United Way Campaign Kicks Off; IP Exceeds Goal With $50,000
September 17, 2008
The International Paper (IP) Pensacola Mill has concluded its 2008 United Way campaign, exceeding their fund-raising goal by 26 percent and setting the tone for United Way’s annual fund-raising drive, which kicked off last night in Pensacola.
This year, employees raised $31,526.54 for United Way. With a 60 percent match from the IP Foundation in Memphis, Tenn., the mill’s total contribution is $50,442.46. That is $14,489.40 more than the 2007 campaign.
The total goal for Escambia County United Way is up three percent this year to $2.58 million.
“Now more than ever organizations like the United Way and the agencies they serve need our help,” said Chris Read, mill manager. “We’re proud that our employees recognize this need and chose to give above and beyond our expectations.”
“To have a pacesetter achieve such tremendous results is very encouraging. It shows that even in this tough economic time, our community pulls together to help those who need it most and to solve our most challenging problems. It also is an indicator of the results we are expecting for our overall campaign,” said Jean Norman, executive director of United Way of Escambia County.
United Way supports a long list of non-profit groups in Escambia County, including the American Red Cross, ARC Gateway, Bay Area Food Bay, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys & Girls Clubs, Council on Aging, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, the Early Learning Coalition and Lakeview Center.
School District Passes $638 Million Budget With No Teacher Raises
September 17, 2008
The Escambia County School District approved a $638 million budget for next year, $13 million less than last year.
A majority of the savings will come from bus route changes and school closures. About $2.5 million was cut from the budget by closing Wedgewood and Brown Barge middle schools in the Pensacola area last year. Another $1.2 million in savings was from the consolidation of school bus routes and school start time changes this year. The closure of Carver/Century K-8 School is expected to save another $680,000 a year, if the school board votes to close that North Escambia School.
Teachers did not get the news they wanted Tuesday night…there’s no money in the budget for teacher raises. That’s unlike last year, when teachers received an eight percent raise. The district’s total cost for teachers and their benefits is about a quarter billion dollars.
The budget includes $163 million for capital outlay projects…renovation and construction projects.
Football: T.R. Miller Downs Ernest Ward Middle
September 17, 2008
The Ernest Ward Middle School football team lost 36-6 to T.R. Miller Tuesday night in Brewton.
Middle school games are usually played on Thursday nights, but the EWMS game against Miller was moved to Tuesday night because Ernest Ward has an Open House scheduled for Thursday evening.
Flomaton JV With Another Win Over The J. U. Blacksher Bulldogs
September 17, 2008
The JV Canes traveled to Uriah Tuesday evening to take on the J U Blacksher Bulldogs. The Canes record improved to 3-0 after a 28-6 win. The Canes were the first to score early on in the first quarter of play. At halftime the Canes were up 22-0. The Bulldogs would put six on the board in the second half for a final score of 28-6.
The game originally scheduled for next week against Baker will not be played. The next game on the schedule for the JV Canes is September 30 at Jay.
For more photos from the game, click here.
For even more photos, visit www.mikenewtonphotography.zenfolio.com.
Pictured above: The JV Flomaton Hurricanes beat J.U. Blacksher Tuesday afternoon. Submitted photo by Mike Newton Photography for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Sorry, Out Of Gas
September 16, 2008
It could be a week or more before gas supplies are replenished at some service stations in Florida.
Hurricane Ike led to rumors of shortages and of price spikes, causing many people to fill up extra containers with gas. The fuel supply at many Pensacola area stations quickly ran out over the weekend. The Florida Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association says a near record amount of gas was sold between Thursday night and Saturday morning in the state, about triple the normal volume.
The association says the state has plenty of gas, but there is going to be some delay between getting it from the terminals where it is located to the gas stations.
Gas station after gas station in Pensacola had empty price signs and bags over pump handles. At the Tom Thumb on Airport Boulevard in Pensacola, only regular unleaded was available at $3.63 a gallon. At a Tom Thumb on Nine Mile Road, only diesel was available Saturday night; the station was out of all grades of gas. There was a similar across Pensacola Saturday night.
A quick check of stations across the immediate North Escambia area found showed that stations had most or all grades available. But the out of gas situation persisted Monday at many Pensacola stations.
“I’m buying gas up here because the stations I stopped at down there (in Pensacola) didn’t have regular,” one traveler from Georgia said while filling up in Century early Monday evening.
Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles H. Bronson announced Monday that he is issuing subpoenas for financial information from 16 major oil terminals in Florida in connection with an ongoing investigation of gasoline price spikes associated with Hurricane Ike.
The subpoenas are scheduled to be hand delivered to the terminals on Tuesday, and they are seeking records to determine whether any of them illegally increased the wholesale prices that were passed on to retail gas stations and ultimately their customers. The subpoenas call for the records to be provided to Bronson’s office in seven days.
“It’s critical that we go to the source,” Bronson said. “A number of gas stations are claiming that they are only passing on increases that they have had to pay, so it is vital to examine where these price increases originated.”
