Today: 100-Acre Burn Today At Ransom Middle School
January 10, 2015
If the weather cooperates today, the Florida Forest Service will conduct a 100 acre prescribed burn at Ransom Middle School.
After a recent wildfire caused smoke issues near the Cantonment school, the plan is to conduct a burn on county-owned property in order to reduce the risk of future wildfires, eliminate 
potential smoke issues and allow the school board to better utilize the field adjacent to the school.
Given the light fuel load of the area, the burn should only take a few hours and smoke is not expected to linger in the area afterward.
The Forest Service announced the burn twice during the Christmas school holidays, but weather forced a cancellation both times.
NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
FWC Law Enforcement Report
January 10, 2015
The Florida FWC Division of Law Enforcement reported the following activity during the weekly period ending January 8 in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
Officer Hutchinson was patrolling the Blackwater State Forest when he observed a truck with two occupants wearing hunter orange vests traveling towards him. As he approached the vehicle to conduct a resource inspection, he observed the driver reach down and place something in the floorboard. After making contact with both occupants, they admitted to trying to conceal two open containers of alcoholic beverages. During the inspection, the passenger of the vehicle admitted that he was hunting deer and that he did not have a valid hunting license or the required permits. Officer Hutchinson observed the passenger of the vehicle to be in possession of a high powered rifle. After further investigation, Officer Hutchinson discovered that the passenger was a convicted felon and was not supposed to be in possession of a firearm or ammunition. Officer Hutchinson seized the firearm and the appropriate arrests were made.
Officer Ramos was on patrol in Blackwater WMA responding to a complaint of hunting dogs in a still-hunt area when he came across three men and a dog on a forest road. Upon seeing the patrol truck, all three suspects suddenly fled into the woods after given lawful commands to stop. Officer Ramos pursued the suspects on foot into the woods but terminated the foot chase after he caught the suspect’s hunting dog. Using information on the dog’s collar, Officer Ramos drove towards the dog owner’s private property just south of his location and conducted a traffic stop on one of the suspects who was now trying to leave the area in a vehicle. The suspect was placed under arrest for interference with an FWC officer. Officers Hutchinson and Molnar and Investigators Hughes and Goley arrived to assist. The officers went to the suspects hunting camp and began an investigation to determine the whereabouts of the other two suspects. Both suspects were still hiding in the woods. The officers were able to convince the father of one the suspects to have them come into the camp. When they walked into the camp, one immediately became defensive and non-compliant. After admitting he ran because he did not possess a hunting license, he was placed under arrest for interference. The third suspect was somewhat cooperative. The officers determined that all three suspects had been hunting unlawfully, after piecing together information from the suspects and the physical evidence at the scene. Investigator Goley and Officer Molnar located two shotguns and illegal narcotics that the suspects had ditched while running. And later, Officer Hutchinson located a third shotgun hidden in the woods that the oldest suspect, a convicted felon, possessed when he fled from the officer. The appropriate citations were issued and two of the suspects were booked into the Santa Rosa County Jail.
Officer Johnson and Reserve Officer Wise assisted the Milton Police Department and other agencies with a search and rescue of a male subject at Pond Creek in Milton. Once on scene, the officers learned from a witness that the subject had entered the water and tried to walk across the Pond Creek but was swept away by the current. A short time later, the Santa Rosa Search and Rescue sent a dive team and recovered the victim’s body in close proximity to where he was last seen before being swept away. Officers Johnson and Wise assisted with the recovery of the victim and securing the scene.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY
(No report submitted for Escambia County.)
This report represents some events the FWC handled over the past week;however, it does not include all actions taken by the Division of Law Enforcement. Information provided by FWC.
Escambia BOCC Honors First Responders
January 10, 2015
The Escambia County Commission recognized last week as First Responder Appreciation Week and issued a proclamation thanking area first responders and their families. Accepting the proclamation on behalf of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office were four of the six deputies shot in the line of duty in the last six years. Pictured are: Deputy 1st Class Ryan Robinson, Sergeant Shedrick Johnson, Deputy Chad Brown and Deputy Jason Ates. (The two deputies shot in the line of duty not shown are Deputy Jeremy Cassidy and Deputy 1st Class Sam Parker.) Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Sunny Saturday, Warming With Rain Sunday And Monday
January 10, 2015
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Saturday Mostly sunny, with a high near 49. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Saturday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 32. Northeast wind around 5 mph.
- Sunday A 40 percent chance of showers, mainly after noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 56. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Sunday Night A 30 percent chance of showers. Cloudy, with a low around 49. East wind around 5 mph.
- Monday A 40 percent chance of showers. Cloudy, with a high near 67. East wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the morning.
- Monday Night A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 50. Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph after midnight.
- Tuesday A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 58. North wind around 5 mph.
- Tuesday Night A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 45. North wind around 5 mph.
- Wednesday A 40 percent chance of showers. Cloudy, with a high near 56.
- Wednesday Night A 50 percent chance of showers. Cloudy, with a low around 42.
- Thursday Mostly sunny, with a high near 54.
- Thursday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 35.
- Friday Sunny, with a high near 54.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Two Blocks Of Florida Politics
January 10, 2015
It was possible Tuesday to get a feel for the state of Florida politics within a two-block area.
Just outside the historic Old Capitol building, Gov. Rick Scott and the three re-elected Cabinet members were taking their oaths of office for a second time. Across the street at the Leon County Courthouse, a series of same-sex marriages that one of those Cabinet officials had fought to prevent were underway, part of the first week of gay weddings in Florida history.
