Mayor: Recent Copper Thefts Costing Century ‘Megabucks’
February 5, 2013
Recent copper thefts are hitting the Town of Century hard — to the tune of an estimated $30,000 in insurance deductibles.
During recent days, copper thieves hit all eight commercial air conditioning units outside the former town owned Van Nevel Helicopters building on Industrial Boulevard, and 10 of 14 units at the town’s Habitat Building on Pond Street.
According to Mayor Freddie McCall, the town’s insurance deductible is $5,000 per building. While the complex on Pond Street is commonly referred to a the “Habitat Building”, it is actually five different buildings that comprised the old Carver Middle School.
“It’s sad for this world to be in this shape it is in,” McCall said of the thefts. “They didn’t get $200 worth of copper on the market….it’s going to cost us megabucks.”
Anyone with information on the crimes is asked to call the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620 or Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP.
Pictured top: An Escambia County Sheriff’s Office crime scene technician dusts a broken window for fingerprints at the former Van Nevel Helicopters building in Century. Pictured inset: The crime scene tech photographs damage to an air conditioning unit. Pictured below: The vacant town owned building was burglarized and copper was stripped from outside air conditioning units. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
FFA Alumni Blue Jacket Jamboree Returns For Fourth Year
February 5, 2013
The Northview High School FFA Alumni Blue Jacket Jamboree is returning for a fourth year on March 9.
This year’s lineup includes musical entertainment from local artists, along with an entire day of car shows, crafts, food, games, and more. The proceeds from this event will fund scholarships for graduating Northview seniors and promote agricultural education and FFA in Northwest Florida.
Featured music will include Shane Harrell and The Major Moves Band with a mix of Southern rock, classic rock, blues and country; and Denean Workman and her hope-centered music.
The Blue Jacket Jamboree will be held from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 9 at Northview High School. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for children 10 and under, at the gate.
Arts and crafts vendor booths (except for food) are still available. For more information, contact Pam at (850) 712-6267.
The Blue Jacket Jamboree is sponsored in part by NorthEscambia.com.
Pictured top: Shane Harrell and The Major Moves Band. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Dadrien Washington Spells Her Way To Third In Annual Spelling Bee
February 5, 2013
Dadrien Washington was a third place winner in the Sandy Sansing 37th Annual Spelling Bee Monday in Pensacola. Washington competed against fifth grade students from Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
Washington attends Longleaf Elementary School and is a former student at Byrneville Elementary. She is the granddaughter of Sandra McMurray Jackson of Century, and David and Kim Washington of Molino.
First place was earned by Thomas Colangelo of West Navarre Intermediate School, and second went to Morgan Kelley of Redeemer Lutheran School.
Pictured: Sandy Sansing presents a check to Dadrien Washington along with Escambia County Superintendent Malcolm Thomas (left) and Santa Rosa Superintendent Tim Wyrosdick (far right). Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Bratt Elementary Releases Second Nine Weeks Honor Roll
February 5, 2013
The following students were named to the second nine weeks honor roll at Bratt Elementary School:
All A’s and B’s
Rabekah Abbott
Raegan Abbott
Anna Adams
Erich Amerson
Maggie Amerson
Sara Amerson
Sarah Bailey
John Bashore
Brody Black
Olivia Boatwright
Malachi Bolen
Sarah Branch
Luke Bridges
Aiden Broadhead
Keaton Brown
Abbie Buford
Paris Burt
Conner Byrne
Emilee Cabral
Kadence Calvert
Shelby Cotita
