Gloria M. Long Van Zandt
February 5, 2013
Gloria M. Long Van Zandt, 74, of Pensacola, joined God in Heaven on Thursday, January 31, 2013.
A loving mother, and friend, Gloria was born February 25, 1938, in Century. She devoted her life to her parents, her children, and being a Marine aviator’s wife. As a grandmother she became known as “Glo Glo” for the passion in life and positive outlook she held dear at all times.
Glo Glo is survived by her daughter and best friend, Brenda Van Zandt; her son, Michael Van Zandt and his wife Kristi; two grandchildren, Brittany and Kaitlin Van Zandt; and two great-grandchildren, Halo and Amari.
Visitation will be held from 9 a.m. until funeral services at 10 a.m. on Thursday, February 7,2013, at NAS Pensacola’s All Faiths Chapel. She will be laid to rest at Barrancas National Cemetery.
The family would like to give utmost thanks to the very special people that made sure Glo was just another one of the girls at HCP; we know her little talks and daily laughs are missed by all.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the National MS Society.
Trahan Family Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Clara Evelyn Cain
February 5, 2013
Mrs. Clara Evelyn Cain, 74, passed away on Monday, February 4, 2013, in Milton.
Mrs. Cain was a native of Hubert, Alabama, a former resident of Jay and Milton and has resided in Milton for the past 5 years. Her husband, Verbon Cain; parents, Walter and Ida Mae Coleman, three grandchildren, Joshua, Jonathan and Jared Williams; and three brothers, Gene, Bobby and George Coleman precede her in death.
Survivors include her daughter, Glennette Williams of Pace; three brothers, Joe Coleman of Samson, AL, Billy Coleman of Milton and Donnie Coleman of Montgomery; six sisters, Louise Cain of Milton, Emma Sue Barnes of Chumuckla, Linda Ramsey of Pensacola, Mary Pope of Milton, Jerry Crocker of Milton and Nora Wilson of Flomaton; two grandchildren, Justin Williams of Pace and Jordan Williams of Milton; two great-grandchildren, Maleah Williams of Pennsylvania and Brayden Williams of Milton.
Funeral services will be Friday, February 8, 2013, at 2 p.m. at the Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Home with Rev. Bill Wiley officiating.
Visitation will be Thursday, February 7, 2013, from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. at the Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Home.
Pallbearers will be Buddy Blackmon, Wayne Coleman, Jordan Williams, Justin Williams and Ricky Rutherford.
Honorary pallbearers will be Brayden Williams and Lee. J. Myers.
Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Home is in charge of all arrangements,.
Elections Chief Wants More Early Voting
February 5, 2013
Secretary of State Ken Detzner all but guaranteed that a set of recommendations he submitted Monday would help Florida overcome the long lines on Election Day that left voters grumbling and once again made the state the butt of late-night comedians’ jokes.
In a 12-page report published Monday, Detzner called for an optional extension of early voting days, an expansion of the number of early voting sites available for county supervisors of elections and new limits on the length of ballot summaries for constitutional amendments offered by the Legislature. He also called on county commissions to more closely follow budget and policy recommendations from the supervisors.
The recommendations were largely in line with what is emerging as a bipartisan consensus about how to handle the snafus that plagued the November presidential election, when Florida was the last state in which a winner was projected.
“The bottom line is: Voter confidence must be restored,” Detzner told the House Ethics and Elections Subcommittee in a hearing Monday afternoon. “Voters are relying on us to ensure their elections are accessible, efficient and fair.”
And Detzner left little wiggle room when pressed on how certain he was that the recommendations in his report would prevent a recurrence of the issues that sprang up in November.
“I am 100 percent confident that my report and our recommendations will solve the problem,” he said.
Detzner’s recommendations would allow supervisors to offer up to 14 days of early voting, though they could stick with the current eight days or pick some number in between. And in addition to a limit on the word length on legislative amendments, Detzner said a provision in state law allowing the full text of an amendment to be placed on the ballot should be repealed.
Senate Ethics and Elections Chairman Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, filed legislation Monday (SB 600) that would get rid of that language and make other changes relating to absentee ballot certificates and the buffer zone for voters at polling places.
Lawmakers say that they are close to what Detzner and the supervisors of elections are proposing. A chart giving the areas the House subcommittee is likely to address in a bill mirrored the suggestions.
