The Walton County Sheriff’s Office is warning residents about a phone scam in which a caller posed as a real WCSO sergeant, claimed the victim had missed federal grand jury duty, and demanded $10,000 in cash to clear two bogus bench warrants.
The Freeport City Council awarded a contract worth just over $1.09 million to finish the Business 331 sidewalk extension and approved a $183,790 change order for a state-required monitoring well at the CR-3280 water well site during its regular meeting Thursday night, September 24, at City Hall. The council also adopted a rezoning on US 331 South, signed off on new CHELCO street lighting estimates, and joined a regional estuary program’s steering council.
Habitat for Humanity of Walton County, the affiliate that builds homes for families from Paxton and DeFuniak Springs down through Freeport, is calling on the community to get involved this fall through hands-on homebuilding projects and a major fundraising festival.
Fire chiefs, sheriffs and emergency services leaders across Walton County are urging caution on Amendment 3, the property tax overhaul Florida voters will decide in November, warning that the revenue that keeps firefighters, paramedics and deputies ready to respond in Freeport could be on the line.
Freeport residents will soon see traffic counting devices installed along Blueberry Road and Highway 20 as the city launches a formal traffic study of one of its most congested corridors.
The Walton County Sheriff’s Office and Walton County Fire Rescue — the two agencies that answer Freeport’s law enforcement and fire calls — are now defendants in a nine-count civil lawsuit over the 2024 shooting of a family’s dog during a house fire in Mossy Head.
The manslaughter case against former surgeon Thomas Shaknovsky returned to a Walton County courtroom Thursday morning, where attorneys agreed to a third pretrial hearing on November 19 as the slow march toward trial continues. Shaknovsky himself did not appear in court.
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.
