Highway 29, Highway 97 Traffic Light Due By Year’s End
November 9, 2014
Plans were complete months ago and Escambia County made a deposit of just over a quarter of a million dollars for the Florida Department of Transportation to install a new traffic signal at the intersection of Highway 29 and Highway 97 in Molino.
In October 2013, the Escambia County Commission affirmed its support for improvements at the intersection and expressed a willingness for the county to pay for the red light at the intersection. A Florida Department of Transportation study determined the intersection did meet the criteria for the light, with an agreement in place that FDOT would design and construct the upgrades with Escambia County paying for the construction.
FDOT has completed the design phase and determined that Escambia County’s estimated cost for construction was an estimated $265,400 for mast arms and signals at the intersection of Highway 29 and Highway 97. The Escambia County Commission approved payment last August, with the payment made October 29.
Friday afternoon, moments after two Northview High School students were badly injured in a two vehicle collision at the intersection [read more], Escambia County District 5 Commissioner Steven Barry said FDOT was due to start construction by early October with a completion date by the end of the year. He said Friday afternoon that he did not know why the state had not started work.
A redesign of the Crabtree Church Road intersection with Highway 97, which is just feet from Highway 29, also also expected to take place as separate project.
Saturday night, the intersection was the scene of another accident, this one involving an Escambia County deputy and a passenger vehicle [read more]. There were no injuries in the crash.
Pictured top: Firefighters use the Jaws of Life to free a passenger in a vehicle (pictured inset) involved in a Friday afternoon collision at Highway 29 and Highway 97 in Molino. Pictured below: A vehicle involved in a Saturday night wreck at the intersection. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Northview, Byrneville Dance Groups Perform At Arts Festival
November 9, 2014
Members of the Northview High School Dance Team and groups from Heather Leonard’s Danceworks based in Byrneville performed Saturday afternoon at the Great Gulf Coast Arts Festival in Pensacola. Photos by April Maholovich for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: The Election Is Finally Over
November 9, 2014
The national clock-cleaning that Republicans administered to Democrats in this week’s midterm elections reached into Florida, helping carry Gov. Rick Scott to victory over former Gov. Charlie Crist, his Democratic challenger, and strengthening the GOP’s hand in the Legislature.
Crist, a former Republican, failed in his attempted political comeback. Democrats lost six seats in the state House, giving the GOP a two-thirds majority and making the minority party largely irrelevant. The composition of the state’s congressional delegation didn’t change — one Democrat and one Republican lost — but that was about the only bright spot for Democrats.
The fallout: The GOP once again has total control of state government. House Democrats are once again ensnared in a fight over who will lead them for the 2015 legislative session. And Florida is once again primed to be one of the central states in the 2016 presidential election.
The campaign is over. Let the campaign begin.
SCOTT 2.0
In March 2013, it looked for all the world like Crist would be able to walk into the Governor’s Mansion. Scott was trailing his predecessor by 16 percentage points, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll, which showed Crist with a 50-34 lead that included leads in essentially every demographic category.
They don’t hold elections in the spring of odd-numbered years, though, and Scott used an avalanche of negative ads and a stronger ground game than Republicans have run recently to hold onto his seat for four more years. It was one of the more improbable comebacks in the state’s political history.
It came after a bitterly personal and extraordinarily expensive race — one that eventually lightened Scott’s wallet to the tune of $12.8 million, the amount he and his wife pumped into the Republican Party of Florida in October to ensure victory.
“They’re going to announce at 8 o’clock that we are going to kick Charlie’s rear. And he deserves it. Because he doesn’t worry about our families,” Scott said Monday during a rally in The Villages, a retirement community that is ruby-red Republican.
It wasn’t 8 p.m. when Scott claimed victory Tuesday. In fact, it was closer to midnight. It came after an unsuccessful legal effort by Crist’s campaign to keep the polls open in Broward County — no Florida election would be complete without a court fight — and a margin that started out strong in Scott’s favor and narrowed but never closed.
In the end, unofficial results showed Scott carrying about 48.2 percent of the vote, with Crist picking up almost 47.1 percent. There was no talk of kicking anyone’s rear in Scott’s victory speech.
“It’s time to put all the division behind us and come together,” Scott told cheering supporters at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point in Bonita Springs. “Forget about all the partisanship. Florida is on a mission. And that mission is to keep growing, and to become the very best place in the world to get a job, to raise a family, and live the American dream.”
Crist took the stage in a nearly empty ballroom at the Vinoy Renaissance resort in St. Petersburg to make a similar case. He was interrupted when he said he had called Scott and congratulated him. “Demand a recount!” a supporter cried out.
“We need to come together. We really do,” Crist said.
WAVE GOODBYE TO DEMOCRATS
The wave didn’t just hurt Crist, of course. It ravaged Democratic chances up and down the ballot. The only truly high-profile challenger to a Republican Cabinet official was George Sheldon, who ran against Attorney General Pam Bondi.
