What’s Love Got To Do With It? Tonight At Northend Church
February 15, 2008
The NorthEnd Community Church will present a night of food, games, music and more entitled “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” Friday night. The event for middle and high school students will also include door prizes and more “free stuff”.
The guest speaker will be the Rev. Jeff Walker from Christ Community Church Baptist Church. The entertainment will be led by Daniel Torrez from Cottage Hill Baptist Church.
It takes place tonight from 6:30 to 8:00 at the church at 5630 Hwy. 196 (Barrineau Park Road). It’s five miles west of Highway 29. For more information, call 587-3868 or see excitingnorthend.com online.
Valentine’s Day: They Are Still Sweethearts
February 14, 2008
It was a happy Valentine’s Day Thursday at the Century Care Center, with two couple celebrating Valentine’s Day together.
Jessie and Elma Lambeth (pictured above) have been married since 1990 and were crowned Valentine’s King and Queen. Mr. Lambeth says they are “still sweethearts”. They are both residents of Century Care Center.
One other pair of lovebirds attended today’s Valentine’s party. Vaudean and Henry Sheffield (pictured below) enjoyed the day’s events. Mr. Sheffield is a Century Care resident.
Northview High Students Place In FBLA District Competitions
February 14, 2008
Students from Northview High School competed a district FBLA contest on Wednesday. Pictured are winners, front row (left to right) Diamond Herrera, Ashley Snow, Kayla Hall and back row (left to right)
Melissa Garrett, Brett Hanks, Caitlin Roley, Gretch Boughner, Jessica Bloodsworth and Zack Lamb.
Northview is celebrating National FFA week all this week.
Submitted Photo: Annie Gilmore, Northview High School
The Race Is On: Who Will Be Northview’s Fastest Typist?
February 14, 2008
Students at Northview High School are participating in National FBLA Week this week. Thursday they have the opportunity to take a timed typing test for the title of Northview’s fastest typist. The keyboard race will actually be played all day during individual classes. Interested students will key a passage using a program that records their keyboarding speed and errors.
Results from the day’s events will be available after all the students have taken the test and results are tabulated.
Pictured above: Eric Ickeringill and Mark Shipps take the timed typing test Thursday morning at Northview. Below: Raven Knapp (left photo) and Alisha Copeland (middle photo) participate in the keyboard race. Right photo: Students in Mrs. Annie Gilmore’s first period class participated in the FBLA week timed typing race. Click any photo to enlarge. NorthEscambia.com photos.
After A Cold Start, It Will Turn Sunny And Warmer By Valentine’s Afternoon
February 14, 2008
After a cold, frosty start to Valentine’s morning, it will turn sunny a bit warmer by afternoon. The afternoon high is expected to be around 64, with sunny skies and a light wind from the south by later afternoon. Tonight’s low is expected to be 35.
It will be even warmer on Friday and Saturday, with a high of 72 each day. Rain is in the forecast for Sunday.
The overnight low was 26 in Century Thursday morning, 26 in Walnut Hill and 27 in Molino. There was a heavy frost reported across the area.
Deputies Recover Stolen Alabama Police Chief’s Car, Arrest Suspect Out Of Gas
February 14, 2008
Escambia County deputies recovered a stolen unmarked East Brewton, Alabama, police car Wednesday morning and arrested the man they found sitting in it.
Curdy Dortch (pictured left), 33, of Smiths Station, Alabama, was found sitting in the unmarked police car alongside Highway 29 about 6:00 Wednesday morning where he had run out of gas. Dortch first told deputies various stories about who he was and who the police car belonged to, but it was determined that the car belonged to East Brewton Police Chief B.C. Cooper.
Deputies first received a call from a passerby that reported what appeared to be an unmarked police car with an Alabama municipal tag sitting on the shoulder of Highway 29 just south of Pine Barren Road about 6:00 Wednesday morning. When Sgt. David Preston arrived, he found Dortch inside the car.
Preston said Dortch told him that he was in East Brewton Tuesday and got into the unlocked car because he was cold and it was raining. He told deputies that he noticed the key was in the car, and he decided to go to Pensacola.
“It was cold and raining and I just got in it. I didn’t know it was no police car,” Dortch told NorthEscambia.com as he sat in custody in Preston’s cruiser.
Escambia County (Alabama) Sheriff’s Lt. Kenneth Brazille said the vehicle was taken about 6:00 Tuesday night from DJ’s Paint and Body in East Brewton. He said there should have been two weapons in the trunk of the vehicle, but Preston said deputies did not find any weapons in the vehicle.
