Ernest Ward Holds Open House
September 19, 2008
Ernest Ward Middle School held its annual Open House Thursday night.
Parents had the opportunity to meet each of their child’s teachers by changing classes and following their daily child’s schedule.
Pictured above and below: Parents had the chance to meet their child’s teachers during an Open House Thursday night at Ernest Ward Middle School. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
West Florida Over Northview JV
September 19, 2008
West Florida High downed the Northview High School JV team Thursday evening 36-0 in Pensacola.
The Jaguars put 20 points on the board in the first quarter. The Chiefs held them scoreless until the fourth.
The JV Chiefs have an open week next week.
Click here for a photo gallery from the game.
Pictured above: Northview JV versus West Florida High in Pensacola Thursday evening. Heather Leonard photo for NorthEscambia.com. Click to enlarge.
Clowning Around: Fun Day At The Century Library
September 19, 2008
The Century Branch Library held a Fun Day at the library Thursday afternoon.
About 60 kids of all ages enjoyed an afternoon of activities. Children had the opportunity to play games, have a balloon animal made, get a temporary tatoo and clown around with the library’s clown.
There were also several animals on hand for the children to get up close and personal with, including an iguana, a python snake, birds, a dog, a pony and a goat.
The children also had the chance to win prizes and enjoyed free popcorn and balloons.
Click here for a photo gallery from Fun Day at the Library.
Pictured above and below: Scenes from Fun Day at the Century Branch Library. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Escambia Commission Reduces Taxes, Approves County Budget, Sheriff’s Budget
September 19, 2008
Your Escambia County property taxes are headed down with the budget approved Thursday night by the Escambia County Commission.
Commissioners approved the county’s $391.6 million budget with a millage rate at 6.9755 mils. That’s a decrease from 8.017 mils. That equates to about $104 on a $100,000 piece of property without an exemptions.
Commissioners Kevin White and Mike Whitehead pushed for greater cuts, but a Whitehead motion to cut the budget even more failed 3-2.
The commission also approved the sheriff’s annual budget at $79 million, with White voting against it in favor of more cuts.
The millage rate set for the county’s law enforcement was reduced from 0.719 mils to 0.685, or about $34 on a $100,000 home with no exemptions.
Volleyball: Walton Over Northview
September 19, 2008
The Walton High Raiders were victorious over Nothview’s varsity and junior varsity volleyball teams in district play Thursday.
The Northview varsity girls lost to Walton 12-25, 15-25, 9-25.
Ashley Digmon had seven digs for the Chiefs. Brittney Thompson had three block and four kills. Angela Rodriguez, a junior, had a couple of blocks, two kills and two aces. And Caitlin Hall, also a junior, had four blocks and eight assists.
The JV girls also lost to Walton on the road, 9-25, 13-25.
Shaniqua Jones, a sophomore, had one kill and four digs on the night. Freshman Raylin Spence had two digs, and freshman Kayla Miles had seven aces.
The varsity Northview volleyball team will be on the road Saturday in the Spanish Fort Tournament in Spanish Fort, Alabama. Both the varisty and JV will be in action on the road next Thursday against South Walton.
FHP Roadside Sobriety Checkpoint Tonight
September 19, 2008
The Florida Highway Patrol will be holding a roadside “Sobriety Safety Checkpoint” between 11:00 tonight and 3:00 Saturday morning on Nine Mile Road in Pensacola.
There will be approximately 25 uniformed officers participating, as well as support personnel from the Emerald Coast MADD Chapter. Other participating agencies include the Escambia County Sheriffs Office, Pensacola Police Department, University of West Florida Police Department, Gulf Breeze Police Department, Milton Police Department, and the Santa Rosa County Sheriffs Office.
During the operation, vehicles will be stopped to check for driver impairment. Should impairment be detected, roadside sobriety testing will be performed on site. Warning devices will be
placed in strategic locations for the safety and protection of the public.
