paul S. (04:05.805)
So you said two key things. One was high school and the other was a dance. And I think on the agenda, it says all ages are welcome to that prom. And so I think as a parent, whether I have a heterosexual child or one that belongs to the LGBTQ plus community, that would be something I would be a little bit concerned about. Why do we need an all ages prom? It seems to me that you would want to limit that to a specific age group.

over 18 or under 18.

Christopher Saul (04:38.222)
Makes a lot of sense. The other thing I noticed, they will not have the drag queen story hour is the, I guess it was how it was marketed to city manager Dyche. He put out an email to the city council on Friday that told them basically, Hey, this is going forward, but with this one caveat. So I guess they had some negotiations. They discussed it for a while, according to that email and discussions I’ve had with Dr. Misty Schneiderwind. Apologies if I’ve massacred your name again.

Paul S. (05:06.733)
Thank you.

Christopher Saul (05:07.886)
But I guess all’s well that ends well. And we will hopefully after this story, it’ll be it’ll be over until June when we cover that next story and one that I’m really excited about as a lover of market competition. Live Oak Fiber is going to be there 50 percent done with their their rollout of their one hundred and forty five million dollars. First of all, one hundred forty five million dollars to dig holes and put fiber in.

Paul S. (05:36.685)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Christopher Saul (05:37.486)
That’s insane. But I mean, I guess it makes sense how much fiber they’re laying, how many people you got to hire. Anyway, they’re about halfway done is what they say. And they expect to be done in our area, especially the Valparaiso area in the next 60 to 90 days, which means that in Valparaiso and Western Niceville, you could be getting whatever it is, two gigabits, gigabytes. Look, man, I’m not an Internet guy.

But it’s supposed to be real fast and it’s supposed to be about $20 cheaper than it’s supposed to be twice as fast and $20 cheaper than Cox cable, which is the group that’s had the monopoly here for what like the last 40 years, 30 years, however long the internet’s been around.

Paul S. (06:19.661)
Yeah, so this might be the most important or interesting thing I’m going to say today. But Cox actually lowered their internet for existing clients. And I think it’s in response to Live Oak coming in. So if you haven’t gotten an email from Cox or you haven’t gotten a phone call from Cox about lowering your bill, I would reach out to them. I think they’re trying to get ahead of it. We don’t have Live Oak at my house or connectivity yet.

So we still have Cox. So we appreciated at least in this short term that our bill is going to be less. And it was non -contractual, which was pretty cool too. So they were locking in the rate, I think for two years without a contract. So I may have some of that wrong, but I think I’m pretty close to spot on with that. But I would definitely call Cox and check it out. And I think Live Oak coming to town is great. I know it has been painful for the city.

Um, and I know it has been, uh, hard for some local residents when water lines or gas lines are nicked and all of a sudden their utilities are down for a day or two. Um, but I think once we get past sort of the speed bumps of getting it in, um, you know, those negative memories, uh, will fade away and people will just be happy to have a second choice of, of internet provider. Um, and so that’s good little niceville, you know, too.

two choices now.

Christopher Saul (07:44.59)
Yeah, I was actually able to speak to the chief revenue officer, the CRO at Life Oak about, you know, just that the number of, you know, hits that they’ve had on water and sewer lines. And it’s, of course, not fun, but they’re, according to him, trying to get them down as fast as possible. The other interesting thing that I would note is that they typically have kind of kind of a little bit of a

Paul S. (07:50.221)
Thanks.

Christopher Saul (08:13.102)
complaint section for the number of pipes hit every city council meeting. But back in February, I just, this was like way back in my brain stem. And I just like, I remember something about this. And so listen to the public works director, city, nice will say, they don’t have maps that the live Oak has not been provided with really accurate mapping as to where this stuff actually is by the city, because the city doesn’t really know. And so hopefully they will take.

Paul S. (08:16.269)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Paul S. (08:40.717)
Sure.

Christopher Saul (08:42.574)
Everybody will take this opportunity, right, to find out where these things are, map them really well, and then hopefully not have this problem again. But ultimately, once they’re done digging, it’s pretty much over unless a third company comes in.

