NAVAL SUPPORT ACTIVITY PANAMA CITY — Base officials are preparing for the annual Independence Day Celebration, and part of that preparation is reminding boaters and others not to wander too close to the base.
Around dusk Thursday Naval Support Activity Panama City will set off a fireworks display from a barge floating in
The base has signs posted for boaters and people on foot to keep them from encroaching into restricted areas, but the signs are old and faded to the point they’re easily missed. As a result, more boaters and walkers have been wandering inadvertently into restricted areas.
“They get a little lost, or they’re just sightseeing,” Applegate said.
Some of them are just confused, and others are attracted by the boats docked there, Applegate said, which makes sense; there’s a hovercraft dock back there, and some of the other vessels are quite novel, too.
“It’s an understandable temptation to come close and look at that,” Applegate said.
But it also creates concerns for the safety of the public and base personnel, he said.
Officials already have posted a new, more legible sign warning against entering the restricted areas at the mouth of Alligator Bayou and plan to add another one soon. Another 22 signs will be posted along the base’s roughly 3,000 linear-feet of coastline, and a system of buoys about 100 feet from the shore.
Alligator Bayou is the main waterway for NSAPC and its many tenants, Applegate said.
“It is a relatively high-traffic area,” he said.