But Bondi crushed Sheldon, beating him by 13 points while Libertarian Bill Wohlsifer garnered just 3 percent of the vote.
Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and state Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater also easily won re-election. And House Democrats, trying to hold onto at least 41 seats to either sustain Crist’s potential vetoes or cause trouble for the Republican majority, instead lost six seats to fall to 39 and yield a supermajority to the GOP. Republicans can now essentially run the House as they see fit.
Outgoing House Speaker Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, called the Tuesday night results a “validation of the policies we’ve been fighting for the last several years.”
“This is a great Republican night across the board,” Weatherford said.
The bad night for Democrats prompted a challenge to incoming House Minority Leader Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach. Rep. Dwayne Taylor, D-Daytona Beach, said he would run against Pafford at a caucus meeting set for Nov. 17. The meeting had been expected to result in a pro forma vote to elevate Pafford to the position.
“Moving forward, we don’t have the time to take a chance on what else (Pafford) might not be able to do,” Taylor said.
Pafford indicated that Democrats were hurt by the national climate and the Republicans’ strong fundraising advantage.
“There was never any guarantee that we would come back with all of our members,” Pafford said.
Also, an amendment that would have allowed for the broader use of medical marijuana, supported by many Democrats, narrowly failed to get the 60 percent approval from voters necessary to take effect.
There were two bright spots for Democrats: In South Florida, Congressman Patrick Murphy managed to hold onto his Treasure Coast area seat, fighting off Republican challenger Carl Domino, a former state House member.
And in one of the few Democratic pickups anywhere in the nation Tuesday night, Gwen Graham — daughter of former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham — ousted two-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, a Panama City Republican who was elected in the tea-party wave of 2010.
A QUICK PROMOTION
The path from senator to president usually takes at least a couple of years, but Sen. John Thrasher made it happen in just 48 hours. On Thursday, two days after he was re-elected to his Northeast Florida Senate seat, Thrasher was officially approved as the president of Florida State University by the state university system’s Board of Governors.
Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, won approval alongside Kent Fuchs, the provost of Cornell University who will now lead the University of Florida.
“I have no doubt both universities will thrive under these leaders,” university system Chancellor Marshall Criser said.
Thrasher resigned from the Senate, effective at midnight Sunday, sparking the need for a special election to fill his seat. Rep. Ronald “Doc” Renuart, R-Ponte Vedra Beach, and Rep. Travis Hutson, R-Elkton, quickly moved to run for Thrasher’s seat, saying they would resign from the House a day before the special election.
Thrasher’s selection was contentious as it played out across the summer in Tallahassee. But Thrasher, who was Gov. Rick Scott’s campaign chairman when the FSU search began, was the front-runner for the job throughout the process.
Thrasher acknowledged he may have had a hand in state schools not being as adequately funded the past few years as some board members would want. But, he added, that in order to achieve higher standards at the university he wants to quickly prepare the school for the legislative session, focus on the university’s ongoing $1 billion capital campaign and look into increasing faculty pay.
“If we’re going to get in the top 25, we’ve got to be realistic about the salaries we pay,” Thrasher said.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Gov. Rick Scott beat former Gov. Charlie Crist to win re-election after one of the most expensive and bitter races in Florida history.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “If the campaign hadn’t built the ship and raised the sail, that last little bit of wind wouldn’t have moved us.”—Rick Wilson, a Republican political operative, on the effect of the national Republican victory on Scott’s re-election.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Jennifer Cifaldi McMorris
November 9, 2014
Jennifer Cifaldi McMorris 44, of Flomaton, passed away November 7, 2014, at her residence. She was born in Panama City, Panama on September 5, 1970. She is preceded in death by her father Matthew Joseph Cifaldi. She was a RN and had worked at Century Nursing Center, Oakwood Nursing Home and DaVita Dialysis Center in Atmore. She was a member of Walnut Hill Baptist Church.
She is survived by her husband, James Richard McMorris and children, James Riley McMorris, Sidnie Reed McMorris and Aja Rae McMorris all of Flomaton; mother, Dora Cifaldi; brother Matthew Cifaldi; father and mother-in-law Mike and Joyce Respress of McCullough; brothers- in-law, Mike and Viena McMorris of Brimingham, Tim and Veronica McMorris of Austin, TX, and Sean Respress of Daphne; sisters-in-law, Melissa and Jeff Chafin of Spanish Fort and Jayne and Rick Tiehes of Jackson, Missouri; and many nieces and nephews.
A Celebration of Jennifer’s Life will be held at a later date.
Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Great Fall Weather
November 8, 2014
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Tonight Partly cloudy, with a low around 41. North wind around 5 mph.
- Sunday Sunny, with a high near 69. North wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Sunday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 38. North wind around 5 mph becoming east after midnight.
- Monday Sunny, with a high near 73. East wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south in the afternoon.
- Monday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 46. Southeast wind around 5 mph.
- Veterans Day Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Calm wind becoming southwest around 5 mph in the morning.
