William Rufus “Bill” Jones
May 6, 2010
Mr. William Rufus “Bill” Jones, 70, passed away on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 in Montrose, AL.
Mr. Jones was a native of Milton, FL, a resident of Flomaton, AL, since 1978, a member of the Century Masonic Lodge #213, and the Bethel Temple Holiness Church.
Survivors include: his Daughter, Cathy Jones of Robertsdale, AL; a Stepdaughter, Ilene M. Cook of Century, FL; 3 Grandchildren; 2 step-grandchildren; and a Sister, Lois Marie McDade of Chipley, FL.
Funeral services will be held Friday, May 7, 2010 at 2:00 P.M. at the Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Home with the Rev. John Fillingim and the Rev. Ricky Peebles officiating.
Burial will follow at Flomaton Cemetery with Masonic services.
Visitation will be held Thursday, May 6, 2010 between 6:00 and 8:00 P.M. at the Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Home.
Faithful Gather On National Day Of Prayer
May 6, 2010
The faithful from across the area gathered at Tom Byrne Park in Atmore at noon Thursday for a National Day of Prayer event.
The words of Amazing Grace could be heard throughout the park as about 75 people joined in song before those in attendance offered distinct prayers for government officials, the military, the media, business leaders, education, the church and family.
A student-led National Day of Prayer service was also held this morning at Northview High School.
A Bible Reading took place Thursday evening in Atmore as the entire Bible was read out loud by nearly 200 volunteers. The readers were spaced around the park’s walking path, reading in a normal voice. Walkers were able to hear different parts of the Bible as they walked.
Pictured top: Rev. James and Ellen Boyd of Walnut Hill pray during a noontime National Day of Prayer Service in Atmore on Thursday. Pictured below: Members of the group prayer for area families. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Northview Beats Bonifay, To Face Jay Friday
May 6, 2010
The Northview Chiefs beat Bonifay Wednesday night to advance to the Region 2A finals Friday night against Jay.
Senior Austin Reid pitched seven for the Chiefs in their 4-1 victory over Bonifay. Reid allowed just one hit and one run while striking out 11.
The game was scoreless until the fourth inning, when the Chiefs put two on the board and Bonifay added one. Northview added two more runs in the sixth.
Hitters for the Chiefs were Austin Arrington, 1-3 with one run; Dabney Langhorne, 2-4 with one run, and RBI and a double; Austin Reid 1-4; Austin Lowery with one RBI and one run; Brandon Sheets 1-2 with one run; and Dakota Stuckey 1-2 with a double, and two RBIs.
Northview will play Jay at 7:00 Friday night in Jay.
Becky Lowery photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Molino Man Charged With Shooting At Vehicle, Fighting Outside Bar, Trashing Truck
May 6, 2010
A Molino man is jailed after allegedly firing a gun multiple times at a vehicle leaving a bar and then trashing the victim’s truck at a convenience store.
Christopher Michael Weldon, 20, of Allen Circle, Molino, is charged with four counts of aggravated assault, battery, criminal mischief, armed burglary of vehicle, petty theft and discharging a firearm in public. He is being held in the Escambia County Jail with a bond set at $62,000.
According to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office arrest report, deputies responded to a shots fired call at the One Stop convenience store at the intersection of Highway 95A and Molino Road. A 20-year old victim told deputies that at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday night, he was with a female and Weldon at the Homestead Lounge on Highway 29. After the 20-year old was denied entry into the bar, he and Weldon allegedly got into an argument over the ownership of beer located in a cooler in a vehicle outside the bar.
The victim said Weldon approached him holding a gun. The victim said he feared for his life, so he struck Weldon in the face three or four times. When a bystander attempted to break up the fight, he became involved in a fight with Weldon.
When the victim and two other people left the bar in a truck, Weldon reportedly fired at the vehicle multiple times. Witnesses reported both hearing and seeing the gun fired by Weldon.
When the original fight victim later went to the Tom Thumb in Molino to retrieve his truck, he reportedly found Weldon and a large group of people standing around the truck. At that point, the victim and the two other people that had left the bar went to the One Stop and called deputies. Two deputies escorted him back to the Tom Thumb.
