25 Years ago today in The Log: Incorporation's a go!

    Here’s what was reported in The Log Nov. 3 and 7, 1984:
•In an interview, Dewey Destin of Opposed to Destin Incorporation told The Log the question voters should ask is, “What is incorporation going to give them that they don't already have, and what will it cost?”
He added that costs of city government would be higher than predicted, and that he didn’t think Fort Walton Beach had done better as an incorporated city than Okaloosa County would have done.
When the vote came in, however, “yes” won by 1,135 over 1,027 for “no.” ODI conceded before the absentee ballots were all counted.
“I’m so happy I can hardly stand it,” McIlroy said. He said the vote showed “people recognize sincerity when they see it.”
•Destin voted for Ronald Reagan’s re-election, by 1,956 to 286 for Walter Mondale.
•The Federal Emergency Management Agency said that hurricanes in the Okaloosa-Walton area posed a lower risk to life than most coastal areas of Florida, because once away from the waterfront, the land rises rapidly compared to most of the state.
•A state growth panel recommended the creation of a Destin Harbor Authority to oversee growth and activity around the harbor. The panel also recommended creating a regional water-supply authority on the Emerald Coast to coordinate the 10 different water-supply systems.
•A biologist urged the state to launch a $250,000 study of Choctaw Bay to get a better picture of how growth affected the bay and how the bay’s health should be protected.
•Okaloosa Supervisor of Elections Elsie Garrett told The Log that five residents might not have received an incorporation referendum with their absentee ballot, but the referendum ballot had been mailed out since.
•Fort Walton Beach residents said a White Point to Piney Point bridge that would lure some traffic around Fort Walton Beach was a better alternative to a Hollywood Boulevard to Okaloosa Island bridge.
Metropolitan Planning Organization chair Larry Anchors said a mid-bay bridge wouldn’t fix the area’s traffic problems, and couldn’t be paid for with a reasonable toll.
•Fire investigators offered a $5,000 reward for information about the arsonist who set fire to an 18th-floor SunDestin unit the week before.
•Gene Myers of Fort Walton Beach won the Destin Fishing Rodeo’s shark division with a 665 pound dusky shark caught on the Long Run. It was the largest fish weighed in at this year’s rodeo.
•The Florida Department of Community Affairs said it would revise its barrier island designation, which had been applied to Destin and South Walton County, to consider recent infrastructure as a reason for exempting areas. Previously, DCA had only considered whether an area had been developed prior to 1981.
•Walton County authorized a private company to set up a centralized sewage-treatment plan for South Walton.
•The Log interviewed nationally known photographer Curtis Dewey, who was photographing the Destin area for a book tentatively entitled “The Vanishing Coast.”
•The Kell-Aire Gardens Homeowners Association said redesigning the county’s proposed Airport Road drainage system didn’t satisfy their objections that it was unnecessary and would dump stormwater runoff into Kell-Aire Lake, polluting it.
•Assistant State Attorney Vince Bruner said the state might drop its case against Olin Marle, if he moved the junk he had personally deposited on his U.S. 98 property.
Marler had said he’d used the lot to store items for an artificial reef and couldn’t be held responsible for other people added placing trash there. Bruner said the state might ask the county to remove the rest of the junk.
•Someone broke into the Destin Library Thrift Shop and looted the cash box.
•Humana bought more land on Airport Road, which it said would enable it to expand its planned Humana Hospital Destin. The expansion meant construction wouldn’t be finished until mid-1985, several months later than planned.
•Residents of Seagrove Beach told Walton County that tests showed their water had a 2,400 fecal coliform count — 1 is the maximum count under state regulation — which proved the dangers of having several small treatment plants nearby. County officials said the taste hadn’t followed state guidelines, such as using sterilized containers to store the water, which made it invalid.