State Approves Escambia Comprehensive Plan
February 21, 2011
After more than a year of non-compliance, the State of Florida has signed off on Escambia County’s Comprehensive Plan.
County Administrator Randy Oliver said that the Florida Department of Community Affairs found Escambia County’s Comprehensive Plan to be in compliance with the State of Florida’s Local Government Comprehensive Planning and Land Development Regulation Act. The county’s Comprehensive Plan had not been in compliance since October 2009.
Escambia County’s Comprehensive Plan is a long-range master plan that addresses future land use, housing, transportation, infrastructure, coastal management, conservation, recreation and open space, intergovernmental coordination and capital improvements.
The Comprehensive Plan includes the Mid-West Escambia County Optional Sector Plan. The Sector Plan is a long-term planning process that encourages cohesive and sustainable development patterns within central Escambia County, emphasizing urban form and the protection of regional resources and facilities.
Based on an analysis of its Future Land Use categories, the county has consolidated the previous 36 categories to 11 categories for simplicity and efficiency. The goals, objectives and policies of the Comprehensive Plan were also revised to be consistent with these newly adopted future land use categories.
A Comprehensive Plan serves as a guide for making local land use decisions and helps the county prioritize capital projects. The Comprehensive Plan also serves to protect and preserve the county’s economic base, its rich heritage and abundant natural resources. Finally, the Comprehensive Plan seeks to protect and enhance quality of life for residents and visitors alike through the year 2030.
To Escambia County’s Comprehensive Plan and related information, click here.
Tickets Still Available For Northview FFA Blue Jacket Jamboree
February 21, 2011
Tickets are still available for the Northview FFA Blue Jacket Jamboree.
A man that achieved legendary status in country music — 13 number one singles, 22 songs on the charts, a Grammy Award, and a CMA Vocal Group of the Year trophy — will headline the March concert in Bratt.
The Northview FFA Alumni Scholarship Fund and NorthEscambia.com will present the Northview FFA Blue Jacket Jamboree featuring Marty Raybon at 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 5. Marty Raybon will be joined by the Southern Gospel quartet Lookin’ Up and Northview’s own Ashton Gibbs in the Northview High School Theater.
Marty Raybon is perhaps best known as the former lead singer of the country mega-group Shenandoah from 1985-1996. He led Shenandoah to 22 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including thirteen number one singles, such as: “The Church on Cumberland Road” (1989), “Sunday in the South” (1989), “Two Dozen Roses” (1989), “Next to You, Next to Me” (1990) and “Butterfly Kisses” (1997). At the top of the charts, Raybon became known for his bluegrass and gospel-influenced semi-traditional country sound.
Tickets for the Northview High School FFA Alumni Blue Jacket Jamboree are $15 and are available now at Smith Tractor in Atmore, Scott’s Pharmacy in Molino and Ann’s Hallmark on Nine Mile Road in Ensley.
Pictured: Grammy award winning Marty Raybon performs last year at Northview High School. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Food Check-Out Week Focuses On Healthy Eating On A Budget
February 20, 2011
It’s Food Check-Out Week , which focuses on helping consumers eat healthy meals, despite dealing with tight food budgets.
The Escambia County Farm Bureau is celebrating the week into the new year where the average household will have earned enough to pay for its food for a year.
“Food Check Out Week is February 20-26 and is devoted to helping Americans eat healthy nutritious food and stretch their food dollar,” said Martha Carpenter of the Escambia County Farm Bureau Women’s Committee.
The average cost of food in America remains affordable overall, the group said. According to the most recent information from the Agriculture Department’s (USDA’s) Economic Research Service, American families and individuals spend, on average, less than 10 percent of their disposable personal income for food.
With the continuing economic squeeze, many Americans are concerned that the cost of a healthy diet is out of reach. However, according to an Agriculture Department study, the cost of eating healthy has not changed as much as less-healthy alternatives. But eating healthy food within a budget does require smart shopping.
“American Farmers and Ranchers are committed to producing safe, healthy food. They share a common concern with the consumer when it comes to putting nutritious food on the table,” said Carpenter.
U.S. consumers still spent under 10 per cent of their disposable income on food according to the latest USDA data. Consumers in other countries spend much more: France- 14 percent; Japan-15 percent; China-35 percent; Philippines-37 percent and Indonesia- 46 percent.