Witnesses at the Tom Thumb said Weldon had pulled out a pistol in the store’s parking lot and said he was going to shoot the victim’s truck. Instead, according witnesses, he cut three tires, broke a light and mirror, and destroyed the windshield wipers. Weldon had fled the Tom Thumb, possibly down Crabtree Church Road, prior to deputies arriving. The victim claimed that his fishing tackle was missing from the back of the truck.
Several deputies searched the Molino area for Weldon. His uncle flagged down a deputy on Jahaza Street, advising that he had Weldon in custody and he wanted to turn himself in.
According to the arrest report, Weldon admitted the he did get into a fight over beer in a cooler outside the Homestead. He also, according to the report, fired multiple times at the three victims as they were traveling north on Highway 29 from the bar. He also told deputies that he damaged the victim’s truck at the Tom Thumb, but he denied stealing fishing tackle.
Weldon is due to appear in court on May 27.
Jay Man Arrested With Drugs Outside Davisville Bar
May 6, 2010
A Jay man remains in jail after being arrested with drugs outside a Davisville bar.
David Allen Flowers, 52, of Morristown Road, Jay, is charged with possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and a felony count of possession of crack cocaine. His bond has been set at $1,500.
According to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, Deputy James Gilman was on routine patrol when he noticed Flowers sitting in a vehicle outside the Gray Goose Lounge on Highway 97 at the Alabama state line. When Flowers spotted Gilman, he hurried inside the bar. Gilman followed and requested that Flowers return to the parking lot.
Flowers agreed to allow Gilman to search his Chevrolet Cavalier. In the vehicle, the deputy reported finding cocaine, a marijuana cigarette, and a burnt glass pipe.
Flowers is due to appear in court on May 21.
Photo Gallery: Train Caboose Moved
May 6, 2010
Flomaton’s train caboose at Hurricane Park was moved Wednesday to the Flomaton Welcome Center and Area Railroad Museum.
The 54-ton L&N caboose had been at Hurricane Park for a few decades, but it was decided to move it to the Welcome Center so that it could be restored and become a showplace, according to Tippy Wagner, artifacts director for the museum.
Plans call for the caboose, which was built in 1951, to eventually be open for tours, Wagner said.
For a NorthEscambia.com photo gallery from the move, click here. (The gallery also contains photos taken inside the caboose.)
The caboose was moved thanks to a donation by Robert Jackson, according to Wagner. Deep South Cranes, L&L Welding, theTown of Flomaton, Flomaton Police Department, Flomaton Fire Department and Tthe Escambia County Sheriffs Office all helped make the move possible.
The Flomaton Area Railroad Museum is located at 702 Sidney Manning Boulevard in Flomaton. It is open from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Pictured top: Flomaton’s caboose is delivered to the Flomaton Area Railroad Museum Wednesday afternoon. Pictured inset: The caboose is moved from Hurricane Park. Pictured below: The caboose travels through Flomaton. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Spill Likely Won’t Affect Gas Prices, Reaction Might
May 6, 2010
North Escambia drivers likely won’t feel any pain at the pump in the wake of the biggest oil spill in recent history, but they might get pinched when the clean up ends and the regulating begins.
Energy pricing observers said Wednesday that while any oil spilling into the Gulf is bad for the environment, the amount of oil produced by the BP rig that exploded would not be felt on world markets.
“If you think about it, the amount of crude spewing into the Gulf, while it’s catastrophic from an environmental prospective, it’s a drop in the bucket in terms of what we use, as opposed to say a hurricane,” said Kevin Bakewell, senior vice president of AAA Auto Club South. “Even before the (accident), we were starting to see prices increase, which obviously had nothing to do with the spill. It had more to with an increase in demand and a weakening of the dollar, which has more to do with gas prices than anything other than supply most of the time.”
Bakewell said there was going to be a slight increase in prices at the pump with the summer travel season, generally regarded to run from Memorial Day to Labor Day, about to commence. The AAA Auto Club’s Fuel Gauge Report shows that the average price of a gallon of regular gas in Florida Wednesday was $2.91, up from $2.88 and $2.84 a month ago.
