School District Pays Church Utility Bills: Community Reaction
August 7, 2008
The reaction around Century has not been positive following the news that the Escambia County School District has paid tens of thousands of dollars in utility bills for a building leased by New Life Baptist Church.
Click here for a story detailing the utility bill payments.
And one prominent member of the community is speaking out against Rev. Irvin Stallworth, pastor of the church.
“You’ve got a man that came in here and established a church and has not paid any upkeep including the utilties for the past four years,” said Benny Barnes, former Century mayor and president of the Century Chamber of Commerce. “He’s done a lot of things, but he has not done them for the good of Century.”
“He’s undermined the school board board. That’s just he way he does things,” the often outspoken Barnes told NorthEscambia.com. “He’s got the school board and the superintendent believing he’s done so much good, but all he’s done is flim flam them.”
Barnes said he first learned of the district paying the utility bills at the church a few weeks ago. He said he wrote District 5 School Board member Pete Gindl about the situation, but he never heard anything back. NorthEscambia.com was unable to contact Gindl for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Century Mayor Freddie McCall said he as unaware that the school district was paying the utility bills at 700 East Hecker Road, the old Century High School address leased to New Life Baptist Church.
“I didn’t know the school board was paying us because I don’t look at every utility bill that we send out, and I don’t know who is mailing the check for them,” McCall said.
Ann Brooks, president of the Century Town Council, has been hard at work this week requesting information from the school board and the town. She has gone so far as to take meter numbers on bills and attempt to physically verify that those numbers match the meters in front of the old Century High School and the current New Life Baptist Church.
“I don’t think it is right for them to have been paying the bills for the church,” she said.
Brooks, who is a certified accountant, is working to total the past four years of utility bills for the New Life Baptist address to determine just much the school board has paid.
“I’m not trying to attack the church or the pastor,” Brooks said,”but they should not cut our school when they are paying their utilties.” She was referring to plan by the school board to close Carver/Century K-8 School after the upcoming school year. The district has said that closure would save them about $680,000 per year.
For more coverage on this developing story:
Will Discovery That School District Has Paid Church Bills Impact School Closure?
August 7, 2008
The discovery that the Escambia County School District has paid tens of thousands of dollars in utility bills for a building leased to New Life Baptist Church for $1 per year will have no bearing the district decision whether or not to close Carver/Century K-8, the school district’s spokesman says.
During the 2007 calendar year, the district paid just over $48,500 in water, gas, sewer and garbage charges to the Town of Century of the old Century High School building leased to New Life Baptist Church, even though the church’s lease on the property clearly states the church will pay the utility bills.
Click here for a story detailing the utility bill payments.
That number is over seven percent of the $680,000 that the district says they will save per year by closing the current Carver/Century K-8 School following the upcoming school year. The district is currently investigating whether or not they have paid the electric bills on the property, potentially pushing that percentage much higher.
Even if it turns out the district won’t save the full $680,000 per year because some portion of that figure has been going toward New Life Baptist Church, Associate Superintendent Ronnie Arnold says the superintendent still plans to recommend closing the school.
“I don’t see where it will have any bearing at all on the superintendent’s decision,” Arnold told NorthEscambia.com. “A mistake may have happened on these bills. But it does not change the fact that we spend three to four times the amount per student to keep Carver/Century open as we do per student in the rest of the district. It’s just an expensive school to operate because of its size.”
Century Mayor Freddie McCall said that he did not think the change in numbers would lead to a change in heart on the part of Superintendent Jim Paul. Paul is expected to recommend closure of Carver/Century K-8 School at the August 19 meeting of the school board. Students would be bused to Bratt Elementary School and Ernest Ward Middle School.
“I don’t think it is going make any difference,” McCall said. “But I am asking him (Paul) to please not do anything right now. Let the new superintendent make that decision.” Paul dropped out of the superintendent’s race several months ago, opting to no longer seek reelection.
“You can’t tell me it will be cheaper to transport these children somewhere else; you won’t make me believe that,” said Benny Barnes, former Century mayor and chamber of commerce president. “I hope this (the utility bill payments) will make enough difference in the money that some good will come of all this for our school.”
“It might not be as expensive to operate our school as they think,” Barnes said. “It could be a lot less when they figure out how much money they have been spending to support the church.”
“He has ripped off the taxpayers,” Barnes said of New Life Pastor Irvin Stallworth. “He’s told the school board lies. He’s lied about the whole thing over there.”
NorthEscambia.com attempted to contact Rev. Irvin Stallworth by both phone and email Wednesday afternoon for comment on this story. We left phone messages at a listed number for the New Life Baptist Church, and at another number listed for the Century Community Development Partnership. We also emailed Rev. Stallworth at his personal email address and left messages with a member of his church. We called his home phone number in Milton and attempted to leave a message, but we received a message that his voicemail box was full.