Paul S. (08:55.693)
Yeah, this is a, I mean, this is a standard challenge for small towns that have grown over time, right? You have, you know, we didn’t have large communities getting built at once for the most part. You know, a lot of the city kind of grew with time and your neighbor’s house might be 20 years older or younger than yours. And, and so, yeah, the lines and how things were run, you know, weren’t, weren’t mapped in a great way.

And then, you know, there’s some shared responsibility for how you find where those things are and, you know, the spraying in people’s yards and, and determining where those utilities are buried. And, um, you know, there’s going to be some errors that happen with that as well, that we’re all humans. Um, but like I said, I think once we’re past sort of this, uh, you know, the installation period, people are going to be relatively happy to have multiple choices and for internet and, um, and we won’t.

We won’t remember the issues.

Christopher Saul (09:54.798)
Hooray, capitalism, my friends. Speaking of capitalism, Eglin Federal Credit Union has rolled out a new program with the Okalusa County School District where they’re trying to teach financial literacy to students. It’s part of a mandatory coursework or framework that the state has pushed down for financial literacy. So, Eglin Federal has taken the bull by the horns on this one and started to roll out its curriculum in the Okalusa County School District. And…

Paul S. (09:56.269)
That’s right. Hooray.

Christopher Saul (10:24.398)
I mean, I know you’re big into this. I’m really excited about this because I didn’t really learn about personal finance. I would say I think I got some in high school, but I think that was the exception, not the rule.

Paul S. (10:26.605)
Mm -hmm.

Paul S. (10:37.197)
Yeah, I think Ocaloosa County does a fairly good job of defending the arts, teaching entrepreneurship courses or what’s historically been called home ec or lifestyle courses. And I think the state has done a good job of supporting those as well. And I think we could all pretty much understand that financial literacy is something that’s sort of lacking. And so for a partnership like this to occur and

Christopher Saul (10:50.798)
Mm -hmm.

Paul S. (11:06.797)
and the development of some curriculum, I think it’s great. And I think it’s something exciting for the community. I don’t think we fully know yet, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, like at what age groups this is going to roll out for. I mean, it’s primarily for high school, right? Yeah. Yeah. So that’s good.

Christopher Saul (11:23.118)
It’s all high school. Yeah. I’m excited because I think one of the things that we’ve really lost out on in the last like 30 years is like a cost benefit analysis of college. Now, I am I’m big college guy because I don’t know if you’ve noticed in our friendship, but I have no upper body strength. And so the trades are not really an option for me. But.

Paul S. (11:37.677)
Mm -hmm.

Christopher Saul (11:51.502)
to have somebody do the help you do the cost benefit analysis of, oh, if I go to super duper private university and spend $100 ,000 in tuition every year and get an underwater basket weaving degree, that may not pay out. And I think that having somebody sit down and teach you how to do that and say, oh, you know, if I go to this university and I get a business degree and then I do the thing that I love, you know, the underwater basket weaving or what have you.

Paul S. (12:03.341)
Yeah.

Paul S. (12:18.189)
Mm -hmm.

Christopher Saul (12:20.238)
then all of a sudden you got a viable business plan where you can pay back the loans that you might have or not have loans at all. And I think that there’s a little bit of practicality that guys like me typically miss because I’m like, everybody needs to take a philosophy class. Everybody needs to take a, I’m big into gen ed because I think that’s part of a well -rounded citizen that’s useful to the country, right? But also the $200 ,000 of debt thing.

is kind of a bummer and I think should be avoided.

Paul S. (12:55.021)
Yeah, I mean, listen, I think everyone’s that’s been at the forefront of everyone’s mind over the last couple of years, just with the rise of student loans and student loan debt being in the media and talked about heavily in the media. Yeah, I think I think parents are responsible for a lot of that, too, right. Having those conversations. But I’m glad to see Eglund Federal Credit Union at the local level, along with Ocaloosa County in the school system.

Christopher Saul (13:08.014)
Mm -hmm.

Paul S. (13:22.413)
doing something and to play their part and to help out with education in this arena. I think it’s awesome.

