County Settles Roads Inc. Lawsuit Over Nine Acre Catfish Pond
June 20, 2008
The Escambia County Commission quickly and quietly approved a settlement in a lawsuit with contractor Roads, Inc. Of Northwest Florida of a catfish pond that has been years in the making.
Roads, Inc. sued the county after the county pulled the project’s storm water permit in February, effectively putting an end to the project in the Cantonment area.
Under the settlement, Roads, Inc. will have six months to finish the project they say will be a catfish pond. Dump trucks and other equipment will be allowed to enter and exit the property only two days during week from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.
The stormwater permit indicates that the catfish pond will be nine acres in size.
The commission approved the settlement on the recommendation of County Attorney Alison Rogers 5-0 with no discussion at their Thursday night meeting.
J.R. Spears Memorial Golf Tournament Saturday
June 20, 2008
The Second Annual CPL J.R. Spears Memorial Scholarship Fund Golf Tournament will he held Saturday at the Solutia Golf Club.
CPL Spears of Molino was killed in action in Iraq on October 23, 2005.
Spears graduated in 2002 from Tate High School, where he played on the Aggie’s offensive line. He made the Dean’s List and lost 80 pounds during a year at Pensacola Junior College before enlisting in the Marine Corps as an EMT.
He was killed by sniper fire while serving with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment out of 29 Palms, California, near Al-Ramadi, Iraq.
His parents, Tim and Marie Spears, are holding the golf tournament to raise money for the scholarship in their son’s honor. The entry fee for the two person team scramble is $65 per non-member and $45 for Solution Golf Club members. The top three teams will go home with trophies. A hole in one on a predetermined hole will win a 2008 Ford F150 pickup from World Ford.
“Corporal J,.R. Spears died in Iraq doing what he loved and believed in while serving his country as a proud Marine. J.R. felt it an honor to serve his his country and to serve with other proud Marines,” his parents wrote on the golf tournament flyer.
“‘In letters he wrote home, J.R. related that he wished all Americans could witness the many successes and accomplishments being achieved in Iraq by his unit and his Marines. While acutely aware of the dangers he faced daily, J.R.’s patriotism never faltered and his selflessness remained evident,” his parents said.
“Shortly before his death, J.R. told his parents that if a Marine in his unit had to die, he would rather be him than a fellow Marine who had a wife and children back home,” The Spears wrote.
For more information, email CplJRSpears@aol.com.
End Of Era At Cooper’s Store In Bratt As Gas Pumps Are Removed
June 20, 2008
It was the end of an era Thursday at Cooper’s Store in Bratt as the store’s gas pumps and tanks were removed.
When Lawrence Cooper purchased the store 52 years ago, gas was selling for 10 cents per gallon, his son Marion Cooper told NorthEscambia.com Thursday. Now, even though gas in selling for around $4 a gallon, the profit per gallon for the store was still only about 10 cents per gallon.
He said the state mandated that the aging underground storage tanks had to be dug up. He said replacing the tanks would have cost about $30,000 to $40,000…more than the store would profit by selling gas.
Cooper said the store was recently averaging about 500 to 600 gallons of gas sold per week. “We just don’t sell enough to justify replacing the tanks,” he said.
He predicted that more and more small stores like Cooper’s would be getting out of the gas business in the coming years due to the expense of meeting strict state regulations. He said that regulations are tough and expensive on small stores, pointing out that a state inspector was outside the store supervising the tank removal.
“The independents will be gone in a few years, and the big companies will control the gas market,” Cooper said.
Pictured above: The gas tanks and pumps have been removed at Cooper’s Store in Bratt. Pictured below: A state inspector outside the store tracks the progress of the tank removal project Thursday afternoon on his laptop. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
FHP Releases Names Of Six Teens In Early Tuesday Crash; Charges Filed
June 19, 2008
The Florida Highway Patrol has released the names of six people in a one vehicle accident on Highway 4 between Bratt and Bryneville just before 2:00 Tuesday morning. Two were taken to area hospitals.
The FHP says the 1999 GMC pickup truck was driven by Michael P. Trentman, 17, of Walnut Hill. Passengers were Joshua D. Nix, 17, of Century; Anthony Trentman, 15, of Walnut Hill; Brittany Brown, 17, of Century; Colton Brown, age unknown, of Century; and Talisa Presley, 16 of Century.
