Sell signs to airport, Rutting ruins beach

Sell signs to the airport

My mom tells me Claude Jenkins, who wrote for area newspapers around the 1960s, coined "Miracle Strip." She remembers this referring to areas from Apalachicola to Pensacola.
The same could be said for the Emerald Coast. Even though the Emerald Coast has many unique places, longtime residents have used Emerald Coast and Miracle Strip to define the entire area that gets its brilliant white quartz sand from the same ancient source.
This unique and beautiful area doesn't need excessive industrial blue signs for directions. Maybe we could retrofit some and move them up to I-10 or at the entrances to Walton County along U.S. Highways 98, 331or State Road 20.
Or we may just have to sell them to the new airport in Bay County.
Furthermore, we certainly don't need to add confusion by developing generic, bland branding ideas and names that conjure up colors other than Emerald. The individuals that make up the Emerald Coast are the real stakeholders, not some elite secret group. – Brenda Rees, Eastern Lake Estates

Rutting ruins beach
I am most happy that another has taken up the cause. Julie Stephens’ article on the Seagrove rutting, “Beach maintenance trucks leave unsightly ruts in sand,” The Sun, March 8) hits the mark.
The "beautiful beaches of S. Walton" are no more. Visitors ask us about the rutting. They too, lament the rape of the beach.
One remarked that it was difficult to get to the water due to the extreme, foot-deep rutting.
There is a symbiotic relationship between the sand (white or ghost) crab and the sea oats. The ghost crab burrows catch sea oat droppings. The sea oat roots and begats the dunes.
I have seen many crabs "ghosted" by the traffic. Formerly in good number, they are now rare.
Recent rains and high winds scoured the sand. The pristine beach lasted a full day and then the rutting resumed.
I have written Dist. 5 Commissioner Meadows to no avail. I forwarded that letter to the other four commissioners to no avail. I think instead of fighting the congestion of scenic County Road 30A through Seaside, I'll drive the scenic rutted beaches of South Walton. – Richard D. Davis, Seagrove Beach