Christopher Saul (13:28.526)
Yeah. Moving on to our fourth story of the day, kind of a short story, just more of an update. I just wanted really honestly for you guys to know that this was happening and that we’re getting some forward motion on this trial. But Dylan Deshaen, the accused killer of Mike Ledford, who you’ll remember was the owner of the Myohana food truck and I was 20 over there on Bayshore.

Um, it was in court for a brief hearing. Um, essentially they decided, Hey, you’re going to get your mental health evaluation and we’ll see you back in court in June. So slow, slow progress coming in this case. So we’ll see what happens next, but essentially, uh, mental health evaluation upcoming for Dylan Deshane.

Paul S. (14:08.973)
Stay tuned.

Paul S. (14:21.293)
Yeah, I think it’s not 100 % clear which way his lawyers are going to go in their defense of him. And clearly, we don’t know the whole story. There were only two people involved in one side of it. It’s not here to tell it. But in standard trials, we’ve watched enough television to know that you have a couple of defenses, whether it’s self -defense.

Christopher Saul (14:38.094)
Mm -hmm.

Paul S. (14:49.645)
Um, or whether it’s, uh, you know, you’re, you’re not mentally well. Um, and so I think, I think the, uh, his, his lawyer’s doing what he can to represent him well. And you can kind of see what’s happening slowly bit by bit.

Christopher Saul (15:04.75)
Absolutely. Nice Phil’s police chief had some blow back on social media this week, which I’m not so certain he cares about, but the probably not. He has announced a speed enforcement campaign to take place April 24th through 26. So as I look at the calendar on the 15th, nine days from now, he will basically from, I believe it’s government avenue in the West all the way over to Rocky Bayou in the East.

Paul S. (15:12.493)
Probably not.

Christopher Saul (15:34.254)
It will be launching a speed enforcement all hands on deck campaign to get everybody that is speeding even a little bit in that two day period. And he’s hoping to enlist a department of transportation. So highway patrol, uh, County sheriff’s office. And he says he already has Valparaiso PD on board for that. So that’s part one. Watch out. Don’t be speeding, uh, 24th, 25th and 26th. But he also said that he wanted the, uh, nice full city council to lobby, um,

General Garrity over at the Air Force base and ask him to stop this 100 % ID check thing because it’s going to back up traffic. And I sympathize with him because traffic’s already pretty bad. But I don’t view General Garrity as the most movable of individuals. And I think that that’s probably part and parcel of being a general is you’re used to, I say you do.

Paul S. (16:30.605)
Yeah, and listen, I don’t know that what I mean the military always Trump Trump’s and wins, right? So I I don’t know if that’s really a Argument that you want to try to you know, he’ll you want to die on type of thing I think most of those 100 % ID checks Happen sort of during off the peak hours Most people who are going into the military base during peak hours are folks who are going there to work

Christopher Saul (16:38.894)
Mm -hmm.

Christopher Saul (16:53.358)
Mm -hmm.

Paul S. (16:59.821)
And they don’t have a whole gang of people in the car with them that, you know, every ID needs to be checked. Um, but I don’t, I don’t know the context in which he, he made that comment, but, um, I’m sort of in your camp where I don’t, I don’t think, uh, I don’t think that’s as big of a deal as maybe he’s saying. And, um, you know, if we all have a little bit more traffic because we’re trying to keep, uh, our military base safe, uh, I think that’s something we can all deal with and be fine with. Um, the speeding thing is interesting.

You know, I would probably argue that we do have a little bit of a speeding problem in Niceville, specifically on John Sims, but we got a lot of lights in those particular areas that they’re going to be patrolling, I would guess, and some of my friends in Blue Water Bay would probably agree with me that most of the speedings being done over by Fred Grandin Park, where there are no lights as you leave Blue Water. So.

I don’t know if they’re going to expand it or get, because I’m pretty certain that’s all county, right? So, Oclusa County patrols that. I don’t know if they’re going to look to get the county involved in that stretch. Definitely, there’s a lot of speeding getting done there.