Talisa Presley was transported by LifeFlight to Baptist Hospital in Pensacola where her injuries were classified as minor. Colton Brown was transported by ambulance to Jay Hospital where his injuries were listed as minor. The four other teens were not injured.
The accident happened on Highway 4 near the Canoe Creek bridge, about two miles west of Byrneville.
Their westbound pickup truck veered off the right side of the highway where Trentman overcorrected and ran off the other side of the road, where the truck overturned when it struck a culvert just past the bridge. All six exited the vehicle and walked about 200 feet west to the nearest residence.
Trentman was charged with Failure to Use Due Care and Curfew Violation. Florida’s curfew law states that a driver 17 or under must be accompanied by a licensed adult 21 or older between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
All six were wearing their seat belts and alcohol was not a factor in the accident, according to the FHP.
The Walnut Hill Volunteer Fire Department and the Century Volunteer Fire Department both responded to the early morning call.
Pictured above and below: Six teens were in this pickup truck that overturned early Tuesday morning on Highway 4 near Canoe Creek. NorthEscambia.com exclusive photos, click to enlarge.
Century To Accept $282,000 Offer From Dept. Of Corrections & Not Sue
June 19, 2008
Rather than going to court, Century will settle a billing dispute with the Florida Department of Corrections for about $282,000, far less than the $569,000 they had originally hoped to receive.
“The dispute had one feel in the beginning, but now it has a different appearance,” Matt Dannheisser, the town’s attorney, told the council at a special meeting Wednesday.
Town Accountant Robert Hudson had reported to the council that the DOC owed about $569,000 in back payments. But that amount included $127,000 in interest that Dannheisser said the DOC was not willing to pay.
The dispute stemmed from billing practices that dated back to 2000. Under the town’s agreement with the DOC and Century Correctional Institute, the prison was to pay for natural gas at the rate of 120 percent of the town’s actual cost. The town’s billing system would generate a bill at the normal rate, then town employees would re-rate the bill and send a new bill about 10 days later at the 120 percent rate. That adjustment was originally done twice a year based upon the rate from nine months earlier.
But in 2000, there was spike in natural gas prices, Dannheisser said, and the town went back to the DOC that agreed to pay 100 percent of the town’s cost on a monthly basis. But they did not agree to pay the 20 percent profit margin until a new agreement was reached.
The first problem, Dannheisser said, was that there was no proof that the town ever mailed the adjusted bills to the DOC. “If we did not seek that adjustment, we’re sunk,” he said.
He said the state is allowed to pay interest on bills more than 40 days late, but only if the billing party can prove they actually sent a correct invoice.
“We have not been able to locate the corrected invoices for the Department of Corrections,” he said.
And more problems with the town’s natural gas bills for the DOC were also found.
“We discovered two anomalies going through this event,” he said. One was an over-billing of $105,000, and the other were two missing payments.
“There are two payments we can’t find,” Dannheisser said. “The department says they paid them…we simply can’t find them.”
Those payments, once for $37,400 and one for $46,100, total $78,500.
“I’ve called for copies of the checks,” Dannheisser said. He said the DOC had located a copy of one, but he had yet to see it.
When the $78,500 in missing payments and the $105,000 in over-billings are subtracted, that left the DOC owing the town $282,087.
Dannheisser recommend that the council accept the $282,087 from the Department of Corrections rather than taking DOC to court. “I would suggest that you approved taking the settlement,” he said. “They are now paying what we billed them.”
The council voted 4-0 on Nadine McCaw’s motion to accept the $282,087, with council member Henry Hawkins not present for the meeting. The amount is contingent upon the DOC proving they made the $78,500 in payments they say they have made. If not, that amount will be added to the total settlement.
While investigating the natural gas billing issue with the Department of Corrections, Dannheisser said he discovered that Century Correctional Institure was being billed $20,400 per month for water service under a 1996 contract.
The contract had a contingency clause to raise the rate based upon the Consumer Price Index, which has gone up 36.1 percent since 1996. Based upon Dannheisser’s findings, Century Mayor Freddie McCall recommended that the prison’s base water bill be raised by the 36.1 percent, or about $7,400 per month. A motion to that effect was approved.