Reducing the deaths and injuries associated with impaired drivers is of the utmost importance to the Florida Highway Patrol. The checkpoints have been very successful in removing impaired drivers from our public streets and highways.
The FHP says available traffic crash and DUI arrests statistics clearly reveal the need for enforcement of alcohol related laws in this area of Escambia County. Through the use of Roadside Sobriety Safety Checkpoints, troopers hope to merge public education and enforcement to achieve a reduction in the deaths and injuries associated with impaired drivers.
Drivers call call *FHP (*347) if they come in contact with what they believe is an impaired driver to reach the highway patrol.
Town Still Working To Regain Helicopter Technologies Building
September 18, 2008
The Town Of Century’s attorney is still working to get owner Georges Van Nevel to sign Helicopter Technoligies’ building back over to the town to avoid court.
The Town of Century has filed mortgage foreclosure papers against Helicopter Technologies, Inc. in Escambia County Circuit Court.
Mayor Freddie McCall said that Matt Dannheisser, the town’s attorney, has forwarded papers overseas to Van Nevel with instructions on how to sign the papers at a U.S. embassy.
“Mr. Van Nevel has contacted him (Dannheisser) and agreed to send the deeds back to him,” McCall said. There have been issues, McCall said, with getting Van Nevel to sign the papers at a U.S. embassy due to long lines of people seeking embassy services. As a result, McCall said, Dannheisser has forwarded additional instructions to Van Nevel how to proceed with the paperwork using a notary.
The Helicopter Technologies building in the Century Industrial Park was financed by the Town of Century in 1991 for $420,000 according to filed documents. The company currently owes the town about $450,000, Mayor Freddie McCall told the told council at the July meeting at which the council voted to begin emergency foreclosure proceedings.
Dannheisser located Helicopter Technologies owner Georges Van Nevel (pictured left, file photo) in Hong Kong and contacted him by email, McCall said.
“He answered some, but he did not respond to others,” McCall told NorthEscambia.com. In those emails, Dannheisser forwarded legal papers to Van Nevel to sign the building back over to the town, the mayor said, but Van Nevel never signed and returned the papers. The town was prepared to forgive Van Nevel’s entire debt if he signed the building back over to the town.
At the council’s July 7 meeting, the mayor told the council that Van Nevel told him that the building would be sold to a Pensacola buyer by July 11. NorthEscambia.com learned on July 10 that the sale was off and the buyer was backing out.
McCall said that a clause in Helicopter Technologies’ contract with the town gave the town the option to “take back” three lots around the building, and he said the town would take possession of those lots.
Pictured top: The inside of the Helicopter Technologies building in the Century Industrial Park earlier this year. NorthEscambia.com exclusive file photo, click to enlarge.
Chief Robert Stewart Retires To Battle Cancer, Spend Time With ‘Little Man’
September 18, 2008
Robert Stewart has retired after 30 years of service as a volunteer fireman in Bratt and Walnut Hill, the last 15 of those years as chief of the Walnut Hill Volunteer Fire Department. He retired to spend more time with his “Little Man” and to fight cancer.
Stewart answered his first fire call in 1967 after the formation of the Bratt Volunteer Fire Department. The Walnut Hill Ruritan Club founded the Walnut Hill Volunteer Fire Department in 1964 and donated a truck to form the Bratt department three years later.
For 10 years, he served the Bratt community as a volunteer fireman until Bratt VFD’s truck finally “wore out”. Walnut Hill and the Atmore Fire Department began answering calls in the Bratt community in 1977.
He was out of a volunteer fire department for about 10 years, until he joined the Walnut Hill VFD in 1987. For 21 straight years, he served the Walnut Hill department. The last 15 of those years, he served as chief.
“1501 enroute”
March 9, 2001, was the beginning of what Stewart said was the most memorable call of his career.
