Mobile Home Kitchen Fire Causes Minor Damage
May 15, 2012
A kitchen fire Tuesday evening at a Davisville mobile home caused minor damage.
The fire was reported in the home on Highway 97 just south of West Highway 4 about 6:30 p.m. Firefighters were able to quickly contain the fire. There were no injuries reported.
The Walnut Hill, Century, McDavid and Molino stations of Escambia Fire Rescue responded to the call.
Pictured above: Smoke pours from the front of the mobile home before the first fire trucks arrive at a kitchen fire Tuesday evening in Davisville. Pictured inset: Firefighters pull a hose into the mobile home. Pictured below: The fire caused minor damage. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Planning Board Approves Walnut Hill Crude Oil Transfer Station
May 15, 2012
The Escambia County Planning Board gave its blessings Monday to a rezoning request for property in Walnut Hill where an energy company proposes to build a crude oil transfer station that could mean about 30 new high paying jobs.
Genesis Rail Systems, LLC wants to build the facility on 20 acres off Corley Road, near Arthur Brown Road. The property was chosen because it is at the intersection of an existing crude oil pipeline and the Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway.
The Planning Board gave the go-ahead to rezone the property from “village agricultural” to “general industrial”, despite original findings that the plan was not consistent with the Escambia County Comprehensive Plan and the Land Development Code.
The Planning Board decision will go to the full Escambia County Commission on Thursday. The BOCC will review the decision and will either adopt, modify or overturn the Planning Board’s recommendation on the rezoning request.
If the facility is constructed, crude oil will be shipped from the north by rail, offloaded in a large storage tank and then injected into an existing crude oil pipeline.
NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Gruesome Sight: Why Did Dead Horse Remain Along Hwy 29 For Hours?
May 15, 2012
A sight so gruesome we can’t show you pictures greeted drivers in Molino Tuesday morning, prompting dozens to ask NorthEscambia.com “why?”.
A Pensacola man was killed about 8:30 Sunday night when he hit a horse on Highway 29 near the Victory Assembly of God. Sunday night, the remains of the horse were removed from the southbound lane of the highway and pushed into the grassy median. The gruesome remains of the horse were not removed from the median until about 10 a.m. Monday.
“Very sad, but don’t you think they could have removed the mangled horse out of the median?”, one resident wrote in a comment to NorthEscambia.com. “That was awful.”
Lt. Steve Preston of the Florida Highway Patrol said his agency notified the Florida Department of Transportation and their contractor Transfield Services on Sunday night that the horse needed to be removed.
“We were not able to get it removed that night,” Preston said. He said the FHP started making arrangements first thing Monday morning for the removal.
“I believe the problem was miscommunication,” Preston said. “I am not blaming DOT, the county or anyone else.”
Ian Satter, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Transportation, said that he believed his department was waiting for the FHP to finish their investigation before removing the horse.
“There was an effort to try to find and see who was the owner,” Satter said.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office has a livestock officer that responds to incidents on county roads, but not state roads like Highway 29, according to Sena Maddison, ECSO spokesperson.
Preston reiterated that the problem was to be blamed on “miscommunications”.
Pictured above: Emergency workers on scene of a fatal accident Sunday night in Molino where multiple vehicles hit a horse. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Scott Backs Down On Plan To Rank Elections Officials
May 15, 2012
Florida Gov. Rick Scott has backed down from his plan to publish scores ranking the state’s elections officials. Scott administration scored Elections Supervisors after the January presidential primary on various performance measures, such as how quickly they reported results.
The charge against the rankings was led by Escambia County Supervisor of Elections David Stafford, acting on behalf of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections. A letter to the governor by Stafford said the measurements don’t accurately reflect how good the supervisors are at their jobs – and that the supervisors didn’t learn the purpose of the questions they were asked until the Division of Elections put out the results.
Stafford reminded Scott in a sharply-worded letter that the governor doesn’t actually have much control over the supervisors – they’re constitutional officers who are elected independently. And the measurements are flawed, he said.
“Unfortunately, the items used in the survey are not, by themselves, true indicators of a supervisor of elections’ office,” Stafford wrote. “Furthermore, the data is flawed in certain instances, thereby yielding a result which is inaccurate….”