There were no members of the general public at Wednesday’s meeting. It was attended by the council, the attorney, a consultant and two town employees. NorthEscambia.com was the only media at the meeting.
Century Does Not Want Flomaton Sewage, Even If They Pay
June 19, 2008
The Century Town Council made a preliminary decision Wednesday not to provide sewer service to a mobile home park in Flomaton under an agreement with that Alabama town.
Mathis Trailer Park is planned for the north side of the street known as Alley 5, just feet north of the Alabama state line in Flomaton. Flomaton does not have sewer service available south of the railroad tracks near the state line. Under a proposal from Flomaton, that town would provide individual sewer connections for the five planned trailers on the lot, and they would run a line to the state line. At the state line, Flomaton’s sewer line would connect to a line from Century.
The sewage flow from Flomaton would be paid for by the Town of Flomaton, with Flomaton billing the trailer park owner. If the trailer park owner did not pay Flomaton, Flomaton would still pay Century for the sewage, Century Mayor Freddie McCall said. In addition, the Town of Century would receive a $1,000 connection fee for each of the five trailers, and $1,000 each for additional trailers added to the park in the future.
The proposal has already been approved by the Flomaton Town Council. But Century’s council did not approve the agreement at a special called meeting Wednesday.
“I don’t support providing sewer service to anybody we don’t provide water service to,” Council President Anne Brooks said. Under the discussed agreement, water service for the trailer park would come from Flomaton.
“I am not particularly happy about going across the state line with our sewage,” council member Gary Riley said.
Council member Sharon Scott also expressed her displeasure with the idea. Council member Nadine McCaw said she would support the proposal. Council member Henry Hawkins was not present at the meeting.
The council is expected to formally deny the request at their next regular meeting on July 7.
See The Big Moon Last Night? Your Eyes Were Tricking You. Really.
June 19, 2008
If you noticed a larger than normal looking moon rising in the east over North Escambia last night, you did not see what you think you did, according to NASA.
Sometimes you just can’t believe your eyes. This week is one of those times.
This week step outside just after sunset and look around. You’ll see a giant form rising in the east. At first glance it looks like the full Moon. It has craters and seas and the face of a man, but this “moon” is strangely inflated. It’s huge!
You’ve just experienced the Moon Illusion.
There’s no better time to see it. The full Moon of June 18th is a “solstice moon”, coming only two days before the beginning of northern summer. This is significant because the sun and full Moon are like kids on a see-saw; when one is high, the other is low. This week’s high solstice sun gives us a low, horizon-hugging Moon and a strong Moon Illusion.
Sky watchers have known for thousands of years that low-hanging moons look unnaturally big. At first, astronomers thought the atmosphere must be magnifying the Moon near the horizon, but cameras showed that is not the case. Moons on film are the same size regardless of elevation: example. Apparently, only human beings see giant moons.
Are we crazy?
After all these years, scientists still aren’t sure. When you look at the Moon, rays of moonlight converge and form an image about 0.15 mm wide on the retina in the back of your eye. High moons and low moons make the same sized spot, yet the brain insists one is bigger than the other. Go figure.
A similar illusion was discovered in 1913 by Mario Ponzo, who drew two identical bars across a pair of converging lines, like the railroad tracks pictured right. The upper yellow bar looks wider because it spans a greater apparent distance between the rails. This is the “Ponzo Illusion.”
Some researchers believe that the Moon Illusion is Ponzo’s Illusion, with trees and houses playing the role of Ponzo’s converging lines. Foreground objects trick your brain into thinking the Moon is bigger than it really is.
But there’s a problem: Airline pilots flying at very high altitudes sometimes experience the Moon Illusion without any objects in the foreground. What tricks their eyes?
Maybe it’s the shape of the sky. Humans perceive the sky as a flattened dome, with the zenith nearby and the horizon far away. It makes sense; birds flying overhead are closer than birds on the horizon. When the moon is near the horizon, your brain, trained by watching birds (and clouds and airplanes), miscalculates the Moon’s true distance and size.