Brazille said the car was located outside the body shop; the body shop employee was going to place it inside the shop last night after he returned from getting something to eat. It had a broken windshield that was to be repaired because the police chief had collided with a buzzard, Brazille said.
Dortch was transported to the Escambia County Florida Jail where he was charged with dealing in stolen property, driving while license suspended or revoked and providing false identification to police. His bond was set at $5,000 on the driver’s license charge. He is expected be extradited back to Alabama where he will face charges for stealing the car, most likely to include grand theft auto.
The car was released to the East Brewton Police Department.
NorthEscambia.com was the first media on the scene Wednesday morning. For more exclusive photos, click here for a photo gallery. Click any photo on this page to enlarge.
Multi-State Farm Day Held In Walnut Hill Wednesday
February 14, 2008
A multi-state Farm Day was held Wednesday at the Walnut Hill Community Center. About 150 farmers and agriculture industry members attended the event sponsored by the University of Florida IFAS Extension Office, the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service.
The day’s events included presentations by several industry experts, as well as the opportunity for attendees to earn continuing education and commercial applicator credits. There were also representatives on hand with information booths from several agricultural related companies.
The day’s speakers included Dr. Dale Monks from Auburn University on “Cotton Varieties and Production”; Dr. David Wright and Dr. Amanda Gevens from the University of Florida on “Corn Production in the Coastal South” and “Wheat:What to Do Now to Finish the Crop”; Dr. Dennis Delaney and Dr. Ed Sikora from Auburn on “Soybeans-Production and Disease Control”; Dr. John Beasley from the University of Georgia on “Peanuts: Varieties, Disease Control, and Cost-Cutting Measures”; Dr. Ron Smith from Auburn with a “Cotton Insect Update”; and Dr. Marshall Lamb from the ARS Peanut Research Lab on “Economics, Marketing and a Crystal Ball Look into 2008 Prices”.
Dr. Smith (pictured left), an entomologist with Auburn, told those in attendance that the increase production of wheat across the area will lead to a increase in stinkbugs (that’s any of numerous hemipterous insects of the family Pentatomidae for those of you in the know).
“There’s going to be a lot more stink bugs this year because of the wheat,” Smith said, “and possibly even more in 2009.”
Stink bugs live about two months and reproduce several times per year. They love to follow a progression from wheat fields, to corn to cotton and finally to late season soybeans; so they post a threat to most crops grown in the area.
Smith stressed the importance of monitoring new cotton bolls for stink bugs because they can destroy the boll very quickly.
Dr. Marshall (pictured top of page) from the ARS Peanut Research Lab said peanut prices are up, and now is the time for farmers to book at least half of their crops. Booking a crop involves setting the price in advance that the purchaser will pay once the crop is harvested.
“If you haven’t contracted your peanuts yet, now is the time to make money,” he said. “Get contracted now or you expose yourself.”
Marshall expects peanut prices to remain high to satisfy demand, and additional acreage needs to be planted.
Soybean prices also are looking up for 2008, he said. “But we encourage people not to put soybeans into a peanut rotation. But at $11-$12 per bushel it will happen.”
Time Change For Friday Night’s Northview’s Got Talent Show
February 14, 2008
The start time for first round of “Northview’s Got Talent” has been changed from 6:00 to 7:oo this Friday night due to a scheduling conflict.
The finals of the talent show series will be held at 6:00 on March 1 in the Northview Theater.
NorthEscambia.com will publish a complete contestant lineup on Friday morning.
Brr! How Cold Will It Be Tonight? And Was That Sleet This Morning?
February 13, 2008
Afternoon highs Wednesday were only in the low 40’s across the North Escambia area, with a strong wind at times making it feel much colder. Winds are forecast to become light with an overnight low of 25 tonight. Highs are forecast to rebound to 62 on Valentine’s Day under sunny skies.
We received a few reports of light sleet falling Wednesday morning around the North Escambia area, including near Bratt and Bogia. The National Weather service reported some light sleet and snow just to our north Wednesday, with light snow falling north of Evergreen. There was no accumulation.
County To Extend Volunteer Firefighter Contract Another Year; Work With Volunteers
February 13, 2008
The Escambia County Commission voted Tuesday afternoon to extend the county’s contract with 15 volunteer departments for another year while discussions continue on a unified countywide department. The commission must vote to ratify their decisions at their next meeting before their recommendation becomes final.