Stafford said the survey – if used to produce a public ranking of each supervisor – “has the potential to undermine confidence in Florida’s elections, which we work tirelessly to instill in the public.
“As you are well aware,” Stafford wrote, “we are responsible for carrying out our duties and the citizens and voters in our counties are the persons best able to evaluate that performance.”
The rankings are hard to decipher, but include seven metrics, such as when results were first uploaded on election night, when early voting dates were announced and when absentee ballots were mailed. An eighth “extra credit” category was for returning the survey early.
The rankings went from 1 point for submitting a particular type of data early to negative 1 for submitting it late, and negative 2 for not submitting it at all. For submitting data “on time,” but not early, counties got a 0.
While no county supervisor got the maximum score of eight, several registered a seven. Several supervisors scored at each level all the way down to three counties that received scores of negative 4, the lowest recorded. Those were Brevard, Palm Beach, and Seminole counties.
While the scores made it out – the state sent them to supervisors and they were subsequently leaked. But Scott’s office now says they won’t be published.
In addition to the complaints from the supervisors, Democratic lawmakers also criticized Scott on the survey.
“Gov. Scott still hasn’t figured out that there are limits to his authority,” said Rep. Rick Kriseman, D-St. Petersburg. “Florida’s elections supervisors deserve support from statewide officers and they shouldn’t have to succumb to meddling by the governor. I am confident that county elections supervisors are willing to participate in meaningful surveys, but I am sure they are opposed to the governor meddling in and undermining both their work and the confidence of voters.”
2012 FCAT Writing Scores Fall Dramatically; State BOE Lowers Standards
May 15, 2012
[Updated Noon] Preliminary grades on a ramped up statewide writing assessment were so bad that state education officials decided Tuesday to lower the standards for a passing grade.
According to results released Monday, passing scores on the FCAT writing assessment plummeted from 81 percent to 27 percent for fourth graders and showed similar drops in eighth and 10th grades.
Tuesday, the board unanimously lowered the passing grade on the writing assessment from 4.0 to 3.0 on a 6-point scale in an effort to insulate schools from changes in how the test was scored. State educators said they share some of the blame by not properly preparing schools and parents for the heightened standards, which included more emphasis on grammar and punctuation.
Education officials Monday blamed the plummeting scores on a handful of factors including more rigorous standards. Now, the State Board of Education has to determine what to do with the scores, which have been used to determine school grades.
Failing schools are required to put in place certain remedial programs that cost more to provide in already tight budget times.
Among the changes made over the past two years, this year’s tests were graded by two reviewers. Test standards were also raised to include more attention to writing conventions like punctuation, capitalization and grammar. The pool of test takers was also expanded to include lower performing students.
The combination proved problematic.
“When the increased threshold of 4.0 was established by rule, the State Board of Education did not have, and could not have had, impact data that would reflect how the scoring rules changes would impact student results and the school grade calculations,” the Department wrote in a justification for holding an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss a plan of action.
“Based on preliminary results of the 2012 writing assessment, applying the 4.0 threshold in addition to the heightened scoring rules may have unforeseen adverse impacts upon school grades, warranting emergency review by the State Board of Education.”
Mark Pudlow, spokesman for the Florida Education Association, said the dramatically lower scores point to the shortfalls of relying on such high stakes tests for funding and student assessment.
“There have been a lot of parents over the years who have been unhappy with the assessments,” Pudlow said. “Hopefully this will give us a real opportunity to see how we should evaluate students and evaluate teachers”
The advocacy group FundEducationNow.org slammed the state education bureaucracy, saying the swing in grades shows that the FCAT is a “multi-million dollar sham.”
Eastern Diamond Rattlesnake Could Become Protected, Endangered Species
May 15, 2012
The eastern diamondback rattlesnake may receive protection under the Endangered Species Act, according to information from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
After a petition filed last year by environmental groups claiming the snake’s population has declined, Fish and Wildlife said more in-depth review will begin to determine if warranted for the largest venomous snake in North America.
The eastern diamondback historically ranged along the coastal lowlands of the southeastern United States from North Carolina to eastern Louisiana, including all of Florida. But now the eastern diamondback is already an endangered species in North Carolina and scientists believe it has all but disappeared from Louisiana.