Christopher Saul (18:13.198)
Yeah. I mean, there’s, it’s the perfect storm of fast highway, plus just enough density, people pulling on to the road from, you know, the side roads to make it really dangerous. Um, but it doesn’t feel like it. Right. And so you’re at, you know, 60, 65 miles an hour and a 45 zone before you know it. Um, and I w I would say the, yeah, there is speeding in nice fill city proper, right. But it just, it can’t be as fast because what are there like 12 lights?

in between the Rocky Bridge and the Valparaiso, maybe not 12, maybe eight. There are plenty. And so…

Paul S. (18:49.741)
Well, there’s a fair amount.

Christopher Saul (18:54.798)
Yeah, as far as the Eglin ID thing, I mean, what the general says goes right, because something like 66 percent, 66 cents at every dollar made in Oklausa County comes through the base. And so that’s not the guy that you want to mess with. But finally, for our kicker today, Seventh Group had their, I think, third annual Savage Loop, which is a forty three point four mile run.

around the western half of the Chocohatchee Bay. Not for me. Yeah, I am not a savage. I would say I’m pretty like pedestrian or milk toast. We’ll say that I am trying to run more. Not that much more. Maybe run 43 .4 miles in a month is kind of my goal at this point.

Paul S. (19:29.453)
Not for me either.

Paul S. (19:47.533)
My question is is someone chasing them or they’re just deciding to run this thing?

Christopher Saul (19:50.926)
So they are doing it for a charity that is similar to like a make -a -wish in in Northeastern, Ohio where some of the guys are from and So every year they do this they raise the money send it up that way So it’s for a good cause. It’s just like the the most like Physically fit individuals you’ve ever met in your entire life doing it and so I don’t want to be a victim of the Savage Loop and so therefore I will be sitting it out

Paul S. (19:56.589)
Yes.

Paul S. (20:20.397)
Yeah, is it too early in the show to go to buying and selling because I’m selling running 40 plus miles.

Christopher Saul (20:25.07)
Yeah, I’m I hard sell we need to have like a button it’s like heart But yeah, so anyway that happened this past weekend so nothing to worry about people that are Not wanting to run or be roped into a long run. You’re safe until May 25th when the gate to gate takes place for point four miles of fun on a glen air force base So be ready for that if you are ready to run and from here

Paul S. (20:28.749)
Heart cell.

Christopher Saul (20:54.926)
We’re going to have the big topic, our big discussion that we have every week. And this week, here’s basically the idea, right? We have a two legged stool here in Ocaloosa County. And I think that we probably are both going to agree on this, but maybe how is going to be a little bit different. We have military, we have tourism. Military, of course, is the biggest piece of our economy. Roughly $66 out of every buck comes from that. Tourism is…

Paul S. (20:58.125)
Let’s do it.

Christopher Saul (21:24.014)
most of the rest of that. So how should we diversify? Should we diversify? How should we diversify? And what would that look like? I’ll tell you real quick. I think the answer is an absolutely yes. It’s always good to have more diverse industries in the area. But Paul, initial thoughts?

Paul S. (21:45.037)
I mean, I think we’re trying. I think we’re trying. If you look at it from a county perspective, they’ve got the land up near I -10 that they want to bring in some bigger businesses to our area. I think it’s harder in Niceville and Valpe just because we don’t have a lot of land availability. But I would say the college is definitely trying to do some good things around very specific topics.

or majors like nursing and some aeronautical type stuff. But again, that would be more so for the base. But yeah, I mean, I think any healthy economy would like to have more diversity than less. And when it comes to domains that make a decent amount of money, you got military, you got tourism. And the third one is probably small business in regards to

not just like the restaurants and things that we have, but also the lawyers, the doctors, the dentists, and those type of folks running small businesses in our community. And I think if you quizzed our folks in town, they probably would say some of those we need more of. I know a lot of the veterinarians, for example, aren’t taking new patients. And so there’s arenas like that where there seems to be.

room for expansion in Niceville and for us to have more choices, not less. But yeah, I mean, I guess I’ll turn it around on you a little bit. Like what type of jobs would you like to see come here that aren’t here?