For more continuing coverage on this story:
Click here to read “School District Pays Church Utility Bills: Community Reaction”
School District Has Paid Thousands In Utility Bills For Church; Seeks Answers
August 7, 2008
The Escambia County School board has paid tens of thousands of dollars of utility bills for a Century church for the past four years, and now the district is trying to sort out exactly how that happened.
According to bills obtained from the Town of Century, the Escambia County School District paid $61,432.50 in gas, water, sewage and garbage fees for the district’s property at 700 East Hecker Road in Century. That address is the old Century High School, which is leased from the school district for $1 per year by the New Life Baptist Church.
That lease agreement executed June 15, 2004, says “New Life shall pay or be responsible for payment of the cost of all utilities, including security deposits and connection and capacity impact fees, if any furnished the property”.
“Right now, it does appear we have been paying the utilities at the building,” Ronnie Arnold, school districts spokesman, told NorthEscambia.com. “From what we can tell so far, it appears that this one slipped through the cracks.” He noted that the school district pays a huge number of utility bills on dozens of their facilities each month.
The school district does intend to seek reimbursement for the thousands of dollars in utility bills, Arnold said.
“We are are trying to find out now what exactly they should have to pay,” he said. Some district programs, including a Title I program, did occupy a portion of the building for some time early in the lease. “It would have been appropriate for us (the district) to pick up some of the utilities during that time.”
The school district receives bills under six accounts from the Town Century for town supplied water, sewer, natural gas and trash service. Four bills indicate that they are for 440 East Hecker Road, the address of the current Carver/Century K-8 School. Another appears on first investigation to be for the gym and football field. But one account, which includes both a water and gas meter, indicates that it is for “Carver Middle School” at 700 East Hecker, the address currently leased by New Life Baptist.
“It’s rather convoluted due to the six different accounts, the different addresses and the different names like Century Elementary, Carver/Century and Century Middle School,” Arnold said. “But we should have caught that bill and not paid it.”
“But hopefully we will be able to put a number to this soon and make arrangements for the church to pay up,” he added.
Arnold told NorthEscambia.com that it was not immediately clear if the district has been paying the power bill or if that has been paid by the church. He said the district was investigating and would be able to to determine if the school systems has paid the power bill.
The lease for the building was approved by the Escambia County School Board on January 20, 2004. Minutes from that meeting state “The Superintendent recommended that the Board “move forward” with leasing the former Carver Middle School to New Life Baptist Church. Motion was made by Mr. (Jeff) Bergosh, seconded by Mr. (Ronnie) Clark, to accept the Superintendent’s recommendation to ‘move forward’ with leasing the former Carver Middle School to New Life Baptist Church.”
The board’s minutes from January 20, 2004, do not indicate that the lease would be for the $1 per year as it was executed in June of that year.
New Life Baptist Church, Inc. is not the only entity that uses the building as its legal address, according to records filed with the Florida Secretary of State. Century Community Development Partnership, Inc. also uses the building’s address on its legal corporation report. According to the CCDP website, the group exists to create “purpose driven communities” through affordable housing. Irvin Stallworth, pastor of New Life Baptist Church, is listed as the president and registered agent for the Century Community Development Partnership.
NorthEscambia.com attempted to contact Rev. Irvin Stallworth by both phone and email Wednesday afternoon for comment on this story. We left phone messages at a listed number for the New Life Baptist Church, and at another number listed for the Century Community Development Partnership. We also emailed Rev. Stallworth at his personal email address and left messages with a member of his church. We called his home phone number in Milton and attempted to leave a message, but we received a message that his voicemail box was full.
As of 1:00 a.m. Thursday morning, we had received no contact or comment from Rev. Stallworth.
Arnold said that he spoke briefly with Rev. Stallworth earlier and he indicated that he was in Washington, D.C. Church members told NorthEscambia.com that he was at his church Sunday and had planned to be there for a service Wednesday evening.
For more coverage on this developing story:
Click here to read “Will Discovery That School District Has Paid Church Bills Impact School Closure?”
Click here to read “School District Pays Church Utility Bills: Community Reaction”
Pictured above: New Life Baptist Church leases this building, the former Century High School, for $1 per year from the Escambia School District. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Freak Accident Sends Tree Crashing Into Van On Highway 97
August 7, 2008
A freak accident on Highway 97 sent a man to the hospital Wednesday afternoon.
State prioners from the Century Correctional Institute were cutting trees on Highway 97 about a mile south of Tungoil Road. One of the trees, a large dead pine, fell onto a passing van.
