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Year In Review North Escambia’s Biggest Stories Of 2010: January, February

December 26, 2010

NorthEscambia.com is looking back at 2010 with our “Year in Review” series. Each day this week, we will review the biggest stories of 2010. Today, we take a look at the biggest stories of January and February.

JANUARY

A fire along the Alabama-Florida line claimed the life of Verda Mae Gandy Abrams, 91. Abrams was unable to escape the blaze at her home on Tulip Street.

Two campers cut off by a rising Escambia River near Molino were rescued at the end of the month — a week after they were stranded.

North Escambia resident Elmira Gandy Crapps turned 103, with congratulations pouring in from friends, family and political leaders.

Thoughts of Spring were in the air as ball registration ended for Century Little League, the Molino Recreation Association and Northwest Escambia Little League.

The battle over consolidation for Escambia County, the City of Pensacola and the City of Century continued, with Pensacola voicing opposition in late January and words flying between opposing groups. The plan was presented to the public — a 45-page, 14,426 word document.

Two Jay High School teachers entered no contest pleas to charges that they had inappropriate sexual relationships with underage students at the school.

History came alive through the eyes of students at Ernest Ward Middle School as they displayed weeks of work on projects for National History Day.

A rabies alert that had been in effect for North Escambia for five months expired in January. The alert was issued after several people came into contact with rabid animals.

Angel Mitchell was crowned Miss Northview High School for 2010 in front of a sellout crowd in the school’s theater. First Runner-Up was junior Caitlyn Brown, and Second Runner-Up was Sarah Killam, a junior.

The director of the West Florida Library asked the public to push our local legislative delegation to work to fund a new library in Molino.

January brought good new for Alabama Power customers — rates were headed down. But not for Gulf Power customers — rates were headed up.

Hail, flooding and a few power outages were reported as strong storms moved across the North Escambia area.

The State Attorney’s Office launched a review into the county commission’s rebid process and a meeting between a contractor and Commissioner Gene Valentino. It stemmed from a rebid of a Maplewoods drainage project and meetings around Roads, Inc, the second place bidder.

About 200 health kits were on their way from Molino to Haiti, thanks to the hard work of Aldersgate United Methodist Church and generosity of the North Escambia community.

North Escambia residents were applying in January for Census jobs that paid up to $15 per hour.

Many of Escambia County’s 128 bridges are wooden or have wooden supports, and many are 50 to 70 years old. Eleven are classified as “structurally deficient” and seven are classified as “functionally obsolete”. In January, Escambia County began to look for $96.6 million to replace 103 of those bridges — including 50 bridges in North Escambia — within the next 10 years.

Lows dipped into the teens in January, with local utilities like Escambia River Electric Cooperative setting all-time records for energy demands. Hundreds of families were left in the dark when the high demand caused electric failures.

The No. 1 ranked Alabama football team beat No. 2 Texas in the BCS National Championship game, played in the Rose Bowl, 37-21, winning the 13th national title in school history and first since 1992. With the win, head coach Nick Saban became the fifth coach to bring a national championship to the Capstone.

The Town of Century decided that roads in the town were in terrible shape, and they started worked to develop a priority list for resurfacing some of those streets.

FEBRUARY

Snow! From just a dusting to several inches, February brought record snowfall to the area. NorthEscambia.com published hundreds of reader submitted snow pictures, including this snowman family.

Robert Franklin Floyd, 21, of Jay, was charged with an open count of murder and three counts of attempted murder for the shooting and killing Getyron Lopez Benjamin, 18, of Brewton at a home outside Jay.

Work began in February on a project to resurface 22 miles of Highway 97 between Molino and the Alabama state line, while construction continued on Highway 29 in Century.

Governmental consolidation in Escambia County was pronounced dead. The local legislative delegation failed to send the Escambia County Consolidation Study Commission plan toward a referendum or delay action until 2012. That effectively killed consolidation.

The Minority Culture Club at Northview High School celebrated Black History Month during the program “Striving to Help Those In Need”. The students reflected upon the devastation from the earthquake in Haiti, and encouraged Northview students to donate toward the relief effort.

Hundreds of people attended the annual Walnut Hill Ruritan Club Farm Equipment auction. The auction included not only farm equipment, but household items like tools and small equipment, lawn and garden items and more

Two volunteer firefighters from Cantonment were called heroes after jumping into the cold waters of Jacks Branch to save a woman from a submerged vehicle.

Liberty Counsel announced that it planned to sue the Santa Rosa County School District to allow prayer in the county’s schools. The announcement came a day after a federal judge barred the Christian organization from seeking to overturn a consent decree requiring school officials in Santa Rosa County to stop promoting their personal religious beliefs in public schools.

One Century council member said that faulty equipment was to blame for citizens receiving high gas bills in February, while the town’s mayor says the problem was simple — two weeks of sub-freezing overnight lows in January.

The Town of Century’s dreams of resurfacing every street in town were brought back down to an expensive reality in February with a cost estimate from the town’s engineer — $4.5 million.

The Ernest Ward Middle School cheerleaders were named the third best in the nation in their division in the Universal Cheerleaders Association national championships in Orlando in February.The Northview High School Competition Cheerleaders placed eighth in their division.

An elderly Cantonment man was found safe, about 21 hours after he was reported missing following a funeral in Alabama. Clyde Rufus Carroll, 78, was located at about north of Butler Street in Escambia County, Alabama, about 20 miles from Wallace where he was last seen.

Dylan Barnhill, 4, died as the result of a house fire in Atmore.

Jody Posey of Bratt was sentenced to life in prison for sexually abusing a five-year old North Escambia girl.

A Cantonment church spearheaded a countywide project to provide hope to the families of Haiti, one white 5-gallon bucket of food at a time. It was called “Buckets of Hope”, a program of the Florida Baptist Convention’s Florida Disaster Relief program. The concept was simple — fill a clean 5-gallon bucket with beans, rice, sugar, flour, cooking oil and other essentials to help earthquake victims.

Over 5,000 pieces of 80-foot long steel pipe were unloaded from railroad cars in Walnut Hill and transported through Atmore and surrounding communities by truck, part of a $2.46 billion Florida Gas Transmission Company project to expand its natural gas pipe system to meet the growing energy needs of the Gulf Coast and Florida.

Comments

One Response to “Year In Review North Escambia’s Biggest Stories Of 2010: January, February”

David Huie Green on December 27th, 2010 9:27 am

it’s been a busy year

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