Christopher Saul (23:29.678)
I am really excited about the Shoal River Ranch up in your Crestview to the east of Crestview. It’s a huge property that the county purchased maybe eight or 10 years ago, a long while ago. And they’re just starting to get the One Okloosa Economic Development Corporation is just starting to bring people in. They brought in a, you know, those big cylinders that they put on like telephone poles that are like for power and stuff, the transformers, is that what it’s called? They build those, right? And I’m not like,

Paul S. (23:54.061)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Christopher Saul (23:58.926)
passionate about electric transformers, as you can tell, because I didn’t know what the word was. But the idea that we can build a manufacturing base in the north end of the county, I don’t think will pay huge dividends for Niceville, but I do think it’ll pay huge dividends for Oclusa County. And I also think that the knock on effect, right, is that as you’re bringing more people in that are getting decent jobs, but not like $200 ,000 a year jobs, right, you have to build more housing and you have to be more strategic about it.

Paul S. (24:26.957)
Yep. Yep.

Christopher Saul (24:29.038)
which means that we can bring more housing online because we have more people that are in that middle to middle up or income range that can afford to buy some of that property outright and therefore give an economy of scale for that housing. And I think that’s kind of the big problem right now is that our industries are the military, which is really well paying in terms of, for example, base housing, right?

Paul S. (24:57.005)
Sure.

Christopher Saul (24:58.414)
everybody gets a base housing stipend. It’s relatively similar for everybody from the E1 to the general, the Air Force base, you know, it’s within, you know, 150 % for the top end to the bottom end. And so you have like a flat, flat pay fee. And so when there’s more diversity in that economy, more people that are doing manufacturing jobs or technical jobs, or even, you know, thought jobs, white collar jobs, stuff like that.

Paul S. (25:11.437)
Mm -hmm.

Christopher Saul (25:28.174)
Whenever you diversify it from just the base, I think that that gives a little more wiggle room in different arenas that currently just don’t have them, right? Like you can’t really rent out a place for less than whatever base housing is. It doesn’t make a whole lot of economic sense unless the place is a total dump. And my hope is that, yeah, we see a bunch of diversity in this area. Like I don’t want to see, you know, six transformer places, but

Having one is awesome. Having, you know, somebody that’s making jet engine parts is another great one. And somebody that’s putting together tires and somebody that has a, you know, advertising agency. I think having all those jobs and making it making Ocala County face the north a little bit for lack of a better term is a net benefit for everybody. Because I think as Crestview rises, the rest of the county is going to benefit.

Paul S. (26:15.885)
Mm -hmm. Sure.

Paul S. (26:26.285)
Yep, and then you have Freeport and Walton County and we’re all sort of in the same boat together. And I, you know, that’s maybe that’s the analogy I should run with is like, I think when you have a diverse local economy with differing ways that people can use their skills, the tide increases and it’s good for everybody, right? The boats go up for everyone, so.

Christopher Saul (26:52.814)
Perfect. I think we’ve solved it. I’ll let the county commissioners know and we’ll just take over.

Paul S. (26:56.365)
Yeah, well, we have to have some patience. We have to have some patience because a lot of this just takes time and naturally just heads in one direction or the other.

Christopher Saul (27:07.278)
And it’s incredibly frustrating for guys like me that want to see it done yesterday. But it’s nice to see. I mean, when I got here eight years ago, the city of Crestview and Oakland County would never talk to each other because they hated each other so much. Like the elected officials, the staff, everybody. And now they all work together and you can, I mean, you can see how it’s born fruit in Crestview. It’s just incredible. I big ups to J .B. Witten, the mayor over there.

and Tim Boldick, who I can’t say enough good things about. They’ve made all the difference by having that change in government and then working with the county. Anyway, coming up this week, we have three really interesting events, things, developments that are going to take place this week. Later today, Florida Polytechnic University, which is actually the state’s newest university, didn’t know that, out there in Lakeland, is going to pick its new president. They’re…

initial president, their first president is retiring. And so they have five finalists. One of those finalists is Dr. Devin Stevenson, who’s currently, of course, the president of our Northwest Florida State College. And so keep an eye open for what might happen. We’re going to be putting out a story as soon as we find out the answer to who’s going to be the next president of Florida Poly. But this also means that, you know, Dr. Stevenson has put his name out there with good reason. I mean, the guys had a ton of success, right? And so.

