Grants will help bases

The state is sending funds to Escambia, Santa Rosa and Bay counties to help support the military. The Florida Defense Support Task Force is providing $500,000 to the Bay Defense Alliance in Panama City to acquire land to buffer Naval Support Activity Panama City from encroachment. It's also providing $250,000 the Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce to help outfit a Corry Station lab for cyber security analysis. The Andrews Institute in Gulf Breeze will receive $225,000 to help Wounded Warriors recuperate, and Santa Rosa County is getting $160,000 to build a fence separating Naval Air Station Whiting Field from the developing Whiting Aviation Park. Another $1.5 million in fiscal 2013 funding was awarded to six other projects in Orlando, Highlands County and Jacksonville. (Sources: WEAR-TV, WMBB, Northwest Florida Daily News, 02/18/13)