Santa Rosa County, Florida

working relationship with them.” Santa Rosa’s well-maintained infrastructure also helps support community partnerships. With over 1,500 miles of both paved and dirt roads throughout the county, all must be kept in good driving condition. Especially considering these roads are used by military personnel, commuters, tourists, and of course residents. The county is paving the dirt roads close to waterways to reduce runoff. Another area of concern is increased traffic. Schebler reports, “We’re focusing on expanding our roadways. We’ve invested $13 million into building a new connector road – a pathway through the county’s center to help alleviate some high-traffic areas. It’ll be our first four-lane road with bike and pedestrian improvements. It’s a very exciting project and should be completed in late 2022.” Santa Rosa also has some heavily traveled thoroughfares such as U.S. Route 98, and Interstate 10. So Schebler and his team work closely with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) on possible design and capacity improvements. Independently, he also looks for better traffic flow opportunities where local roads connect to highways. Alongside infrastructure, water is always a key issue. Schebler acknowledges, “On the environmental front, we’re working with some of our cities and utility companies to improve water quality. A primary objective is removing wastewater effluent from local surface waters as well as increasing beneficial reuse. We want to improve the treatment level of those effluents, so the public can safely access the reuse for watering the lawn, etc.” The county is also engaged with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on a Coastal Resilience Grant program. Small resiliency studies, along with some planning and design, have been done at Santa Rosa Sound and several waterfront parks on workforce training for businesses moving into the Whiting Aviation Park. The funding, better known as Triumph Dollars, was finally secured from BP in a legal settlement following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010. The funds have greatly benefited Santa Rosa County, which was especially impacted by the tragedy. Santa Rosa has become a more resilient community as a result. Staying strong together and valuing local partnerships became essential over the last 12 months. “We’ve all learned from the pandemic the importance of partnering with our public and private health care providers,” asserts Schebler. “That has helped us successfully work our way through the pandemic. Another key part of our community is the military, specifically NAS Whiting Field. It is a major employer and driver of our economy. The partnership with the Navy is one we’ve been growing over 60 years. At NAS Whiting Field, they train Navy pilots, Coast Guards, and Marine Corps helicopter pilots. We have a very close