Paul S. (28:33.805)
Yeah, this would be a huge loss for us. I mean, he has transformed Northwest Florida State College and has done lots of fantastic things in regards to the growing of that school. But maybe this is what he does. Maybe this is what he does. He goes into new places and he just, he grows them and explodes them. And this is.

Maybe what’s good for Florida Polytechnic is as sort of a startup school. And maybe it gives Dr. Stevenson the challenge she’s looking for next. But yeah, it would be a bit of a loss for us for sure.

Christopher Saul (29:14.766)
something like I think 50 % growth in enrollment over the last five or six years or seven or eight years. Not to mention several national championships in various sports. Expansion of the Airframe and Power Plant School that started up here, bringing in some four year degrees. You go dog.

Paul S. (29:33.517)
Yeah, they’re about to have a residence hall. And hey, I went to high school here. I never thought it, you know, back then it was OW. We never once thought it would one be a college or a university and to ever have people living on campus. That’s crazy.

Christopher Saul (29:35.886)
Yeah, I mean that wasn’t something.

Christopher Saul (29:47.374)
Man, and the games are fun. And just being on campus is fun. It’s a cool vibe. And I don’t know, I’m proud of it. I’m proud to live here and go to those basketball games and those baseball games. And, you know, I pull for the team. It’s fun, man. It’s just a great place to be. And I think he has a lot to do with that. So Dr. Stevenson, no matter what happens, thank you very much. Number two, the audit results for the city came back. They got a clean bill of health. One thing they had was a

Paul S. (29:51.117)
Yeah.

Paul S. (30:03.405)
Yeah.

Paul S. (30:08.845)
Absolutely.

Christopher Saul (30:17.262)
Repeat finding about capital assets tracking, essentially not tracking them well. As a veteran sufferer of audits, my friend, thoughts on a city audit with a clean bill of health?

Paul S. (30:28.717)
You

Yeah, I mean, I would have expected this to come back fairly clean, just like it did. They’re running a pretty good ship over there. But any government entity of almost any size has trouble managing their capital assets and the different things that they are in charge of or purchased over time. And, you know, this finding is far less concerning than maybe the Pentagon not being able to find billions of dollars.

which we know it’s had its own trouble doing.

Christopher Saul (31:04.59)
always blows my mind, like when they lost that nuclear weapon in North Carolina, like back in the sixties, do you remember that? Yeah, they like dropped one off of a B -52 or something that was in transit. And it just like left, it’s gone. They found it eventually, but I often think about that. Yeah. Yeah.

Paul S. (31:23.789)
Yeah, but it’s not even that. It’s like just old trucks and like, you know, just, you know, different parts and random things, you know, it, it only gets worse. The bigger the government entity is. Um, so yeah, it doesn’t, it doesn’t surprise me. I mean, it’s, uh, it’s pretty much, you know, status quo for large enterprises.

Christopher Saul (31:46.798)
Last thing on my list for coming up this week is the vendor fair at Third Planet Brewing this weekend. Your boys and girls at MidBay News will be there. We will have prizes and we will have t -shirts, which I’m very excited about. They’re going to be really clever because I made them. Gosh darn it, I’m clever. It is Saturday.

Paul S. (32:09.869)
Is it all weekend? What day is it? Give us the particulars.

Christopher Saul (32:15.566)
Saturday from 10 to 3 at Nice Phil’s Third Planet Brewing, which is next to Walmart. I bring up the Walmart because you might have to park there. I have. I’m well, it’s like always that busy man, like it’s not a bad thing. But I’m just saying, like, get there early, be there, be square and be there at 9am for all the cool stuff that is going to go down.

Paul S. (32:27.565)
might be that busy.

Christopher Saul (32:43.598)
including, I guess, if you want to come talk to us, hassle me, heckle me, ask questions, come up with story ideas.

Paul S. (32:51.405)
Say you’re doing a good job or a bad job.

