Time for a spring in Destin's economy?

DESTIN, FL - The Snowbirds are starting to trickle out, but don't expect U.S. 98 traffic to ease up - as of this week, Spring Break is officially upon us.

The Destin Area Chamber of Commerce keeps tight tabs on the inquiries that they get from tourists planning to come to the area. Requests for information has not changed much, though area businesses have feared that the economy will be keeping families at home this year.

Elizabeth Spies, vice president of communications, said that in the month of January alone, the Chamber has received 732 phone calls and mailed out 11,000 visitor's guides. At this time last year, the numbers were a bit reversed, with 11,000 phone calls coming in and 860 guides going out.

Destin's first visitors will likely be from Florida Institute of Technology, Boston College, University of Virginia and Georgia State, Villanova, Vanderbilt, Rice and Pepperdine universities, all set to be the first to take a break from the books this week.

The rest of March will be a surge of other colleges from around the country, tapering off into the first week of April. Okaloosa schools will be on vacation the week of March 30 through April 3 and Walton County breaks April 13-17.

The Chamber's Shane Moody expects the economy to improve with the spike in employment brought on by seasonal positions and sees a lot of hope in their new ‘Buy Destin' campaign to get people to buy local.

The Destin Beach Safety patrol is getting geared for beachgoers and will soon be taking on new lifeguards for the season.

"We've already started our wave runner training and we start out recurring training tomorrow," Chief Joe D'Agostino said. "They (returning lifeguards) have to go through 16 hours of recurring training before they can come back to the beach."

The next lifeguard academy will be held March 30 through April 4 and May 11-15.

D'Agostino said that two full-time/part-time positions are available and they will have an ongoing "casual list" for those interested in one day a week.

For more information, call 837-8413 or e-mail destinbeachsafety@yahoo.com.

"The first day of patrolling starts next Friday," he said. "We'll be ready."