- Tuesday Night Mostly cloudy, with a low around 55. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Wednesday A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 73. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.
- Wednesday Night A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 49. North wind around 5 mph.
- Thursday Mostly cloudy, with a high near 61.
- Thursday Night Mostly cloudy, with a low around 39.
- Friday Mostly sunny, with a high near 56.
- Friday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 37.
- Saturday Mostly sunny, with a high near 59.
Burger King In Cantonment Damaged By Fire
November 8, 2014
Fire caused significant damage to Burger King in Cantonment Friday night.
The fire was reported about 7:10 p.m. after workers begin to smell smoke in the restaurant on Highway 29 at Old Chemstrand Road. Firefighters arrived to find the front of the building filled with smoke.
The Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office was called into determine the cause of the fire.
The restaurant will be closed for repairs for an unknown amount of time.
Photos by Kristi Price, Holly Boureaux and Jennifer Day for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Attorney General’s Office Arrests Escambia Assisted Living Facility Administrator
November 8, 2014
Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit arrested an Escambia County assisted living facility administrator, 43-year-old Adrienne Taylor, for allegedly tampering with or harassing a witness, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, and giving false information to a law enforcement officer.
According to the investigation, Taylor withheld evidence, created false reports, and had others provide false statements during an investigation into her employer, Kipling Manor. Taylor could receive 31 years in prison and fines. The case will be prosecuted by the Office of the State Attorney, William “Bill” Eddins, in the First Judicial Circuit.
Taylor was also arrested in July, along with Belie Brock Williams, for allegedly refusing psychological nursing caregivers entrance into the Kipling Manor facility to assist mental health residents resulting in residents without care for two to three weeks. Taylor allegedly failed caregiver responsibilities to protect the residents from the abuse and did not ensure residents received prescribed nursing services. Investigators received information regarding the alleged abuse and neglect from the Northwest Florida Long Term Care Ombudsman Program Office.
The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigates and prosecutes fraud involving providers that intentionally defraud the state’s Medicaid program through fraudulent billing practices. Medicaid fraud essentially steals from Florida’s taxpayers. From Jan. 2011 to Aug. 2014, Attorney General Bondi’s MFCU has obtained more than $460 million in settlements and judgments. Additionally, the MFCU investigates allegations of patient abuse, neglect, and exploitation in facilities receiving payments under the Medicaid program.
Former Band Director Gets Three Years For Sex Acts With Students
November 8, 2014
Friday, a former band director at T.R. Miller High School in Brewton was sentenced to three years in the county jail for sexual contact with multiple students.
Jeffrey Lance Ganious pleaded guilty to one felony count of a teacher having a sexual act with a student, and two counts of sexual contact with a student. Circuit Judge Jeff White handed down a 20 years suspended sentence. Ganious will serve three years in the Escambia County (AL) Detention Center in Brewton, rather than state prison, to be followed by five years supervised probation. If he should violate his probation, he’ll be sent to state prison for the remainder of his sentence.
He will also be required to register as a sex offender.
Gainous was arrested in August for sexual contact with several girls ages 14 to 18. The contact ranged from sexting – sending explicit text messages — with at least a half dozen girls, to tying up girls and using various bondage devices during sexual contact. The incidents, authorities said, occurred at both his former Brewton home and inside the T.R. Miller High School band room.
Century Honors Veterans
November 8, 2014
The Town of Century held a special Veterans Day observance Friday to honor their local veterans.
“Hero — we throw that term around a lot, but they really are the superheroes of this world that keep us safe and allow us to enjoy the freedoms that God intended us to have,” guest speaker Rep. Clay Ingram told the small crowd at Century’s Nadine McCaw Park.
The event included other speakers and patriotic music from Byrneville Elementary School fourth and fifth grade students.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Weekend Events: VFD Fish Fry, Benefits For Cooper And McMorris, Harvest Festival
November 8, 2014
Here are some events in the North Escambia area today:
Walnut Hill VFD Fish Fry
The Walnut Hill Volunteer Fire Department annual fish fry will be held Saturday, November 8, from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the fire station. Plates are $7 each and include catfish or grilled chicken, hush puppies, baked beans, cole slaw, dessert and drink. Enjoy baked goods and TCBY. The bloodmobile will also be onsite.
Bryant Cooper Benefit
There will be a benefit car wash Saturday from 9 am until noon at the First Baptist Church in Bratt for cancer patient Bryant Cooper sponsored by the FBC Youth. All donations will go toward travel expenses to MD Anderson in Texas. T-shirts will be available
Jennifer McMorris Benefit
Benefit for Jennifer McMorris on Saturday, November 8 at 11 a.m. at Heritage Park in Atmore. Live music, food and more.
Ray’s Chapel Baptist Church Harvest Festival
Ray’s Chapel Baptist Church will hold their annual Harvest Festival on Saturday, November 8, from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. at the church. Games, hayrides, antique car show, chili cookoff and desert auction. Free soup and chili available. The church is located at 170 West Bogia Road in McDavid. Everyone is welcome.