Under state law, it is unlawful to charge excessive prices for essential items, including gasoline, water, ice, lumber, batteries and shelter, following the declaration of a state emergency unless the increases in the amount charged are attributable to additional costs incurred by those supplying the items.
Individuals or businesses found to have engaged in price gouging face fines up to $1,000 per violation, or up to a maximum fine of $25,000 a day.
Meanwhile, more than 2,300 price-gouging calls were received by Bronson’s office during the last the days, and the volume of calls remains heavy.
Century Discusses Code Enforcement With County
September 16, 2008
The Century Town Council is looking at options for bringing code enforcement back to the town, and Monday they sat down with the county’s top code enforcement official to discuss options.
“We enforce everything on our books equally and fairly,” Sandra Slay, Escambia County’s code enforcement manager, told the council at a workshop meeting.
“The best way to keep yourself out of a lawsuit is to follow the rules, not bend or break the rules,” she said
Typically, the code enforcement process begins with a code officer writing a “notice of violation” with some period of time from five to 30 days for the violator to work toward correcting the problem. If the alleged violator complies with the notice, or makes the effort to comply, the county’s code enforcement department will usually work with them to solve the issue.
“The only time we write a citation is say when we give a notice you have two weeks to cut your grass, and you haven’t hit a lick,” Slay said, “You get a citation.”
“They are going to give you the time that is reasonable. They will work with you,” she said. For instance, a person that will need to hire a contractor to repair a cited building might not be able to get a contractor to start the job for several weeks.
Previously, Century ended an agreement with Escambia County to provide code enforcement in the town. Under that agreement, the county’s code enforcement officers worked Century and wrote citations that were turned over to the town for abatement. The services were provided by the county at no charge to Century.
The arrangement came under fire, with allegations that the county’s officers provided selective enforcement, citing some people but no others. That prompted the council to sever the relationship with Escambia Code Enforcement. Now, there is no code enforcement at all in the town.
But now, council members are ready to look at returning code enforcement to the town. The council has considered another agreement with Escambia County providing code enforcement, and they have also discussed the possibility of hiring their own code enforcement officer.
If Escambia County provides Century’s code enforcement, Slay said she would expect her officers to be able to fairly do their jobs in the town.
“I’m not bending the law for anybody,” she said. “We are going to enforce what is on the books.”
In the county’s current system, a ticketed violator can appeal to a special magistrate that will hear their case. It is a judicial process, with the magistrate having the legal authority to impose fees and fines, and place liens on properties when fines are not paid.
“It is not our intention to take your property,” Slay told the council and about a dozen citizens at the meeting. “But if you fail to take care of it, they could foreclose on it.” The foreclosure process, she said, does not ever happen on property with a homestead exemption.
If a citizen does not abate, or take care of, the problem for which they were cited, they get to visit the special magistrate. The special magistrate, if the person is found guilty, can impose fines of $1 to $250 a day until a problem is corrected. A $1,100 court cost fee is also accessed to guilty parties. If unpaid, a lien for the amount of the fine and costs is placed on ever piece of property owned by the accused. Those liens stay active for 20 years, and carry 6.8 percent interest rate on unpaid balances.
If a person is physically or financially unable to correct the problem on their property, several community groups often step into help, Slay said.
Century Mayor Freddie McCall said that if a citizen of Century was about to face the magistrate, he wanted the town notified. That way, he said, the town could attempt to find a community group or church to help a person in need rectify their code violation.
“It take a community effort to get this area cleaned up,” Slay said. “It kills me see some of the things in this town.”
Slay said if the town only wanted her department’s county code enforcement officers to make the initial contact while the town served as its own magistrate board, she was not interested.
“If all you want is for us to go out there and write violations, then no,” she said. “If all you are wanting to do is get someone to just do your inspections, then we are not coming up here.”
The council recently discussed the council members acting as the appeals board for code violations in the own, but Slay said that would violate Florida law. “You cannot legally sit as that board,” she said.
“I don’t think we want to do that anyway,” McCall said. “That would be too political.”
Council President Ann Brooks said, “I don’t think we have any more money to spend”. If the council creates their own code enforcement division and hires an officer, they will be looking at tens of thousands of dollars in expenses. If the county provides code enforcement for the town, the town’s cost will be zero.
The council voted to table any action on code enforcement until after a public meeting. That public meeting will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, September 29, at the Ag Building on Highway 4.
Pictured above: An abandoned building on North Century Boulevard in the southern part of Century. Building such as these could become the target of code enforcement in Century. Pictured below: A dilapidated home on Freedom Road in Century. NorthEscambia.com photos.
Grenade Victims Identified; Photos Released
September 16, 2008
(Updated) Officials have released the names of three people injured in a grenade explosion Sunday afternoon in Jay, along with photos of a second grenade found later.
Shortly after 4:00 Sunday afternoon, Santa Rosa deputies were dispatched to the 3800 block of Nowling Road just south of Jay for three males injured when a car battery exploded.