“I think between the three groups … there’s a lot of consistency in some of the issues that we can address,” said Rep. Jim Boyd, the Bradenton Republican who chairs the subcommittee.
But there are still some details to work through. Boyd’s chart lists a provision that would only limit the first summary in a legislatively-proposed amendment if lawmakers added more than one summary as a backstop against court challenges to the ballot language. And if the attorney general were forced to write a new summary after a court challenge, that would not be subject to the limit.
Democrats raised minor objections to that and are also pushing to broaden the scope of early voting measures. Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, said the state should consider mandating eight hours of early voting; under Boyd’s proposal, a supervisor could offer anywhere from six hours to 12.
“We’re not going outside of what many of the supervisors of elections’ hours of operation already are with at least eight hours,” Williams said.
Other groups are also pushing for more change. Ron Bilbao of the ACLU of Florida told the committee that the state should also consider allowing same-day voter registration, expanding the forms of identification voters could use at the polls and making it easier for felons to regain the right to vote after they’ve served their sentence.
Bilbao made it clear his organization supported the changes being considered.
“But Florida has a history of dysfunctional elections, and if all we do to address these problems is address the problems that voters endured this November, in 2012, then we’ll have lost an opportunity to address the badly-needed reforms that Florida needs to do,” he said.
By The News Service of Florida
Tommie Bailey Jones
February 5, 2013
Mrs. Tommie Bailey Jones, 97, of Atmore, passed away February 4, 2013. She was born August 29, 1915, in Wedowee, AL. She was a graduate of Jacksonville State Teacher’s College
and had a very successful teaching career of 37 years at McCall Junior High School and Century Elementary School. She was very active member in church work at Catawba Springs Baptist Church and First Baptist Church of Atmore where she taught Sunday School classes for many years. She was also active in various community activities such as State Teacher Retirement Association, volunteer work at Atmore Community Hospital, Atmore Nursing Home and especially enjoyed being a member of the Atmore Joy Riders.
Retirement was exceptionally fun for Tommie as she traveled extensively, enjoyed daily exercises, flower gardening and entertaining friends. Her later years were spent at the Meadows Assisted Living Home in Atmore and God’s Creativity sitting services in Atmore.
She is preceded in death by her parents, Thomas Patrick and Clara Barton Bailey; her husband, Vernon “Buck” Jones and her four brothers and four sisters.
She is survived by her daughters, Jane Jones (Frank) Green of Jay, Susan Jones (Jim) Purdy and Debbie Jones, all of Atlanta, GA; brother, Elon (Sarah) Bailey of Sylacauga, AL and grandson, Roger Green of Milton.
A special thanks to her caretakers Pinkey Frye and Tonya Hudson who provided opportunities for Tommie to go to church, shopping, hair appointments, sightseeing and Covenant Hospice for the services provided to Tommie during her final days.
Funeral services will be held Wednesday, February 6, 2013, at 11 a.m. from the First Baptist Church of Atmore with Rev. Arnold Hendrix officiating. Burial will follow in Catawba Springs
Baptist Church Cemetery.
Visitation will be held Wednesday, February 6, 2013, from 10 a.m. until service time at First Baptist Church.
Alabama Hostage Situation Is Over; Boy Is Safe
February 4, 2013
About a week after it began, a hostage situation in an underground bunker in Midland City, Ala., is over.
The 5-year old boy that had been held hostage since he was abducted from his school bus is in good condition and is under observation at at local hospital.
Hostage taker Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, is dead, according to the FBI. Authorities entered the bunker and rescued the child after Dykes was observed with a gun and negotiations “deteriorated”, according to Steve Richardson with the FBI’s office in Mobile. Authorities feared the boy was in imminent danger.
Dykes gunned down a school bus driver last Tuesday and abducted a 5-year-old boy from the bus before taking him to an underground bunker on his rural property. The driver, 66-year-old Charles Poland Jr., was buried Sunday.
Four Injured In School Bus Crash
February 4, 2013
Four students received minor injuries in a tw0-vehicle accident involving a school bus this morning on Davis Highway.
The Florida Highway Patrol said bus driver Barbara Jean Rogers, 53, of Cantonment was slowing with the bus yellow warning lights activated on North Davis Highway near Campus Drive at the time of the 9:05 a.m. accident. The FHP said 38-year old Kelly Marie O’Brien of Pace failed to observe the slowing bus and rear-ended itw ith her PT Cruiser.
