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Year In Review North Escambia’s Biggest Stories Of 2009: February

December 29, 2009

NorthEscambia.com is looking back at 2009 with our “Year in Review” series. Each day, we will review the biggest stories of 2008. Today, we take a look at the biggest stories of February 2009.

February brought bad news for Century as leaders learned that plans for the LHS EV electric vehicle manufacturing plant to be located in Century appear to be dead. The State of Florida has rejected a $2.5 million grant application from their Renewable Energy and Energy-Efficiency Technologies program. As a result, LHS EV no longer had plans to locate the plant in Century.

The Ernest Ward Middle School cheerleaders were named second best in the entire nation in Orlando in the Universal Cheerleaders Association competition.

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office bike patrol took to the streets of Century for the first time. Sheriff David Morgan said it was part of his plan to have more deputies on the streets.

The manager of the Escambia Grain Corporation in Walnut Hill was trapped in a silo of soybeans for nearly three hours. He was rescued uninjured.

The Town of Century began action seeking $300,000 from the Florida Department of Corrections for water bills the town said were owed for the Century Correctional Institution.

Two pedestrians were killed and a third was injured in Cantonment at Highway 95A and Tate School Road.

Residents of Bratt got their first look at a new Bratt Community Park.

Graphics Packaging in Cantonment announced they they were cutting about 220 jobs — the first of many such announcements by businesses in the area during 2009.

Northview High School learned that the school would be unable to organize Baccalaureate services, and they turned to the community to help.

Flomaton High School Principal Scott Hammond was named the Flomaton Citizen of the Year, and Ernest Lloyd Barrow was name the Century Citizen of the Year at the Flomaton and Century Joint Chamber of Commerce Annual Awards Banquet. Bud’s Refrigeration Service was named the Flomaton Business of the Year, and Whataburger was named the Century Business of the Year.

Preliminary non-football classifications released Tuesday by the Florida High School Athletic Association takes Northview High School from just four teams in their district to district with nine teams. Northview, Catholic, South Walton and Walton currently comprise a district. Under the new classifications released Tuesday, Arnold (Panama City Beach), Bay (Panama City), Bozeman (Southport), Chipley and Marianna would join Northview, Catholic, South Walton and Walton in District 1-3A.

Firefighters spent about an hour working to extinguish a fire at Escambia Grain in Walnut Hill. The fire was reported about 5:00 in a large metal grain dryer unit that towers about 60 feet into the air in front of the 100-foot high grain silos.

A Walnut Hill man, Tad Fredrick Cann, died after he struck a deer with his motorcycle near the intersection of Molino Road and Sunshine Hill Road.

A fiery crash in Flomaton claimed the lives of two men in Flomaton, and three others were critically injured. Flomaton Police Dispatcher Donna Filmore was credited with saving the lives of those that survived by pulling them from the burning wreckage at Highway 113 and Highway 31.

A column the Pensacola News Journal called NorthEscambia.com a “must-read”. “For news north of Nine Mile Road, www.northescambia.com is must-reading, occasionally even beating emergency vehicles to accident scenes,” Pensacola News Journal columnist Mark O’Brien wrote in his column.

It was announced that a Century landmark business would close. The Country Bumpkin was to be close to make way for a new thrift store.

Love was in the air at Century Care Center with the Valentine’s Day wedding of Karen Sue Coleman and Benjamin Edward Leonardi. Karen wanted her father, Floyd Coleman, to walk her down the aisle. Mr. Floyd has been a resident at Century Care for nearly six years. Rather than take him out of Century Care for the wedding, Karen decided to take the wedding to him.

Escambia County dropped out out of a $22 million deal to purchase 684 acres north of Molino near the Camp O’ the Pines for a regional police, fire and EMS training facility after Sheriff David Morgan said he wanted out of the deal.

The Town of Century entered into an agreement with Escambia County to return code enforcement to Century for the first time in years.

Two people were injured in an accident with a strange end in Davisville — one pickup truck involved in the crash ended up parked with the grocery carts inside a buggy corral at the Piggly Wiggly on Highway 97.

The top three men in Escambia County Fire Rescue were asked to resign. Fire Chief Ken Perkins and Assistant Chief Robbie Whitfield were asked to resign to by Escambia County Administrator Bob McLaughlin. Deputy Chief Kurt Isakson was out as Deputy Chief, but remained with the department as a battalion chief.

In a move that would later be reversed, the Town of Century voted to waive water bills for residents of Backwoods Road due to poor service.

The Escambia County School Board continued discussions that would eventually lead to the closure of Carver/Century K-8 School.

The Northview High School varsity boys basketball team had their hopes of a district title crushed by Catholic High School in the district tournament at NHS. The Crusaders downed Northview 70-59.

Ernest Ward Middle School Principal Nancy Gindl-Perry with presented with what was, without a doubt, the most unique award of her entire educational career. Members of the Ernest Ward FFA presented her with the “Golden Cow Dung Award”. The award featured a large piece of cow dung, painted a golden color. Perry received the award from the school’s FFA members as a “thank you” for supporting FFA.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under FEATURE TOP STORY, Features, News