Authorities said the man was not seriously injured. He was transported to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola reportedly with some cuts and bruises.
The van belongs to Sweetwater Medical, a home health company, in Pensacola.
The accident happened about 1:40 p.m. between Walnut Hill and Dogwood Park on Highway 97. It is still under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol. They have not yet released the name of the van’s driver.
Cable Cut Cause Phone Outage In Walnut Hill, Molino; Cellular Out Too
August 7, 2008
Several thousand Frontier Communications in the Walnut Hill and Molino telephone exchanges were without phone service for over an hour Wednesday afternoon following a cable cut in Davisville. An unknown number of cellular phone users in the area were also unable to make calls for a short period of time due to the cable cut.
The outage stemmed from a fiber optic cable cut near Highway 4 and Highway 97 in Davisville. The cable was being moved as part of a highway construction project and was accidentally cut, according to Karen Miller, a public relations specialist for Frontier Communications.
The telephone service in both the 327 and 587 exchanges went down about 12:40 Wednesday afternoon for 4,600 customers. Frontierustomers the exchanges could only call other Frontier customers within their local exchange. They were unable to call Atmore or Pensacola numbers. (Atmore numbers are local to the 327 exchange, and Pensacola numbers are local for both 327 and 587.) It was also not possible for customers in the area to reach long distance or toll free numbers. Emergency 911 service was also not available during the outage.
Customers calling the exchange were reporting fast busy signals and calls that did not complete.
DSL and other dialup internet connections also went down about 12:40, but DSL was once again available as of 1:50 p.m.
Problems were also reported making calls on Alltel wireless phones in the area.
Andrew Moreau, vice president of corporate communications for Alltel, told NorthEscambia.com that the cable cut did cause an outage for Alltel customers in the area. While the cable was a Frontier cable, Alltel uses Frontier to carry some calls from their towers in North Escambia to the telephone network.
Manhunt In Christian Home For Burglary Suspect Turns Up Empty
August 7, 2008
Escambia County deputies spent a couple of hours searching for a burglary suspect in the Christian Home community Wednesday evening after a woman came home to discover someone in her house.
A resident on Camp Road reported a juvenile male running out of her home as she arrived at her property in the 3200 block of Camp Road about 6:15 Wednesday night.
Deputies on the ground, along with the Sheriff’s helicopter and a K-9 team from Century Correctional Institute, searched an area around Camp Road and Pine Barren Road for almost two hours before calling off the search just before 8 p.m. The area is near the Christian Home Freewill Baptist Church on Pine Barren Road.
The suspect was described as a teenage white male dressed in a dark, possibly black shirt and khaki shorts.
Anyone with information on the suspect should call the Escambia Sheriff’s Department at 436-9630 or call 911 in the event of an emergency.
Click here for more NorthEscambia.com photos from the manhunt Wednesday evening.
Pictured above and below: Deputies and a K-9 unit from the Century Correction Institute search for a burglary suspect Wednesday evening along Pine Barren Road near Camp Road. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Major Phone Outage Reported In 327, 587 Exchanges; Service Restored
August 6, 2008
(Updated 2:40 p.m.) A major telephone outage was reported this afternoon in the Walnut Hill, Davisville, Bratt, Molino and other communities in the 327 and 587 telephone exchanges.
The outage stemmed from a fiber optic cable cut along Highway 4 in Davisville. The cable was being moved as part of a highway construction project and was accidently cut, according to Karen Miller, a public relations specialist for Frontier Communications.
The telephone service went down about 12:40 Wednesday afternoon. Customers the exchanges could only call other Fronter customers within their local exchange. They were unable to call Atmore or Pensacola numbers, which are also local to the exchange. It was also not possible for customers in the area to reach long distance or toll free numbers. Emergency 911 service was also not available.
Customers calling the exchange were reporting fast busy signals and calls that did not complete.
DSL and other dialup internet connections also went down about 12:40, but DSL was once again available as of 1:50 p.m.
Problems were also reported making calls on Alltel wireless phones, perhaps due to an overload of a local tower as people attempted to make calls on their wireless phones.
More details will be posted when they become available.
Fire Destroys Cottage Hill Trailer
August 6, 2008
Several North Escambia fire departments responded to a trailer fire early Wednesday morning near Cottage Hill.
The fire, which was reported about 1:20 a.m., destroyed the mobile home near Stacey Road and Highway 95A.
The exact cause of the fire is under investigation. The State Fire Marshal was called to the scene just after 3:00 a.m.
The Cantonment Volunteer Fire Department, Molino Volunteer Fire Department and Ensley Volunteer Fire Department responded. In addition, the Beulah Volunteer Fire Department was alerted to standby status.