The call was not far from Stewart’s house. It was a single vehicle accident, car versus a tree, on Highway 99 near Oakshade Road. When Stewart arrived, he and the other members of the WHVFD found a small sports car, literally cut in half, two pieces of car on the side of the highway. Inside, the passenger was not seriously injured.
But the driver, a 16 year old local girl, was gravely injured. Her leg was partial severed, a major artery cut. Her situation was worse than serious. In fact, she coded at least twice before arriving at the hospital. “Coded”, as in “code blue”, as in cardiac arrest. But Stewart and the rest of the emergency workers that day worked hard to get this young lady on LifeFlight.
In the end, she lost her leg, but she survived. Today, she’s a healthy 23 year old, recently happily married.
“I’ve been to a lot of bad wrecks,” Stewart said. “Sometime, people die. It’s always a good call when you can help someone that doesn’t die.”
But two words made this wreck different than many for the chief.
“Thank you.”
From death’s door, the young girl was able to return to tell Stewart and the rest of the Walnut Hill Volunteer Fire Department “thank you”.
“Sometimes they come back to tell you ‘thank you’,” he said. “It makes you feel good, and you know your department has accomplished something, when they came back to thank you.”
There have been others to return to thank the department over the years. But Valerie Baker’s accident just sticks out in Stewart’s memory.
“The ‘thank you’ means a lot, especially when they came to the department and thank everyone,” he said. “It just means a lot.”
On Friday morning, NorthEscambia.com will introduce you to Valerie and take you back to the day that nearly claimed her life, and you’ll learn what she has to say about Robert Stewart and the Walnut Hill Volunteer Fire Department.
“Not a Hero”
Chief Stewart doesn’t consider himself a hero. The Walnut Hill volunteers are team, he said, with everyone working together to help the community.
He was labeled a hero at least once. It was another wreck, this one on State Line Road. A car was upside down in a water-filled ditch with three children inside. Stewart was the first on the scene, responding from his nearby home.
“I managed to get the door open and got the three children out of the ditch,” he said. “Their mom called me a hero. I was just doing my job.”
Cat In Tree? Been there, done that. Twice.
It’s a scene that’s usually in a children’s program…the fireman rescues the cute little kitty cat from a tree. But in real life, it’s not exactly so pretty.
One cat-in-a-tree call was on Highway 97 several years ago. 1501 and his wife, Diann Stewart (a.k.a. 1503) responded to the call.
“She ran the ladder up the tree,” he said. “I knew what I was in for. I put on a bunker coat, and gloves before going up to the cat.”
“The ole cat just froze on the tree,” Stewart said with a chuckle. “I needed both hands to peel it off the tree. It stuck like Velcro on that tree. I had to keep peeling that ole cat off the tree.”
The second time Stewart responded to a cat-in-a-tree call, he was perhaps a bit smarter. He sent his son Sam Stewart, also a volunteer fireman, up the tree. This call was at the home of a local pastor. The pastor told them to drop the cat, and drop it Sam did. The can landed on a lower limb of the tree, uninjured.
Scary Stuff
“When my youngins were in school, I did not like it when you’d get a call in the direction they were suppose to be coming from,” he said. “You were always it afraid it was going to be one of yours.”
“When you live up here, you are kin to somebody,” he said. “You always care about who it is.”
A Time To Work, A Time To Play
Stewart was quick to thank all of those that have volunteered with the Walnut Hill VFD over the years. And he expressed his thanks to the other volunteer fire departments in the area the assisted Walnut Hill, as well the county deputies, state troopers and others he worked with for years.
The biggest thanks went to those Walnut Hill Volunteer Fire Department members, a group he said he always enjoyed being around.
“I had the best bunch of firemen in the county he said, “and when they were done working and got ready to play, I had the biggest bunch of youngins in the county.”
Time For Little Man
Stewart said his health and his “Little Man” led to his decision to retire. Little Man is his grandson, 14 month old Drew Kennedy, the son of Kelly and Jeff Kennedy.