The county’s current contract with the independent volunteer departments expires September 30 of this year, but the commission recommended extending that contract for one year until September 30, 2009. In the meantime, negotiations between the Escambia County Volunteer Firefighters Association and the county will continue toward a combination volunteer and paid department, with the negotiations set to end by February of 2009.
There has been concern among the county’s volunteers and citizens that the county’s proposal was for an all paid, career firefighter department that would eliminate the volunteers or would made them inferior to the paid firefighters.
But that’s not the case, according to Mike Whitehead, commission chairman. In the combined volunteer and career firefighter system, rank is rank he said, with a definite chain of command to be in place.
“If you are at Station 15, then you report to whoever is in charge at 15, but you are also going to report to whoever is above the food chain there,” Whitehead said, using Walnut Hill’s Station 15 as an example.
But that’s not the way the system has been working at times, according to Robbie Whitfield, president of the volunteer’s association and chief of the Ferry Pass Volunteer Fire Department.
The county currently operates a “dual” system of paid career firefighters and volunteers. The paid firefighters man select volunteer stations during the weekdays, including Century and Molino.
Whitfiled gave Whitehead the example of a paid career lieutenant that “if the fire chief of that station tells him to do something, he’s told he doesn’t work for him. Are you saying that is the way it should be?”
Whitehead said the fire chief of that station should have the authority of any paid fire chief. “If it doesn’t work that way, then that career lieutenant needs to leave and go find another place to work,” he said.
“We embody the position with the authority to make the decision whether the person in that position is a volunteer or paid,” Whitehead continued. “I don’t care. If they are qualified to be the station chief, then they are the station chief. Period. I have a hard time accepting (that is happening). If the career don’t like that, then I agree they need to leave and start over. I can deal with that.”
“I agree, but that has not been happening in Escambia County,” Whitfield replied.
“Document and we will replace administration that does not play the game,” Whitehead said, “the same way I expect volunteers to be replaced if they don’t play the game.”
“I will be the first to ask Bob (McLaughlin, county administrator) to fire him,” Whitehead said in an apparent reference to County Fire Chief Ken Perkins. “If we are not treating volunteers and career firefighters equally, then administration needs t go. Period. End of report. Because as far as I am concerned they are the same.”
“I just find it very hard to accept that we’ve go two different standards around here,” he said. “This will always be volunteer system at least until our grandkids are around.”
“The idea of 15 kingdoms, 15 different departments and 15 different regions not being accountable to one rand and file command is a problem,” Commissioner Gene Valentino said.
But commissioners and Whitfield agreed that terms could be worked out to bring the volunteers and paid career fighters together under one chain of command. And they stressed that the volunteers will never go away.
“The north end of Escambia County will never be dense enough,” Whitehead said, “to warrant paid firefighters. We will have to have volunteers.”
“I don’t think we are that far apart from where we want to be,” Commissioner Grover Robinson said. “We are still going to be a volunteer system. The vision is we have a combination system, but sometimes the fault is with both sides.”
Commissioner Kevin White, who represents District 5 and the North Escambia area, said he would support extending the volunteer’s contract for the additional year until September 30, 2009, while negotiations continue between the volunteers and the county
“I don’t believe there is a need for an extension on the contract,” Perkins told the commission. “We can work with the volunteer leadership to come up with most of our processes and policies. We can work as a combination department by October 1.”
“If there’s an ability at the station level to break off and say ‘I’m not following Chief Perkins’ rules on this’, I’ve got a problem,” Valentino said.
“Without the contract that could happen,” Whitfield said, using his Ferry Pass volunteers as an example. “Without a contract, I don’t have to answer to the association; I don’t have to answer to Chief Perkins. I can do what I want.”
After over an hour and half of discussion, the commission voted to support extending the contract the additional year. The county and volunteer association is to come back to the commission with a plan for the combination department by February 2009. The commission will then forgive $24,000 in stipend overpayments to volunteers. The new combination paid and volunteer department is expected to be in place prior the end of the contract extension on September 30, 2009.
The commission’s vote at Tuesday’s meeting of the Committee of the Whole is not binding and must be approved in a regular meeting. The next regular meeting for commissioners is at 5:30 on February 21.
Pictures above: Firetrucks on the scene of a structure fire Monday afternoon in the Bratt Community. Paid career firefighters stationed at Century and Molino joined volunteers from those departments as well as Walnut Hill and McDavid fighting the fire. To read the story about the fire, click here.