First Dolly Imagination Library Books Arriving In North Escambia Mailboxes
August 6, 2008
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library arrived in North Escambia back in late June, with plans to provide a free book every month for every child under five years old.
Now, just over a month later, the books are set to start arriving the mailboxes of about 300 children around Escambia County. Roughly half, about 150 of them, are in the area in and around Century, according to Diane Hutcherson, executive director of the Early Learning Coalition of Escambia County. The coalition administers the program locally.
In 1996, Dolly launched a new effort to benefit the children of her home county in east Tennessee. Dolly wanted to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families. She wanted children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can create. And she wanted to insure that every child would have books, regardless of their family’s income.
She decided to mail a brand new, age appropriate book each month to every child under five in Sevier County, Tennesee. With the arrival of every child’s first book, the classic The Little Engine That Could, every child could now experience the joy of finding their very own book in their mailbox. These moments continue each month until the child turns five,and in their very last month in the program they receive Look Out Kindergarten Here I Come.
Now children under in Century and the surrounding North Escambia area can signup for the same program under the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. They will receive a new age appropriate book each month until they turn five…all at absolutely no cost. And, there are no income requirements for the program.
“Parents will not pay a dime for the program,” said Larry Kenny, special projects director for the Early Learning Coalition. “They will not be added to any kind of mailing list; their information is kept private and used only to mail the books free of charge to their homes.”
The coalition recently purchased the 12 books that would typically be sent to a two year old participating the program. “It was $225 for us to buy the books locally at retail,” Hutcherson said. “And any parent can get these books mailed to their home for their child for free.”
Century area parents were able to enroll their children in the program for the first time during a celebration the the Campfire USA Child Development Center back on June 28.
Parents can continue to enroll their children in the free program during regular business hours at Campfire USA on Industrial Boulevard, at the Century Pharmacy on Mayo Street, at New Life Baptist Church and at the Century Branch Library.
Funding for the program in the Century area is provided by the Teaspoon Foundation and Century Pharmacy.
“It’s exciting to me how well this has gone,” Jack Moran of Century pharmacy said. “This is going to go a long way toward improving school grades.”
Hutcherson said the group is looking for more funding to allow more children to receive the books. Right now, the program has been rolled out only in Century and at a few Pensacola locations due to limited funding. The cost per child, she said, is about $30 per year. For more information, contact the Early Learning Coalition of Escambia County at 595-5400.
Pictured above: Jared Bevan, 4, enjoys reading one of the books from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library at Campfire USA in Century on June 28. Pictured below: Some of the books from the program. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Your Mail: Sample Ballots Are Arriving
August 6, 2008
Escambia County Supervisor of Elections David H. Stafford announced Tuesday that a sample ballot for the August 26, 2008, Primary Election is being mailed this week to all Escambia County voters eligible to vote in the election.
The sample ballot includes an image of the ballot, the voter’s polling location, instructions on marking the ballot, and information on early voting, absentee voting, and voting at the polls on Election Day. A sample ballot is also available at www.EscambiaVotes.com.
In 34 of the 90 precincts in Escambia County, voters registered as No Party Affiliation (NPA) or in a minor party will have no races or contests to vote on. Only voters registered as Democrat or Republican will receive a ballot. NPA and 3rd party voters in these precincts will receive a letter of explanation rather than a sample ballot. Every registered voter in District 5 (North Escambia) should receive a sample ballot in the mail this week.
Escambia County voters have three choices as to how to cast their ballot:
BY MAIL: Voters may vote by mail via an absentee ballot by contacting the Elections Office by mail, phone (850-595-3900), e-mail (absentee@escambiavotes.com), fax (850-595-3914), or using the online form at www.EscambiaVotes.com. Absentee requests must include the voter’s date of birth and address, and must be received no later than Wednesday, August 20th. Voted ballots must be received in the Elections Office by seven p.m. on Election Day.
EARLY VOTING: Beginning Monday, August 11th, voters may cast their ballot early at any one of four area locations: Elections Office, 213 Palafox Place, 2nd Floor; Elections Office
Cantonment Annex, 292 Muscogee Road; Tryon Branch Library, 5740 North 9th Avenue; Southwest Branch Library, 12248 Gulf Beach Highway. Early voting dates and times are as follows:
• Monday, August 11 through Friday, August 15: 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
• Saturday, August 16: 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.
• Sunday, August 17: 11:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
• Monday, August 18 through Saturday, August 23: 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
AT YOUR PRECINCT: The third option for voters is to cast their ballot at their precinct from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Election Day.
For a sample Democratic District 5 ballot, click here.
For a sample Republican District 5 ballot, click here.
For a sample nonpartisan District 5 ballot, click here.