For those of you moving to Niceville and need a place to store your boats, Niceville will soon be offering a beautiful new Yacht Club! The North Light Yacht Club’s first phase is due to open mid June and offer 42,970 square feet of storage overlooking the Boggy Bayou in Niceville. This facility has 280 dry slips with rack lengths 30 to 40 feet.

The building itself was constructed with 951,000 pounds of steel and the barn stands 133 feet wide by 321 feet long and 67 feet high and is able to withstand up to 145 mph, according to the developer. This will be the second tallest building in Niceville, second only to the Mattie Kelly Arts Center at Northwest Florida State College.

The second phase of the North Light Yacht Club will include the marina, pool with sun deck and a 4,200-sq.-ft. two story, club house with a bar and grill. The second phase is expected to be completed in early to mid-July.

The Bay Beacon recently reported that the much-discussed Wal-Mart and Home Depot stores will be constructed in Niceville but that only Wal-Mart has anything approaching a concrete plan. It takes about 12 months to build a Wal-mart and the chain hopes to have the Niceville store open by Christmas 2010. Home Depot will also build in Niceville but no date or time has been planned. There has been speculation of a grocery store (like Publix) and restaurants going in as well.

The land for both sites has been cleared for over two years and some drainage work has been done, but no building permits have been sought for either stores. The location is north of John Sims Pkwy between Rocky Bayou Drive and the Oak Creek shopping Center. This new shopping center should be a positive thing for Niceville, bringing in job opportunities and commercial tax dollars for our city as well!

Last September, as everyone in Niceville knows, we lost a local student to a tragic football injury during a season opener.  His name was Taylor Haughen, “T”.  He was 15 and the only child to two amazing parents.  The entire community of Niceville was devastated as thousands attended T’s funeral.  Memorials were springing up outside of the Niceville High School and the name Taylor was made out of flowers along the fence.

One day, just after the accident, the lead singer of the All American Rejects (one of Taylor’s favorite bands) was driving through Niceville (we get lots of celebrities vacationing in our area because of the beautiful beaches) and he noticed the flowers and memorial at NHS.  He saw signs all over town and heard stories as he vacationed for the next couple of weeks.  He was so impressed by the support  and love of this community that he and his band decided to get involved.  It’s hard to imagine any positive coming from the death of a child but The Taylor Haughen Memorial Foundation was formed.

The foundation provides awards and scholarships to students who exemplified the character that Taylor did.  He was a remarkable young man!  Last night, March 18, 2009, two days after what would have been Taylor’s 16th birthday, there was a concert to benefit the Taylor Haughen Foundation.  And guess who performed, FOR FREE (all proceeds went to T’s foundation)!!  Yep, The All American Rejects!  They made a stop off of their World Tour to come to Niceville and perform for a sold out crowd of Taylor Haughen supporters!  It was awesome and inspiring.  The band expressed how impressed they were with the people of Niceville and how blessed they were to be performing for us. WOW!

As a mother of two teenagers, I was overwhelmed that a popular rock band would come to our small town and perform for free to benefit one of our local “heroes” and his family.  Thank you to The All American Rejects.  I liked your music before but I LOVE it now and I love you guys too!