Ask the Librarian

20 years ago – 1992

Flashy the Fire Dog, Fort Walton Beach Fire Department’s newest educational prop, had been making the rounds at schools and other gatherings for several weeks, dispensing safety tips to children and treating them to tunes.

One of the few personal items Tech. Sgt. Kevin Fallen salvaged from hurricane-ravaged Homestead Air Force Base was a volcanic rock that hit him on the head during the eruption of Mount Pinatubo.

10 years ago – 2002

Officials at Panhandle Animal Welfare Society were struggling to care for all of the 91 cats seized from a Fort Walton Beach home.

 A 4-year-old boy was mauled by a group of dogs while staying with a baby sitter on Ajax Drive in Fort Walton Beach.

20 years ago – 1992

Five students were arrested and warrants signed for the arrests of six others in connection with two racially tinged Sept. 14 fights at Crestview High School.

10 years ago – 2002

 A disoriented 46-year-old woman was rescued from her burning home just seconds before her bedroom was engulfed by flames during an early-morning blaze on Bradley Drive.

20 years ago – 1992

Nudity in commercial establishments was outlawed by Santa Rosa County commissioners.

Hydrogen sulfide gas emanated from a sewer lift station on Clifford Street in Wright, but it wasn’t a health hazard, a state environmental inspector said .

10 years ago – 2002

Tropical Storm Isidore took sand from the beach and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection took a quarter million dollars from the county to find a way to replace it.

20 years ago – 1992

Okaloosa County was billed $25,000 for expenses resulting from a sexual harassment complaint against a department head who resigned under pressure the previous week. The invoice dated Sept. 15, and received by the county Sept. 21, indicated the complaint was made Oct. 31, 1991.

The parents of a teen-ager who was beaten up by another boy on an Okaloosa County school bus were suing the School Board for more than $10,000 in damages.

10 years ago – 2002

The saga of the HarborWalk Village proposal continued on  when Legendary Inc., spent three hours presenting the project to the Destin City Council.

Chuck Bolton, a write-in candidate opposing Charlie Clary for the Senate District 4 seat, announced  that he was withdrawing from the race. The decision left Clary unopposed.

20 years ago – 1992

The 12 organizations that made up the 834th Air Base Wing were officially turned over to AFSOC, which took over ownership of Hurlburt on Oct. 1.

The Florida Cabinet warned Walton County officials to complete the county’s comprehensive plan or face economic sanctions.

10 years ago – 2002

Local business people and public officials got a peek at the future of Fort Walton Beach Medical Center with a new outpatient services and surgery center wing opening on the first floor and a new progressive care wing on display on the third floor.

20 years ago – 1992

Former employees said that the Florida Panhandle’s top state environmental official granted permits based on favoritism and ignored staff warnings that pollution would result.

10 years ago – 2002

In September, three African lion cubs and a Siberian tiger cub were born at the the Sasquatch Zoo.

20 years ago – 1992

Approximately  2,000 people  lined the highway from Mary Esther Boulevard to Beal Parkway in a “Life Chain” protest against abortion. Another 500 or so demonstrated in Crestview. The protest,  in its second year locally, was a silent action designed to call attention to the numbers of people who are pro-life.

10 years ago – 2002

 A U.S. Air Force investigation team concluded that a 46th Test Wing pilot killed earlier in the year in an F-15C crash died instantly when he ejected from the fighter at high speed. According to an Accident Investigation Board executive summary, Maj. James Duricy was forced to eject April 30 over the Gulf of Mexico at approximately 1,400 mph when a section of his fighter’s left tail broke off, causing loss of control.

Kristina Koepke, the 11-year-old girl who was struck by a minivan as she was walking home from Pryor Middle School, passed away at Fort Walton Beach Medical Center after a week in intensive care.

20 years ago – 1992

 The traditional daily recess, an unstructured span of time when youngsters played on their own, seemd more the exception than the rule in Okaloosa County schools.

10 years ago – 2002

Hurricane Lili’s expected roar was little more than a hiccup at Navarre Beach, which rode out the storm high and dry.

20 years ago – 1992

An Alabama man received a life prison sentence for kidnapping a 12-year-old girl he released unharmed three days after snatching her.  U.S. District Judge Lacey Collier classified Granville Steven Pinion, 28, as a career criminal based on crimes committed as a teen-ager. That enabled Collier to increase the maximum term possible under sentencing guidelines from about 30 years to life without parole.

10 years ago – 2002

Two Destin Water Users employees sai their supervisors had done nothing to correct what they claim is a racially hostile workplace where racial epithets are uttered and where a hangman’s noose was left at a black employee’s workstation.

20 years ago – 1992

An airman said she was being forced out of the Air Force because she complained when her boss told her, “I’ve never supervised a black person before.”

10 years ago – 2002

As of 8 a.m., Walton County government offices were open for business in the new South Walton Govern-
ment and Education Complex on U.S. Highway 331 South.