The Freeport City Council gave final approval to a $114 million budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year at a brief public hearing Tuesday, adopting the spending plan without a single word of public comment. The council also locked in the city’s property tax rate for another year, holding it at 4.7302 mills.
A dump truck driver’s quick reaction — and a Walton County Fire Rescue response measured in single minutes — kept a vehicle fire off J W Hollington Road in Freeport from becoming anything worse Monday morning.
Hunters, anglers and campers in Freeport are in the middle of a four-month window to buy their gear sales-tax-free: Florida’s 2026 Hunting, Fishing and Camping Sales Tax Holiday began September 1 and runs through Thursday, December 31.
When a Freeport resident dials 911, the call first lands at the Walton County Sheriff’s Office — the county’s primary Public Safety Answer Point — and a new expansion announced Monday means it will now ring to multiple agencies at once, depending on where the call comes from.
The murder charge against Isabelle Johnson, the woman accused of killing Jason Coulthart and burying his body at a Freeport property, has been amended to second-degree murder after prosecutors initially charged her with first-degree premeditated murder.
Walton County Sheriff’s Office deputies reunited a Tennessee couple with a custom wedding ring and other treasured belongings lost during a July trip to Walton County, closing out a search the family had all but given up on.
The Freeport City Council approved next year’s meeting calendar, awarded engineering work on two capital projects, renewed the city’s insurance, and took up a congestion fix for the busy Business 331 and Highway 20 intersection during its regular meeting Tuesday morning, September 8, at City Hall.
Walton County emergency crews responded to Freeport High School Tuesday afternoon after reports of smoke from an electrical vent on campus.
The Freeport City Council will hold the first of two required public hearings on its fiscal year 2026-27 budget Tuesday, Sept. 9, at 5:01 PM in the Council Chambers at Freeport City Hall, 112 Highway 20 West.
Alaqua Animal Refuge took in 37 animals last week after a call for help took the Freeport sanctuary’s team across state lines to a 22-foot trailer in rural Bruton, Alabama.
