Port St. Joe’s new Taco Bell is open for business
On Monday morning, the highly anticipated new Taco Bell in Port St. Joe officially opened its doors to the public.
The Taco Bell is located at the intersection of Highway 98 and Avenue B, near the New Bethel AME Church.
Jim McKnight, the director of the Gulf County Economic Development Coalition said that increasing interest in Gulf County locations among big chanis, like Taco Bell, show a growing economic base within the community.
“We are excited by the opening of the Taco Bell in Port St. Joe and the impending opening of Burger King in Wewahitchka,” he said. “These restaurants give our tourists and locals more culinary options, they create entry level jobs and they expand the base of our economy.”
“Admittedly job creation is a double edged sword on the south end of Gulf County where the demand for service sector workers is high and wages are increasing dramatically,” he continued. “That said, I couldn’t be more happy with the opening of Taco Bell, as it is my favorite fast food restaurant.”
Meet the Editor
Wendy Weitzel, The Star’s digital editor, joined the news outlet in August 2021, as a reporter covering primarily Gulf County.
Prior to then, she interned for Oklahoma-based news wire service Gaylord News and for Oklahoma City-based online newspaper NonDoc.com during her four years at the University of Oklahoma, from which she graduated in May with degrees in online journalism and political science.
While at OU, Weitzel was selected as Carnegie-Knight News21 Investigative Fellow among 30 top journalism students from around the country. She also was senior editor managing a 12-person newsroom in coordination with Oklahoma Watch, a non-profit news organization in eastern Oklahoma.