Christopher Saul (32:53.486)
or a bad job, I’m open to critique. No, it doesn’t even have to be, you can just heckle, that’s okay. I am used to it. I’d like to think that I have relatively thick skin, though that may not be completely true. Just know that if you come and heckle me, it will hurt me forever.

Paul S. (32:56.429)
Constructive criticism.

You

Paul S. (33:13.421)
I think you’ll be fine.

Christopher Saul (33:16.974)
Moving on to buying and selling. You went first last week, so I will go first this week. I am buying LGBTQ acceptance in Northwest Florida. I think that there were a couple of very loud voices at the city council meeting last week. But the thing that really just kind of blew my mind was the the ratio of responses from the LGBTQ slash ally community.

online, very, very much not the ratio I was expecting, which I guess says more about me than it does about the ratio itself. So I was I was pleasantly surprised to see people being kind. So I really did appreciate that. Selling very angry small groups of people forcing policy decisions. And this is a very narrow, narrow one. But as a as a guy that’s been to specifically Okla, the county meetings.

Paul S. (33:51.597)
Mm -hmm.

Christopher Saul (34:15.502)
Um, and then also nice full city council meetings, Valparaiso commission meetings. You usually see a group of like 40 people show up for something and they’re really mad. And it is hard to remember that that may not be the majority opinion in the city. Um, so chickens, for example, I don’t know why I have to bring, I think it’s like a rule on this, like that I have to bring up chickens. Um, so we had, you know, in Valparaiso group of 30, 40 people show up every month for five or six months.

Paul S. (34:31.149)
sure.

Christopher Saul (34:45.614)
pretty angry about not being allowed to have chickens in city limits. They took a vote and the vote was really, really close and it was never that way in the city commission chambers. It was always, you know, 10 to one pro chicken people versus anti chicken people. So just one of those things about negative response bias that I seemed to forgotten. But yeah, so very angry, small groups of people forcing policy decisions. I will come up with an acronym for that at some point.

Paul S. (35:12.653)
Alright. Yeah, it’s a mouthful.

Christopher Saul (35:15.758)
And yeah, VASVASGPFD. Yeah, all right, you’re up, man.

Paul S. (35:21.613)
Nah, just let it go. All right, I’ll do mine. All right, I am I’m just selling the LGBTQ thing because I think it’s a non story. They were going to be able to rent it in the first place. And I think the city council had to do what the city council had to do so that we didn’t get sued. So I’m selling that as a story period. And moving on to my buy. So on Sunday, April 21st.

at 1130 at Christ our Redeemer Catholic Church out in Blue Water. They are doing their 2024 Holy Smokes barbecue. There’ll be catered sides, all sorts of food, a silent auction and raffle, a lot of activities for the kids. And they’re raising money for a needy family in the community. And I think that’s awesome. That’s what a small town is really about. And so there should be a good group of folks there. Please come try some incredible barbecue.

and maybe give a little to a needing family. So that’s my bye.

Christopher Saul (36:21.518)
and the homeboy Paul Schoberg and John Salmon homeboys will be participating. And so I need you to go in there and stack the deck with ballots for their offering.

Paul S. (36:28.717)
Yeah.

Paul S. (36:33.037)
Well, people sleep on Chef John Salmond because he’s primarily in real estate now, but the barbecue is going to be on point. And I hope you guys have been enjoying his pieces on MidBay News, his food pieces and his real estate pieces.

Christopher Saul (36:49.742)
If you haven’t tried his Jamaican jerk patty recipe, I’m here to tell you. Like, it’s spicy. I don’t usually eat spicy for breakfast. I’m not a spicy breakfast guy. I’m a sweet cereal guy. It was amazing. It changed me. Like, only bangers. Only bangers. Anyway.

Paul S. (36:59.533)
Yeah.

Paul S. (37:05.965)
He’s got some bangers for sure. Only bangers.

Christopher Saul (37:15.726)
That’s what we have for you this week. Thank you so much for joining us. We’ll see you again next week when we talk about more stuff that is going on here in Niceville, Oklausa County, and really not further afield because we don’t care about that stuff. See you later.

Paul S. (37:28.589)
Yeah, be nice, nice little. Peace out.