Sophie Cotita
Cassie Davis
Savannah Doremus
Carsyn Dortch
Kaden Dove
Ryan Dove
Mayson Edwards
Ahmad Elliott
Scotty Elliott
Alexis Evans
Jason Fayard
Jamyla Feagin
Zykuria Fountain
Amanda Franklin
Gabby Franklin
Makayla Garrett
Caitlyn Gibson
David Gilley
Amber Gilman
J.P.Gilman
Emma Gilmore
Maggie Godwin
Ava Gurganus
Zane Gurganus
Berklee Hall
Bryce Hall
Tucker Hall
Ashlan Harigel
Kara Hawkins
Leah Hetrick
Sarah Margaret Hetrick
Hannah Hughes
Jacob Hughes
April Johnson
Hunter Johnson
Ally Jones
Anna King
Gage Lambert
Kennedy Long
Bailie Merchant
Landon Mooney
Jaquez Moorer
Colby Morris
Mary Paige Nassar
Madison Peterson
Libby Pugh
Angel Schoonover
Carter Sigafoose
Mckenna Simmons
Mia Starns
Aubrey Stuckey
Bailey Van Pelt
Bentley Van Pelt
Addie White
Autumn Williams
Clay Wilson
Kendall Wise
Connor Wolfe
All A’s and B’s
Sophia Bailey
Ryleigh Barnes
Zoe Bergfield
Leah Berry
Riley Blackwell
Kyle Blanton
Tanner Boone
Cassidy Boutlwell
Allie Brantley
Lexi Broadhead
Juliana Bryan
Gracie Buckhault
Macie Buford
Terasia Burt
Anyis cabral
Kayla Campbell
Cadynce Chason
Landon Chavers
Ashton Cloud
Cameron Cloud
Tyler Cloud
Karlee Criswell
Miyhanna Davidson
Franki Daw
Andrew Denton
Irmani Dixon
Shakyria Dixon
Colton Dockens
Tyteanna Dubose
JT Dunson
Cody Edwards
Jackson Edwards
Gage Eicher
Cameron Findley
Jacob Findley
Neionni Findley
Tatyanna Findley
Daelyn Fine
Breyden Freeman
Jonathan Gibbs
Paige Gibbs
Jakob Gibson
Olivia Gibson
Raleigh Gibson
Gracie Godwin
Shelby Godwin
Ah’zavion Gregory
Tony Hall
Shane Hardin
Kohle Harigel
Summer Harrell
Tatum Hasting
Joshlynn Helton
Gabe Henderson
Kerry Hicks
Ji’Keir Hudson
Alaysha Huff
Trent Knighten
Anna Lee
Sarah Long
Houston Lowry
Blake Macks
Tobias Madison
Ansleigh Maholovich
Reid McCall
Braeden McGhee
Megan McGhee
Angel Merchant
Michael Merchant
Abigail Nelson
Travis Nelson
Jaylon North
Audrey Odom
Taviana Parker
Blaize Parrish
Adam Peterson
Caden Peterson
Dennis Pittman
Matthew Pruitt
Dallon Rackard
Kinzie Rackard
Kenna Redmond
Teriana Redmond
Shelby Rice
Torian Richardson
Savannah Roley
Paige Ross
Bryson Sanders
Nicholi Sanderson
Kasen Sawyer
Travis Scott
Adrianne Shanks
Arquavian Smith
Mandell Smith
Vivyan Smith
Anna Spence
Jacob Spence
Savannah Spence
Alyssa Stabler
Jaimee Taylor
Cody Thomas
So’lae Trotter
Summer Waters
Raycer Watson
Da’Mius Wesley
Kiara Wesley
T’ahna Wesley
Cassidy White
Benjamin Wilson
Lane Wilson
Wyatt Windham
Ty Wise
Softball: Pine Forest Beats Baker
February 5, 2013
Pine Forest beat Baker 2-1 Monday night in George Moore’s debut as the Lady Eagle’s head coach.
Baker was leading 1-0 going into the top of the seventh inning after scoring on a passed ball in the fourth, when senior Miranda Kelley walked on a full count to lead off the inning. She didn’t hesitate and went to second during some confusion on the count. The home plate umpire had the count becoming full when it in fact was ball four.
Senior Dajah Gogue ran for Kelley, and junior Rachel Witbracht laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Gogue to third with one out. After fouling off the first pitch, senior Brittney Ward put down a bunt on a suicide squeeze to score Gogue and tie the game 1-1. Ward went to second on the play.
Jordyn Pulliam, the only freshman on the varsity team, delivered a single to right-center field that scored Ward with the winning run.
Senior Rachel Munoz, pitching her first game for Pine Forest, allowed just three hits in seven innings. She walked only three and while she didn’t strike out a batter, Munoz let her defense do the work. The Lady Eagles didn’t commit an error.
Ward finished 2-for-2 with a walk, a run and an RBI. Rebecca Rudd also singled for Pine Forest, which plays host to Choctawhatchee at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
The Pine Forest junior varsity also beat Baker, rallying from 3-0 and 4-3 deficits to pull out a 7-4 victory. Freshman Mikaylah Taylor earned her first high school victory, tossing a complete game.