There are other explanations, too. It doesn’t matter which is correct, though, if all you want to do is see a big beautiful Moon. The best time to look is around moonrise, when the Moon is peeking through trees and houses or over mountain ridges.
A fun activity: Look at the Moon directly and then through a narrow opening of some kind. For example, ‘pinch’ the moon between your thumb and forefinger or view it through a cardboard tube, which hides the foreground terrain. Can you make the optical illusion vanish?
Stop that! You won’t want to miss the Moon Illusion.
Article, photo and graphics from NASA.
One More Year For Carver/Century; Then Closure Recommended
June 18, 2008
School Superintendent Jim Paul will recommend the closure of Carver/Century K-8 School at a budget workshop on June 26.
The school will remain open for the the upcoming 2008-2009 school year, but will close before the 2009-2010 school year if Paul’s recommendation is approved by the five member school board. The schools 200 plus students would be transferred mostly to Bratt Elementary and Ernest Ward Middle School.
“Superintendent Jim Paul announced today that he will recommend the closure of Carver/Century K-8 in 2009-2010 at the June 26 special budget meeting of the School Board of Escambia County,” Ronnie Arnold, associate superintendent and district spokesperson said in an email news release Tuesday morning, several hours after NorthEscambia.com was first to report the school’s fate.
Closing the school for this school year was not logistically feasible, Arnold told NorthEscambia.com. “He (Paul) did not feel it could be closed in the right way in that time frame.”
“The superintendent cited a lack of adequate time to prepare for an effective closure for 2008-2009 as the overriding factor in his decision,” the news release said.
The 57 employees at the school will be offered jobs elsewhere in the system.
Building Trade and Construction Design Academy Established at NHS
June 18, 2008
The Northview High School Academy of Building Trades and Construction Design was officially established Tuesday night by the Escambia County School Board.
The program, essentially a small school within a school, has been in the works for some time.
Students at Northview will have the option of taking construction related classes as they have in the past, or they can enroll in the academy at Northview. In the academy, their other classes such as algebra, science and writing will revolve around the construction trade. For instance, if they take a construction academy algebra class, their work will center on learning to do algebra as it might be useful in the construction industry.
“Lots of students already take construction at Northview,” Principal Gayle Weaver said. “They like to work with their hands and do things in wood, plastic, glass and metal.”
“The construction academy will give the opportunity to take that a step further and learn the construction trades,” she said.
The school recently sent letters to the parents of all of the incoming ninth graders that signed up for a construction class trying to build interest in the program. Weaver said that very few students have enrolled in the program, but she expects enrollment to increase over time as students and parents learn more about what the Northview High School Academy of Building Trades and Construction Design has to offer.
Northview teacher Tom Meehan will oversee the academy. Meehan teaches drafting and construction technology. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Management from Armstrong Atlantic University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of West Florida. Meehan has been teaching about nine years.
Specialized academies were also established by the school board at other county high schools. They include:
- J.M. Tate High School Early Childhood Education Academy
- Pine Forest High School Early Childhood Education Academy
- Pine Forest High School Culinary Arts Academy
- West Florida High School of Advanced Technology Multimedia Academy
- Washington High School Early Childhood Education Academy
- Washington High School Health Science Academy
School Board Makes North Escambia Personnel Changes
June 18, 2008
The Escambia County School Board approved several personnel changes at North Escambia schools at their Tuesday night meeting in Pensacola.
The board made the following reappointments for the upcoming school year at North Escambia schools:
- Clara Cobb, Bratt Elementary School
- Charlie Code, Northview High School
- Sherri Mims, Ernest Ward Middle School
One teacher transferred to a North Escambia school:
- Rebecca Hatch, from Sherwood to Molino Park Elementary
The following teachers and staff from North Escambia schools have resigned, all effective June 4:
- Erin Branch, teacher, Bratt Elementary
- Kathryn Hale, speech and language, Carver/Century
- Mark Heaton, teacher, Northview High School
- Tracy Jennings, teacher, Molino Park Elementary
- Janet Taylor, teacher, Carver/Century
The board also noted the passing of Molino Park Elementary School teacher Sharon Smith on May 30, 2008.
In other business, the school board approved the final payments for hurricane repairs to Carver/Century K-8 School, Ernest Ward Middle School and Byrneville Elementary School.