When the Jay Fire Department and deputies arrived, they found that three had be injured by a hand grenade that exploded.
One victim, Johnny Bruce Pyles 29, was transported by Life Flight to Sacred Heart Hospital with severe injuries and trauma to his body and hands. Pyles was holding the grenade in his hand when it detonated. The two other victims, James E. Grice, 37, and Zachary Talbot, 26, were transported to Jay Hospital with serous injuries suffered from the shrapnel from the grenade. They were later transported to other hospitals having the resources to care for trauma type injuries. All three men are from the Jay area.
Initial investigations reveal that the subjects were standing outside around the bed of a pickup truck (pictured left) when they were handling the grenade. When it exploded, the shrapnel pierced numerous parts of the pickup truck, leaving fragments from the grenade in the surrounding vicinity. The fuse, pin, and various fragments of the grenade were recovered at the scene, according Sgt. Scott Haines, spokesperson for the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’ Department.
In addition to sheriff’s office investigators and crime scene, ATF and the State Fire Marshal’s Office also responded and are participating in this joint investigation. Investigators searched the premises for other possible devices and none were located.
Investigators went to the residence of one of the other victims, which is also located in Jay, and located a second hand grenade and the ATF took it into their custody. Investigators are in the process of determining where the devices were obtained and what the victims were doing with the grenades.
The investigation into the incident is continuing.
Pictured above: A grenade found Sunday in Jay. Pictured below: An ATF agent hold the pin from a grenade. Pictured bottom: Shrapnel from the explosion hit the toolbox on the truck. Submitted photos.
Century Imposes Fee For After-Hours Utility Reconnects
September 16, 2008
If you are a Town of Century Utilities customers and get cutoff for non-payment, it’s going to cost you more if you want your water or gas turned back out outside business hours.
Mayor Freddie McCall told the council Monday night that the town pays a minimum of two hours to a water or gas employee to turn service back on after-hours. At $18 an hour for the town’s highest paid employee that might make the after-hours call, that’s $36 the town spends to turn a person’s water back on. Add in an additional employee certified to turn the gas back on for a customer, and it’s another $36 cost to the town.
The town has a $20 reconnect fee in place for customers that are disconnected. Now, disconnected customers will be given the option of paying an additional $36 per gas or water reconnect, up to $72 total, to have their service restored after-hours or on the weekend. The customer can choose, McCall said, to wait until the next business day to have their service restored without paying the extra $36 or $72 fee.
“We have some customers that do this every month,” Town Clerk Dorothy Sims said. “They come in 10 minutes before we close.”
The utility office in Century currently closes at 3:30, and utility system employees get off at the same time. If a disconnected customer requests that their service be restored before the water or gas employees go home, that might be able to avoid the additional fees since the employee will not be called out for an after-hours reconnect.
The additional after-hours reconnect fees will not apply if the town made any error in disconnected someone’s service, McCall said.
Public Defender Candidate Speaks In North Escambia
September 16, 2008
Tony Henderson, Democratic candidate for public defender in the First Judicial Circuit, brought his message to North Escambia Monday night.
The First Judicial Circuit Court of Florida’s public defender office covers Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties.
Henderson has ran the public defender’s office in Santa Rosa County for the past seven years, The public defender’s office is responsible for providing legal representation to those in the court system charged with crimes that are unable to afford their own attorney.
“I believe that equal representation for everyone,” Henderson said. “It should not be based on how much money you have to hire an attorney.”
Not everyone assigned an attorney by the public defender’s office is unemployed, Henderson said. Attorneys are often assigned to defendents from middle class families that are unable to afford $3,000 to $10,000 for a criminal defense attorney.
Henderson played championship football at Milton High School and later turned his football abilities into a scholarship at Marshall University. He then attended law school at Florida State. His first job out of college was in the public defender’s office where he worked for 15 years.
“I have a passion for this type of work,” he said. One part of the job he feels is important is simply doing his job to make sure that the innocent do not go to prison.
Henderson said crime in our area is not a black-white issue.
“We have to fight the battle together,” he said. “The battle is education, education, education.”
Grenade Explosion Injuries Three In Jay Sunday
September 15, 2008
(Updated 9:00 a.m.)Three men in Jay were injured Sunday afternoon in what authorities say was a grenade explosion.
The incident happened about 4:00 Sunday afternoon on Nowling Road in just south of Jay.
Authorities say three men took the grenade out of a pickup truck toobox. Johnny Bruce Pyles, 29, pulled the pin, causing it to explode in his hands. James E. Grice, 37, and Zachary Talbot, 26, were standing nearby and were also injured in the explosion.
Pyles was transported to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola by LifeFlight with serious injuries. Grice and Talbot were taken by ambulance to Jay Hospital and later tranferred to another hospital.
The Jay Volunteer Fire Department, the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Department, the state ATF, the state Fire Marshal and military officials all responded to the scene.
It was not immediately known where the men obtained the grenade or why they would have moved it and pulled the pin.