Fewer Florida Inmates Are Re-Offending After Release
February 5, 2013
Fewer Florida prison inmates are re-offending after their release, Corrections Secretary Mike Crews said Monday.
The percentage of inmates who commit another crime within three years of release has dropped from 33 percent for those freed as of 2003 to 27.6 percent for those freed as of 2008.
The drop in re-offenders contributed to a reduction in the total number of inmates admitted, which decreased from 41,054 in Fiscal Year 2007-08 to 32,279 for Fiscal Year 2011-12.
Crews said DOC had put new emphasis on correcting some of the conditions that land an overwhelming number of inmates behind bars to begin with – a lack of education, vocational training, mental health and/or substance abuse treatment.
By taking on the conditions that lead released felons to commit crimes again, the agency is helping keep Florida safe, Crews said.
“If you live in Florida when these inmates are released, they’re standing in the grocery store line next to you,” Crews said. “Eighty-seven percent of our current inmate population right now will be released, and they’re going to be released back into our communities.”
Crews acknowledged that the Transition from Prison to Community Initiative, with its increased emphasis on rehabilitation, “is a significant cultural change” for DOC.
“Historically in our agency, it has been about locking them up, turning them out and hoping for the best when they get out,” Crews said. “I think we’ve all seen that just does not work when you look at the exploding rates that we saw for a number of years.”
The move comes as an increasing number of interest groups – particularly in the business community – are arguing that Florida spends too much money on criminal justice, at the expense of other things business wants like improved education.
A one percent reduction in recidivism equates to a savings of nearly $19 million over five years, according to DOC data.
And according to Gov. Rick Scott, taxpayers have realized a savings of $44 million by reducing the recidivism rate.
“We’re reinvesting a portion of that savings by providing hardworking corrections employees bonuses for their service in making our communities safer,” Scott said in a statement.
Scott also has recommended lawmakers earmark $5.4 million to open the Gadsden Re-Entry Center at the Florida Public Safety Institute.
Crews credited the re-entry program, which already has four locations statewide, with helping inmates prepare for release and transition to successfully to work and family life.
By The News Service of Florida
Feds Give Go Ahead For Florida Medicaid Managed Care Plan
February 5, 2013
Federal health officials have approved a key part of Florida’s effort to transform its Medicaid program, clearing the way for tens of thousands of seniors across the state to move into managed-care plans.
The approval, announced Monday, means that Medicaid-eligible seniors who need long-term care likely will start enrolling later this year in HMOs and another type of health plan known as a “provider service network.” The long-term care changes are the first phase of a controversial proposal to shift Medicaid beneficiaries statewide into managed care.
A basic concept of the long-term care changes is that managed-care plans would provide services to seniors at home or in their communities, if possible. In doing so, many seniors would be able to stay out of nursing homes, or at least postpone the need to go into such facilities.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Joe Negron, a Stuart Republican who played a key role in drawing up the Medicaid changes, said nursing homes will continue to play an important role in the Medicaid system. But he said seniors want to be able to “age in place” in their homes and communities and only go to nursing facilities when necessary.
“Now, it gives us the ability with Medicaid to provide these options in the community for seniors,” Negron said.
The senior-advocacy group AARP Florida vowed Monday to be “watchdogs” as the new system is put in place.
“Florida elected officials have said they are pushing this reform effort forward because they want to assure the highest quality of care for frail and vulnerable Floridians under Medicaid,” AARP Florida State Director Jeff Johnson said in a prepared statement. “AARP Florida will hold them to their word.”
Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-controlled Legislature approved wide-ranging bills in 2011 aimed at shifting to a statewide managed-care system in Medicaid. The plan was to make the changes in two phases — first for seniors who need long-term care and then for the broader Medicaid population.
While many Medicaid beneficiaries already enroll in managed-care plans, backers of a statewide system argue it would help hold down Medicaid costs and better coordinate services for beneficiaries. But critics have long argued that the shift will result in managed-care plans squeezing care provided to low-income people.
Such Medicaid proposals require approval by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services before they can take effect. The federal government faced a Thursday deadline for ruling on the long-term care proposal, after Florida gave notice late last year that it wanted to start a 90-day “clock” to compel a decision.
No such deadline exists for the changes affecting the broader Medicaid population, and it remains unclear when federal officials will make a decision. State Medicaid director Justin Senior told lawmakers in December that the Agency for Health Care Administration had focused first on getting approval for the long-term care portion of the changes.