A recent USDA report favorably supports the economics of healthier eating. Recent food price data show that prices for unprepared, readily available fresh fruit and vegetables have remained stable relative to dessert and snack foods, such as chips, ice cream and cola. Therefore, as defined by foods in the study, the price of a “healthier” diet has not changed compared to an “unhealthy” diet.
Here are some tips that consumers can follow to help stretch their food dollars :
Plan ahead before going to the grocery store. Make a list of the foods you want to serve during the next week. Check your newspaper for grocery store ads and coupons. Stick to your list. Do not go to the cookie or snack aisle if you don’t “ need” to. Shop the perimeter of the store. Produce, dairy products and meat are generally found on those outside walls. A tip for keeping produce fresh longer is to store it in a perforated plastic bag. This stops condensation and shriveling. Make holes in a plastic bag with a paper punch, knife or another sharp object about six inches apart all over the bag. When you get home, immediately store any fresh or frozen products especially meat.
For more specific information on nutrition , meal planning and food preparation, contact a registered dietitian.
Atmore Wreck Kills Pensacola Man, Injures Four Others
February 20, 2011
A Pensacola motorcyclist was killed in a two vehicle accident that injured four other people Friday night in Atmore.
Carl Edward, Deleo, Jr., 45, was pronounced dead at Atmore Community Hospital following the accident about 10 p.m. Highway 21 at Sunset Drive. Deleo and Elizabeth Rucker, 60, of Pensacola, were thrown from their Honda Gold Wing in the crash. Rucker was transported by ambulance to Atmore Community Hospital. Her condition was not available.
Authorities said it appeared a pickup truck driven by Robert Ear Lee, 59, of Uriah, pulled into the path of the motorcycle as it was northbound on Highway 21, according to Alabama State Troopers. The force of the crash caused the pickup truck to overturn onto its side.
Otis Lanell Jackson, 38, of Uriah, Ala. and Malika Moore, 24, of Uriah were transported by ambulance to a Bay Minette, Ala., hospital. Lee, 59, was transported to the USA Medical Center in Mobile. Two other people in the truck received minor injuries.
Further details were not available as the Alabama State Troopers continued their investigation into the crash.
Record Highs Set On Saturday, Warm Weather To Continue
February 20, 2011
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Tonight: Areas of fog after midnight. Otherwise, increasing clouds, with a low around 53. South wind around 5 mph.
- Washington’s Birthday: Areas of fog before 8am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 75. South wind between 5 and 10 mph.
- Monday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 55. West wind around 5 mph.
- Tuesday: A 20 percent chance of showers before noon. Mostly sunny, with a high near 71. North wind around 5 mph.
- Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 45. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 71. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph.
- Wednesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 50. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Thursday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 73. Calm wind becoming south between 5 and 10 mph.
- Thursday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 56.
- Friday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 74.
- Friday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 54.
- Saturday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 73.
Agenda Set For Century Council
February 20, 2011
The Town of Century will hold a committee meeting and regular council meeting Monday afternoon.
The town will hold a committee meeting to review engineering submissions for the Century Boulevard Gas Line Project and Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Project at 3 p.m. The regular meeting of the Century Town Council will take place at 7 p.m.
Both meetings will take place in the Century Town Hall at 7995 North Century Boulevard and are open to the public.
The tentative agenda for the regular council meeting is as follows:
- Open Meeting with Prayer
- Pledge of Allegiance
- Approval of Minutes
- February 07, 2011 Council Meeting Minutes
- Approval of Bill List
- Terri Carter – Repton Mayor
- Proposed Landfill in Conecuh County
- Nadine McCaw
- Mayor’s Report
- Council Comments
- Public Forum
Florida Weekly Government Roundup: Scott Finds Pesky Little Thing
February 20, 2011
Gov. Rick Scott found out this week that there is this pesky little thing called the Florida Legislature as lawmakers pushed back on a couple of his decisions for the first time.
Whatever leftover warm-and-fuzziness there was with lawmakers from Scott’s inauguration came to a screeching halt at least as sudden as the one he put on a proposed Tampa-to-Orlando high speed rail by rejecting 2.4 billion federal dollars to build it.
If that wasn’t enough transport angst, the Senate chief budget writer brought some turbulence to Scott’s much-ballyhooed sale of the state aircraft fleet by saying that the get to work governor may have violated state law and even the constitution by selling off the planes.