The highest metro area average Wednesday was $2.98 in Gainesville. The lowest average metro price is $2.86 in Tampa and Orlando. Prices in North Escambia were around the $2.87 mark.
“Typically when people feel like there’s an unjust price increase, we hear from them,” Bakewell said. “They don’t hesitate to call and they want know what we’re going to do about it.”
However, Bakewell said how lawmakers in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C. react to the spill could add volatility down the road.
“In the longer term, the (amount) of regulation – are we going to have less drilling or more – could have impact in terms of an increase in cost of doing business,” he said.
Florida State University professor of economics Mark Isaac agreed that the thing to watch when it came to gas prices after the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion was legislation. Already, most Florida officials have backed away from a proposal to allow drilling as close as three miles off the Gulf Coast that had the backing of incoming leaders of the House and Senate.
Likely Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill McCollum has threatened to veto the drilling proposal if it is approved by the Legislature next year under his watch, joining likely Democratic nominee Alex Sink, who has always been opposed to the plan.
“The spill itself isn’t going to have any impact because as I understand it, they were surrounding and getting ready to cap the well, which is standard procedure because they figured out they had a productive find,” Issac said. “Now suppose we went to opposite extreme and said not only will there be no new drilling, but we’re going to shut down existing drilling. The price of oil is set on the world market, but my guess enough of the world’s oil is produced in the Gulf to have a significant impact on price.”
Issac said that the reason there may have only been a slight uptick in prices in the wake of the spill could be that traders of oil futures are betting that the anti-drilling fervor seen in the wake of the spill will eventually subside a bit.
“They’re probably looking forward to something in the middle,” he said. “Oil markets look forward to the totality of availability in future. They had probably factored in the loosienng of the regulatory climate in the U.S. for where we’re going to drill and now they’ll probably say ‘that’s probably not going to happen.’ That could have some impact through the system and there could be some upward pressure on oil (prices), but that’s not enough to have an immediate effect.”
The effect on the politics of drilling is already clear though, Issac added.
“Over the long term, this is not helping the case that people are saying ‘let’s expand drilling in the Gulf and Atlantic,” he said. “That’s pretty obvious.”
by Keith Lang, The News Service of Florida
‘New’ Grocery Store Opens
May 6, 2010
There’s a new name in the area grocery store market. Atmore’s Southern Family Market on Lindberg Avenue officially became a Food World store on Wednesday.
Pictured: Last minute sign work Wednesday afternoon at Atmore’s new Food World grocery store. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Events Planned For Thursday’s National Day Of Prayer
May 6, 2010
National Day of Prayer events were scheduled for Thursday in Atmore and Bratt.
In Atmore, National Day of Prayer events will be held at Tom Bryne Park on Lindberg Avenue:
- A Prayer Service will be held from noon until 1 p.m. with local pastors, government and business leaders in prayer for the country and community.
- A Bible Reading will take place at 6 p.m. The entire Bible will be read out loud by 186 volunteers. The readers will be spaced around the park’s walking path, reading in a normal voice. Walkers will be able to hear different parts of the Bible as they walk. Readers are still needed for the event.
At Northview High School, there was student-led prayer service at the flagpole at 8 a.m. The event was organized by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Jay Reading Teachers Named Region’s Best
May 6, 2010
Just Read, Florida! has named an area teacher as a state literacy leader and has recognized an area school as having a top reading leadership team.
Carol Smith Jordan from Jay Elementary School was named as the Region 1 Elementary Reading Teacher of the Year and was one of two finalists for the overall state award. Jordan is Jay Elementary’s K-3 Academic Intervention Specialist.
Reading programs under Jordan’s leadership at Jay Elementary include “Walk to Read” in the first grade. When it is time for students’ 90 minute reading block, they walk to a specific classroom to receive reading instruction. She is also the intervention teacher for the second grade’s 90 minute reading block.
Jay High School leadership team was named the Region 1 High School Reading Leadership Team of the Year. The team was also one of two finalists for the state award.
Florida school districts are invited to participate with Just Read, Florida! in honoring outstanding educators who have contributed to reading education.
Pictured: Carol Smith Jordan of Jay Elementary, the Just Read, Florida! Region 1 Elementary Reading Teacher of the Year. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.