Scott sent a letter Monday to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius expressing appreciation for approval of what is known as a Medicaid “waiver” for the long-term care changes. But he also pressed to get approval for the shift affecting the broader Medicaid population.
“Now, our most urgent need is the immediate approval of our second pending waiver, which relates to the statewide Medicaid managed-care program,” Scott wrote. “This second waiver will give us additional flexibility within the current Medicaid program, and it supports our goal of improving the cost, quality and access to health care for all Florida families.”
Scott met last month with Sebelius and has appeared to try to connect the state’s managed-care proposals with a separate issue about whether Florida will expand Medicaid eligibility under the federal Affordable Care Act. The federal government wants states to expand eligibility as a way to provide health coverage for more people.
But Greg Mellowe, policy director for the patient-advocacy group Florida CHAIN, said it will be harder for the state to get approval of the broader managed-care proposal. That proposal would build off a highly controversial Medicaid managed-care pilot program that operates in five counties.
“The fact that the managed long-term care waiver was approved in no way indicates that approval of the broader statewide Medicaid managed-care waiver can be justified or will be forthcoming,” Mellowe, whose group has been highly critical of the managed-care proposal, wrote in an email.
The state Agency for Health Care Administration has already gone through a lengthy contracting process to choose health plans that would provide long-term care services to seniors. That process involved competitive bidding in 11 regions of the state and led to AHCA awarding contracts to American Eldercare, Sunshine State Health Plan, United HealthCare of Florida, Coventry Health Care of Florida and Amerigroup Florida.
AHCA hopes to start using the new long-term care system as early as August in the Orlando area and gradually move into other areas of the state. But enrollment could be delayed in three regions — the western Panhandle, the Big Bend and Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast — because of protests by losing bidders.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent a letter to the state Friday, approving the long-term care changes effective July 1. The approval is for three years, expiring June 30, 2016, with the state able to request renewals “by providing evidence and documentation of satisfactory performance and oversight.”
Michael Garner, president of the Florida Association of Health Plans, said moving to the long-term care system will require an extensive education effort for seniors and family members who will choose between managed-care plans. Like Negron, Garner said nursing homes will continue to play an important role, but he said he hopes the new system will help get people into the “lowest-cost settings that are preferable for them and their families.”
By The News Service of Florida
Woman Sentenced For Attacking Daughter With Bat Over A Swimsuit
February 5, 2013
A Century woman has been convicted of battery for attacking her daughter with a baseball bat after a fight over a swimsuit.
Kimberly Renee Harwell, 38, was sentenced to 24 months probation for the summer of 2012 attack.
According to an arrest report, Harwell become involved in a physical confrontation with her daughter over a bathing suit. The fight escalated until Harwell was outside a window with her daughter inside, at which time she struck the window with a bat and shattered it.
The daughter locked the mom outside, but she managed to make access. Once inside the home, Harwell tried to hit the daughter with the wooden bat.
The daughter suffered minor cuts in the incidents and refused medical treatment.
David Leon Daniel
February 5, 2013
David Leon Daniel, 68, of Atmore, passed away February 3, 2013, at his residence. He was born February 10, 1944, in Gordo, AL. He retired from Swift Lumber Company and was an
avid outdoorsman. He is preceded in death by his parents Hurtis and Bessie Mims Daniel and a brother, Ted Daniel.
He is survived by his wife, Mary “Cindy” Daniel; son, David W. (Chasity) Daniel of Atmore; three daughters, Brigitte (James) Covington of Atmore, Brandy (Stephen) Riley of Evergreen, and Gina McGown of Webster, Texas; two brothers, John Daniel of Mobile, and Raymond (Paula) Daniel of Atmore; three sisters, Eleanor Bell of Atmore, Dot (John) Crawford of Huntsville, and Margaret (Jerald) Jaye of Orange Beach; eight grandchildren, Eli, Asher and Bella Covington, Stone, Mary Katelyn and Madelyn Riley, Lucas Daniel and Morgan McGown and numerous nieces and nephews.
Funeral Services will be held Wednesday, February 6, 2013, at 2:30 p.m. from the Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Jimmy Dukes and Rev. Scott Brooks officiating. Burial
will follow in Oak Hill Cemetery.
Visitation will be held Tuesday, February 05, 2013, from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. from the Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home.
In lieu of flowers donations can be made to a charity of your choice.
Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
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.