If they ever had been honeymooners, several lawmakers skipped the muttering of “one of these days… one of these days,” this week. A veto-proof number of them got right to work themselves trying to detour around Scott to take the train money anyway.
Led by rail supporter Sen. Paula Dockery, a bipartisan group of 26 Florida senators sent a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood suggesting the Passenger Rail Commission and Rail Enterprise could accept the cash.
Also picking up steam by the end of the week was the possibility that cities and counties or transportation planning organizations in central Florida could bypass the state and directly accept the cash.
Dockery so vocally supported Scott’s campaign that she was rumored to be under consideration to be his lieutenant governor or transportation secretary. But by week’s end, she was the conductor of the anti-Scott train.
“I’m hearing from central Florida that the mayors are getting together talking about what they can do, I’m hearing that the (metropolitan planning organizations) are talking about what they can, I’m hearing that Chambers of Commerce in Miami and other places are talking about what they can do…so there’s a lot of efforts going on,” she told reporters as she collected signatures for her letter to LaHood.
Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich indicated this week that her 11-member caucus would be willing to participate in any legislative effort to create an end-run around Scott on rail, and indeed all of them signed onto to Dockery’s letter.
The public backlash is not to suggest that there was not also quiet muttering about Scott’s decision this week. Most of it wasn’t fit to print.
“At least today I’m not using four letter words,” said Rich Templin, vice-president of one of the state’s largest labor unions, the AFL-CIO, said the day after Scott’s decision. “This is a tragedy, a disaster of unmitigated proportions.”
One of the capital’s newspaper bureaus quoted an unnamed source in the Legislature asking if Scott was “****ing crazy.”
There were some cheers for Scott’s decision coming from the fourth floor of the Capitol, though it took three days before even a peep was heard from Senate President Mike Haridopolos. When the aspiring U.S. Senate candidate finally decided to speak, he was definitely not saying “all aboard.”
“The federal government has earmarked $2.4 billion to finance part of the cost of construction of the proposed Florida high-speed rail project,” Haridopolos said in a statement. “But to do so, Washington would borrow 100 percent of that money, which would be financed in large part by foreign, non-democratic governments.”
Haridopolos quickly steered the conversation toward President Barack Obama however, making clear that high speed rail may be the new stimulus – a dirty word to conservatives – in Florida politics.
There were no physical hugs involved this time around, but Scott did quickly embrace the support he got from Haridopolos.
“President Haridopolos recognizes that cost overruns from the project could put Florida taxpayers on the hook, ridership and revenue projections are historically overly-optimistic, and if the project becomes too costly for taxpayers and is shut down, the state would have to return the $2.4 billion in federal funds to D.C,” Scott said.
WOULD MILLION AIR RETURN TO ITS GATE?
The skies weren’t friendly either for Gov. Scott this week as the chief budget writer in the state Senate said the governor should have checked with lawmakers before he took off with his plan to sell two state airplanes.
Scott’s sale of the state’s planes may have violated Florida law, Sen. JD Alexander wrote in a letter to the governor. It would have been a striking accusation anyway, but the fact that it was coming from a senator who has himself clamored for the planes to be sold for years made it all the more surprising.
But there can only be one pilot of state finances, Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said, and the Legislature should be in the cockpit.
“I support your goal, but not the method,” Alexander wrote. “It is important that the proper procedures for accomplishing a goal we both support be followed.”
“It is my position that you should have sought the approval of the Legislature before undertaking the sale of the state planes and using the proceeds of the sale of Plane One to satisfy the lease obligation of Plane Two,” he continued. “My concern, of course, is that these actions may have violated the law and as such fail to recognize the Legislature by not respecting the Legislature’s constitutional duty to appropriate funds and your duty to spend appropriated funds in accordance with the law.”
As he did with the train, Scott saw nothing wrong with his unilateral decision to ground the state planes, telling reporters “We did it absolutely in compliance with the law. We reviewed it with our general counsel.”
Unfortunately for the get to work governor, that’s not who Alexander would have liked him to have reviewed it with.
I SAW T-PAW
With it being 52 degrees warmer in Tallahassee than St. Paul Friday, Tim Pawlenty probably was not the only Minnesotan in Florida this week. But the former North Star State governor was probably the only snowbird in Tallahassee seriously considered a bet to make a run for the White House.