There were 22 students students from Ferry Pass Middle School on the bus at the time of the crash. Four students, ranging in age from 11 to 14, were transported by ambulance to West Florida Hospital with minor injuries.
O’Brien was charged with careless driving, no insurance and driving while license suspended, according to the FHP.
Pictured: There were no serious injuries in this school bus crash Monday morning on Davis Highway. Reader submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Contractor To Remove Derelict Vessels, Log Jam From Escambia River
February 4, 2013
Escambia County is set to award a contract to remove derelict vessels and clear a log jam from a section of the Escambia River near McDavid.
The county commission will vote later this week on a $68,498 contract to be awarded to Florida Forest Recyclers, LLC to remove the vessels and associated debris — including thousands of logs — from the Escambia River about one river mile north of the Cotton Lake boat ramp.
The company will remove derelict vessels and associated debris that have shut down river traffic for years.
The bid from Florida Forest Recyclers was over a half million dollars lower than bids received from two Alabama companies. A $527,000 bid was received from Crowder Gulf Joint Ventures of Theodore, while DRC Emergency Services, LLC bid $792,622.14.
Pictured top: A logjam stretches bank to bank, blocking the Escambia River near McDavid (courtesy photo). Pictured below: An abandoned boat along the Escambia River. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Rain Moving In Overnight
February 4, 2013
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Tonight: Showers likely, mainly after midnight. Cloudy, with a low around 48. South wind around 5 mph becoming east after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- Tuesday: Showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 69. South wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- Tuesday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 49. Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph.
- Wednesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 73. Northeast wind around 5 mph becoming southeast in the afternoon.
- Wednesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 52. East wind around 5 mph.
- Thursday: A 50 percent chance of showers. Cloudy, with a high near 70. East wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Thursday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 54. Southeast wind around 5 mph.
- Friday: Partly sunny, with a high near 72. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon.
- Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 50. North wind around 5 mph.
- Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 72.
- Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 51.
- Sunday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 70.
- Sunday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 57.
- Monday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 71.
Escambia Bus Drivers Attend Funeral Of Slain Alabama Driver
February 4, 2013
About two dozen Escambia County School District bus drivers attended the funeral Sunday of a bus driver shot and killed near Midland City, Ala.
When an armed gunman boarded his bus Tuesday and demanded to take all of the students, driver Charles Albert Poland, 66, refused. He was shot four times and died protecting all of the students, except one, was safely escaped bus 04-2.
A 5-year old kindergartener was kidnapped by Jimmy Lee Dykes and held in an underground bunker.
Poland had driven for the Dale County Board of Eduction for three years. After his route, he and his wife Jan would share a cup of coffee and watch the sunset, or listen to the Alabama ran, she told the Dothan Eagle.
They would sometimes recite their favorite Bible verse:
For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. – 2 Timothy 1:12
Poland, by all accounts, love his simple life, and loved the children on his bus.
He loved them. He loved everybody and he was loved,” Jan Poland told the Dothan Eagle.
Pictured top: About two dozen Escambia County bus drivers attended a funeral Sunday in Midland City, Ala., for a school bus driver that was shot and killed. Pictured below (courtesy Dothan Eagle): Bus driver Charles Albert Poland. Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Escambia Legislative Delegation Supports Two Local Bills
February 4, 2013
The Escambia County Legislative Delegation has voted to support two local bills during the 2013 legislative session.
The first bill, proposed by the City of Pensacola, would repeal Chapter 84-10, Laws of Florida, commonly referred to as the Pensacola Civil Service Act. The Pensacola Civil Service Act is rooted in the 1931 City Charter, which was repealed and replaced by referendum in October 2009 when the current Charter was adopted.
The second bill was proposed by the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority (ECUA) and would amend the ECUA’s enabling legislation. The amendments allow the ECUA to purchase fuel under the same terms and exemptions as municipalities and counties, and to conduct management efficiency audits every five years as opposed to every three years as is currently required.
The Town of Century had asked the delegation to support legislation exempting Century from a four cent gas tax hike in 2014 to benefit ECAT public transportation. That request hit a major roadblock before being considered by the delegation. [Read more...]
The Escambia County Delegation is comprised of Sen. Greg Evers, Delegation Chair Rep. Clay Ingram, and Rep. Clay Ford.