The decline is attributed to the disappearance of longleaf pine ecosystems in many places and hunting of the snakes for meat, skins and events like the Opp (Ala.) Rattlesnake Rodeo.
It could take the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service months or even years to gather information to make a decision on labeling the eastern diamondback rattlesnake as a protected endangered species.
The Endangered Species act does not preclude a person from acting in self defense to protect themselves or their family.
Local Students Are Winners At State SkillsUSA Competition
May 15, 2012
Several North Escambia area students were winners at the recent SkillsUSA state competition at the Pensacola Civic Center.
Florida SkillsUSA competitors faced off to showcase their technical trade talents and leadership abilities inconjunction with the Worlds of Possibilities Career Expo.
The Worlds of Possibilities Career Expo is showcasing businesses and vendors in technical and vocational career fields by engaging more than 3,000 local seventh- and eighth-grade students, and more than 2,000 high school and college students from throughout the state of Florida.
TECH PREP SHOWCASE EDUCATION AND TRAINING:
Team B – Tate High School Gold Medal Winners
(100% Pensacola State College scholarship awarded for each Gold winner)
Team B (Gold Medal):
- Courtney Graves
- Morgan Fillingim
- Miranda Franklin
Team A – Tate High School Bronze Medal Winners
(25% Pensacola State College scholarship awarded for each Bronze winner)
Team A (Bronze Medal):
- Morgan Bathurst
- Mandi Praytor
- Ainsley Xenos
Preschool Teaching Assistant:
- Elizabeth McMann, Tate High School, Bronze Medal Winner
George Stone Technical Center students and teachers:
Marine Service Technology Winners
- Silver – Drew Resmondo
- Bronze – Jason Pack
Mens Haircutting
- Silver – Hoang Nguyen
Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration
- Gold – Daniel Wallace
- Silver – Bryant Horne
Computer Maintenance Technology
- Gold – James Bauder
Pictured top: Students from Ernest Ward Middle School were among those that attended the recent SkillsUSA event at the Pensacola Civic Center. Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Charles Herman Sansom, Sr.
May 15, 2012
Charles Herman Sansom, Sr., 72, died Wednesday, May 9, at his home in Pensacola, surrounded by his family. Charlie was born on September 16, 1939, in Port. St. Joe, Florida, where he lived until 1954, when his family moved to Century, where Charlie met his future wife and graduated from high school. After Pensacola Junior College, Charlie married, then began a career at (Chemstrand) Monsanto. In the Century community, he will be remembered for his long hours of labor and dedication to the Century Volunteer Fire Department, in which he was a charter member and longtime chief. He used the same dedication at the Monsanto Fire Department, where he also served as chief and for whom he taught yearly classes in Industrial Firefighting at Texas A & M. Charlie was a Plant Shift Supervisor at the time of his retirement.
After moving to Pensacola, Charlie became a member of the St. Luke United Methodist Church, Escambia County Search and Rescue, and Stephen R. Mallory Camp 1315 of the Sons of the Confederacy. After his retirement, Charlie enjoyed traveling with his wife and photographing wildlife, working in his garden, tinkering with his model railroad layouts, listening to his scanner, lending a helping hand, and watching his beloved Florida Gators. He was a consummate (but never cruel) practical joker who loved to find laughter in any situation.
Charlie was one of those rare individuals who saw the good in everyone and the pleasure in every moment. He never made an enemy and never closed a conversation with harsh words. Charlie was a kind, generous family man whose passing will leave a hole in the heart of everyone who ever had the privilege of meeting him.
Charlie was preceded in death by his parents, Herman and Alma Sansom. He leaves behind his loving wife of 51 years Ruth Elizabeth, son Charles “Chuck” (Sharon) Sansom, Jr., daughters Beth (Ronny) Norwood and Stephanie (Raymond Higgins) Sansom, sister Lou Owens, brothers John (Martha) Sansom and Michael Sansom , mother-in-law Mary Stanton, brother-in-law Sam (Clara) Stanton, seven granddaughters, four grandsons, three great-grandsons, and many beloved cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends who seem as close as family.