When NorthEscambia.com sat down with Stewart for this interview, Little Man was in the floor with Nana (Diann), playing with a toy John Deere tractor. He was wearing fire truck pajamas.
“Do you want Papa’s chair” Stewart asked him. Over to the chair he ran, grinning ear to ear at his Papa.
“He loves fire trucks,” Stewart said. It runs in the family.
“It was just time for me to spend more time with Little Man,” he said.
Battling Cancer
“Little Man is good medicine for me,” Stewart says as he talks about battling cancer. “It’s a nice blessing to have him at all. He goes to Pensacola with me for my treatments.”
The cancer was another factor in his choice to retire.
“It you are going to be in charge, you have to keep up with what was going on,” he said. But the cancer treatments were making him very, very tired.
He started chemotherapy in 2006. “It just had me wore out,” he said. He thought he had been cured. But the cancer returned.
Daily IV treatments began again in 2007 and continued everyday until March of 2008. But it was necessary to being treatments again in July of this year.
“I just had a bad feeling about this knot on my head this time,” he said. Turns out it was malignant, and the battle is proving to be hard.
“1501 Completed Assignment”
“It’s hard not to answer a call,” he said. The fire department pager still goes off in the Stewart home, alerting them of emergency calls. Diann remains with the Walnut Hill VFD as an EMT. “After 20 years, it’s hard not to go help someone.”
“I just always tried to help.”
Pictured top: Retired Walnut Hill Volunteer Fire Department Chief Robert Stewart and his grandson Drew (“Little Man”) Kennedy watch from the sidelines at a recent accident on Pine Barren Road. Pictured above: Stewart at last year’s Walnut Hill Volunteer Fire Department fish fry. Pictured below: Stewart makes a call as “Little Man” watches an ambulance crew work. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Area Schools Awarded Cash For Good Grades
September 18, 2008
Thousands of dollars have been awarded to North Escambia Schools for their academic achievement and improvement during last school year.
Based on the state’s school grading system, schools that either receive an “A” grade or improve at least one grade from the previous year are eligible to receive the recognition funds.
Bratt Elementary received $33,492. Carver/Century K-8 School received $17,319. Molino Park Elementary was awarded $36,436. Charter school Byrneville Elementary got $13,830.
Ernest Ward Middle School received $38,973, and Northview High School was awarded $46,887.
“Florida’s students, teachers and administrators are to be commended for their continued achievements in increasing school performance and student learning,” Governor Charlie Crist said. “Education is the foundation for every student’s future success, and we remain diligent in ensuring the best learning environment possible for Florida’s children.”
“I’m honored to recognize these outstanding schools for their unwavering commitment to the success of our students,” said Education Commissioner Dr. Eric J. Smith. “Through the collaborative efforts of teachers, parents, and school administrators, we can continue to inspire our children to achieve to their highest potential.”
Schools that qualify for the recognition funds are awarded $85 dollars for each student at the school. The funds are then allocated based on a joint decision by the school’s staff and school advisory council. These funds can be for non-recurring faculty bonuses, educational equipment, new technology or hiring temporary personnel to assist in maintaining and improving student performance.
Statewide, the program awarded $147.1 million. A total of about $1.7 million was awarded in Escambia County.
Bratt Elementary Named North Escambia’s Only Five Star School
September 18, 2008
One elementary school in North Escambia has been awarded the Five Star School Award from the Florida Department of Education.
Bratt Elementary School was one of 14 Escambia County elementary schools to receive the honor.
The award was established to recognize outstanding community involvement in schools across the state. In order to qualify, schools must demonstrate high levels of participation in business partnerships, family involvement, volunteers, student community service and school advisory councils.
In addition to Bratt, the other elementary schools to receive the honor were: Jim Allen, Beulah, Hellen Caro, NB Cook, Cordova Park, Ensley, Lipscomb, McArthur, Pleasant Grove, Scenic Heights, Sherwood, AK Suter, and Warrington.
The schools were official recognized at the last meeting of the Escambia County School Board.