Senate President Mike Haridopolos delivered on his promise to bring potential Republican U.S. presidential candidates to Florida, introducing Pawlenty to a crowd of mostly GOP lawmakers in the historic state Capitol.
Pawlenty, who was governor of Minnesota from 2003 to 2011, introduced himself and took questions as he tests the waters for a 2012 presidential run.
“In Minnesota, the land of McCarthy, Humphrey, Mondale, Wellstone…and now U.S. Sen. Al Franken, we took spending and cut it in real terms for the first time in 150 year history of my state,” he said.
And politically, Minnesota’s no Florida, Pawlenty made sure to note.
“There was one state that did not vote for Ronald Reagan in the entire nation,” he said. “Guess which one it was? Minnesota. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.”
Pawlenty didn’t talk much about Florida-specific issues, with the exception being teacher merit pay. He brought up the bill vetoed last year by then-Gov. Charlie Crist that would have tied teacher pay to student performance.
“I would salivate, I would dream about a bill like that having come to my desk when I was governor. I wish I could have gotten a bill like that,” Pawlenty said.
The mostly Republican audience was not exactly salivating about Pawlenty’s presidential prospects, though they clearly wanted to know more about him. To do so, they took turns peppering him with questions about health care, immigration, national defense and U.S. fiscal policy.
Senate President Haridopolos asked Pawlenty what he thought about President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, which was recently ruled unconstitutional by a Florida U.S. District Judge.
“I’m one of the authors of the amicus brief that was filed with Florida as a venue, so thank you for that,” Pawlenty said, adding that the health care law was “one of the worst pieces of legislation in modern history.”
Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, followed up with a question about whether Pawlenty would support a constitutional requirement that Congress balance the federal budget similar to the Florida requirement.
“Budgets get balanced in states because they have to,” Pawlenty responded. “They don’t get balanced in Washington, D.C. because they don’t have to be. We need to make that a requirement.”
Despite his bromance with Haridopolos however, Pawlenty did not endorse the Senate president for U.S. Senate, saying only that he was “a man of great talent.” Haridopolos returned the favor by not making any endorsement of Pawlenty either.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Gov. Rick Scott derailed a proposed high speed train in Florida this week, and possibly his working relationship with the Florida Legislature along with it
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “There is this pesky thing called a constitution that limits authority. I still believe the genius of America isn’t just democracy but its divided government and limitations on each individual’s ability to act unilaterally,” Sen. JD Alexander, expressing what was a common refrain around the state Capitol after Scott put the brakes on the bullet train.
By KeithLaing
The News Service Florida
Featured Recipe: Gooey Turtle Cake
February 20, 2011
This weekend’s featured recipe from Janet Tharpe is a Gooey Turtle Cake. It will create quite a stir when it hits your table with all the gooeyness and flavor of turtle candies in a simple recipe.
To print today’s “Just a Pinch” recipe column, you can click the image below to load a printable pdf with a recipe card.
Peebles, Wilson To Wed
February 20, 2011
Keith and Michelle Peebles announce the forthcoming marriage of their daughter, Jessica Peebles, to Brandon Wilson, the son of Tony and Angela Wilson of Atmore.
Jessica is the granddaughter of Billy and Janie Criswell of McDavid, Willie Peebles of McDavid, and Betty Hardee of Pensacola . She is a 2007 homeschool graduate and is currently employed with First National Bank & Trust as head teller.
Brandon is the grandson of Gene Lambert from Atmore, Wynell Covington of Uriah, and Norman and Francine Wilson of Atmore. He is a 2004 graduate of Escambia Academy and is currently employed with Parker & Son.
The wedding will be held on March 5, 2011, at 2 p.m. at the First Assembly of God in Atmore. All friends and relatives are welcomed to attend.
Petersons To Celebrate 50th Wedding Anniversary
February 20, 2011
Roland “Pete” and Mary Alice Peterson will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday, February 26.
Friends and relatives are invited to attend a reception held in their honor at Bratt First Baptist Church in the Family Life Center from 4 until 6 p.m. A scrapbook will be available to share any memories, pictures or stories you have of the couple; everyone is invited to bring something to share.
The reception will be given in their honor by their children, Janice Coleman, Karen Tibbals and Greg Peterson.
If you are unable to attend but would like to send a card, mail it to Janice Coleman, 6901 Pine Barren Road, Century, FL 32535. For more information, call Janice at (850) 287-2947 or Karen at (931) 224-7032.