Friends and family are welcome during visitation from 10-11 a.m. on Saturday, May 19, 2012, at St. Luke United Methodist Church, 1394 Nine Mile Road, Pensacola. A service for Charlie will follow at 11 a.m. with Rev. Ted Bowne, Rev. Mike Roberts, and Rev. Carolyn Nelson officiating. There will be no graveside services, but honorary pallbearers include Steve Hacker, Jim Hernandez, Frank Jackson, Hal Kuhn, John Nowlin, Sid Perry, Jerry Simmons, Paul Villane, and Ronny Wadkins.
Trahan Family Funeral Home of Pensacola is in charge of arrangements.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to: St. Luke United Methodist Church Bus Fund, 1394 E. Nine Mile Rd, Pensacola 32514: Escambia County Search and Rescue, 9530 Nims Llane, Pensacola 32534: Waterfront Mission , P O Box 870, Pensacola 32591; or Trumpet of Hope Ministries P O Box 179125, San Diego, CA 92177.
Clyde Carroll
May 15, 2012
Clyde Carroll, 80, passed away peacefully at his home on May 14, 2012, with his wife by his side. Clyde was born in Brewton and has lived in Cantonment for the past 30 years. He served in the US Army during the time of the Korean War. After his time in the Army he worked mostly in sales and after retiring he is remembered working and helping many at Reynolds Hardware Store and Faith Chapel Funeral Home. Clyde was always a hard worker taking pride in any job he had and never meeting a stranger. His treasured his Christian faith, wife, family and friends. He enjoyed being active in his church, taking family vacations spending time with his grandchildren fishing and watching them play sports. Clyde was always a kid at heart, singing, laughing and enjoying his life. His funny personality and smiling face will always be part of our memories.
Clyde is survived by his wife of 30 years, Brenda Carroll, daughters, Brandy (Mark) Jackson, Melissa Newton, Katherine (Rex) Amerson and son, DeWayne (Deb) Carroll. His grandchildren; Tyler and Tanner Jackson, Cameron, Spencer and Kendall Newton, Isabela Pomeroy, Tayler and Taryn Fuller, Christian Jernigan, Steven and Shaun Cook, Michael Carroll and Jennifer Calway, 6 great grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 17, 2012, at Faith Chapel Funeral Home North-Cantonment. Interment will follow at Pensacola Memorial Gardens.
Serving as pallbearers will be Mark and Tyler Jackson, James and Spencer Newton, Richard Cobb, Larry Williams and Terry Fuller.
The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Wednesday, May 16, 2012, from 5-8 p.m.
The family would like to thank our many friends for their support and love through this difficult time. A special thanks to Woodlands Oncology Department and Dr. Patel.
Faith Chapel Funeral Home North, 1000 Highway 29 South Cantonment is in charge of arrangements.
Terry Dale “Wolfman” Killam
May 15, 2012
Mr. Terry Dale “Wolfman” Killam, age 61, passed away on Sunday, May 13, 2012, in Bay Minette.
Mr. Killam was a native of Bratt and a resident of Century for the past 33 Years. Mr. Killam was a veteran of the Vietnam War, was an employee of Solutia, an avid hunter, fisherman, devoted husband, father and grandfather. He loved to share hunting and fishing stories with his family and friends as well as spending time at Boatyard Lake.
He is preceded in death by his father, Winfred “Peanut” Killam, grandparents and granddaughter Mable Killam.
Survivors include his mother and stepfather, Geraldine and Bruce Campbell of Century; wife of 33 years, Brenda Tharp Killam of Century; son, Terry Dale Killam II (Dale) of Century; daughter, Tiffany Killam (David) Jurey of Milton; brother, Gavin (Barbara) Killam of Birmingham; two sisters, Gleda (Jerry) McElhaney of Bratt and Tara (Burton) Wiggins of Elberta; three grandchildren, Colby Berry, Paige Killam and Kelan Jurey; uncle, Alton (Merle) Killam and aunt, Dorothy Sutton (Billy) Johnson; numerous nieces, nephews, extended family and friends.
Funeral services will be Thursday, May 17, 2012, at 2 p.m. at the Petty Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Joe Lee officiating.
Burial will follow at Rock Cemetery.
Visitation will be Wednesday, May 16, 2012, from 6-9 p.m. at the Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Home.
Pallbearers will be Corey Parrish, Jamie Barnes, Jeremy Barnes, Josh Barnes, Jonathan Tharp, Thomas Cofield, Brocky Davis and Dennis Mathis.