The next great Florida battle was also looming, with Texas Gov. Rick Perry and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie attending Scott’s swearing-in — their visits to an important state in the 2016 primary and general elections serving as none-too-subtle signs of both men’s presidential aspirations.
And the inauguration took place during a lull in the first week of committee meetings in 2015 for the Legislature, which began working on issues ranging from how often students should be tested to how to use billions of dollars of funding that voters insisted go toward land and water conservation.
Call it preparation for when the Florida political scene returns to normal. Or what qualifies for normal in the Sunshine State.
IT’S STILL THE ECONOMY, STUPID
For anyone who thought Scott’s move toward the middle last year marked some revision of what he sees as the core purpose of his governorship, the inaugural address ended such talk. The word “job” still popped up with regularity, and Scott as much as said his goal hasn’t changed.
“If we can make Florida the worldwide leader for families that struggled like mine did to get a job, then I’ve fulfilled my job as your governor,” said Scott, who spoke for about 20 minutes in front of a crowd of around 500 people.
The event took place on a cool day that was still warmer than some past inaugural ceremonies. The three Cabinet officials — Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, all Republicans — were also sworn in.
Scott nixed the parade and inaugural ball, replacing them with a post-election tour across the state touting economic progress, though festivities still included receptions Monday and Tuesday at the governor’s mansion. A prayer breakfast Tuesday morning also remained.
The governor hawked the state to residents of New York, Illinois, California and Pennsylvania, all of which have Democratic governors (though Illinois is soon to inaugurate a GOP chief executive). And despite overseeing a roughly 10 percent increase in the state budget over his four years in office, and promising additional spending to come, Scott warned against the expansion of government.
“While we are focused on growing jobs in Florida, we must realize that positions our state as a fighter in a great movement against the silent growth of government,” he said.
Democrats were unimpressed — though with their diminished numbers in the House and only slightly more influential minority in the Senate, it wasn’t clear what if anything they can do about it.
“Right now, working people are catching hell in Florida,” said Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa. “These low-paying jobs are not doing it.”
GAY MARRIAGE BEGINS, BUT IS THE FIGHT OVER?
For weeks, advocates of gay marriage in Florida had Jan. 6 circled on their calendars. That was the day U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle’s stay of a ruling striking down Florida’s ban on same-sex weddings was set to expire.
But in Miami-Dade County, things got started a bit early. Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel on Monday lifted a stay of an earlier ruling that found the gay-marriage ban unconstitutional.
Even as the ceremonies began, John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council, said the issue is not resolved legally. He said the U.S. Supreme Court could uphold state gay-marriage bans. An appeal about Florida’s ban remains pending at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
“Should the Supreme Court rule for state’s rights, I think you are going to see the Florida marriage amendment immediately reinvigorated, in terms of its authority,” said Stemberger, whose group spearheaded efforts to pass the 2008 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. “Then, we are going to have a confused patchwork of couples who are legitimately married, same-sex couples who now have marriages that are presumptively unconstitutional somehow and same-sex couples who perhaps want to be married but can’t be because of the authority of the Florida marriage amendment.”
On Tuesday, weddings began in most parts of the state. As the oath of office was being administered to Bondi — whose office defended the marriage ban in court — the Leon County Courthouse was open for business to gay couples.
That juxtaposition was not lost on Susan Gage, who prepared to get married to Isabelle Potts, her partner of 23 years in what she called “the longest courtship ever.” They were among about 60 gay and lesbian couples who received licenses Tuesday in Leon County.
“It’s the culmination of a very difficult and hard struggle,” Gage said.
Like Stemberger, Bondi didn’t seem to think the arguments were over — though she also wouldn’t say one way or the other whether her office would continue to appeal Hinkle’s ruling. Bondi said she hoped the U.S. Supreme Court, which has repeatedly refused to consider similar cases, would settle the matter.
“Because that’s what we need again. We need uniformity. And best wishes to all of the couples who are married,” she said.
READY TO DO SOMETHING
Committee meetings to lay the groundwork for the 2015 legislative session also began this week. While many of the meetings were the usual introductory chatter — here’s the staff director, here are the new members, there’s our jurisdiction — other panels quickly moved into meatier business.
The Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee, for example, quickly began to consider how to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars set aside by the Florida Water and Land Conservation Amendment. How many hundreds of millions of dollars is one of the items still to be determined.
Committee Chairman Charlie Dean, R-Inverness, said he intends over the next couple of months to take a “meticulous” approach to the amendment, which over the next two decades requires 33 percent of the revenue from a tax on real-estate transactions, known as documentary stamps, to go into conservation efforts.
Pepper Uchino, committee staff director, estimated that the amendment, approved by 75 percent of voters, will generate $757 million for conservation efforts during the upcoming 2015-16 fiscal year.
Eric Draper, state director of Audubon Florida, put the conservation-money total from documentary stamps at $662 million, which is closer to the $648 million offered last year in a state analysis.
In any case, it’s a large enough pot to draw plenty of interest in how the funds will be divvied up. Some lawmakers say the measure allows funding for stormwater, sewer and similar projects as long as the intent is to preserve the quality of water in Florida.
“We’ve been given an awesome opportunity to solve a major issue that is going to affect generations,” Altamonte Springs Republican David Simmons said. “What is the goal? It is to make sure our water is preserved in a pristine situation.”
Eric Draper, state director of Audubon Florida, said the money could go to the pipes involved in distributing water or to wastewater treatment, but only in limited cases.
“We’re saying except where you can really show a high state priority in doing that, that is not what the voters thought they were doing,” said Draper, who during the meeting represented the group Florida’s Land and Water Legacy, which led the amendment drive. “Wastewater treatment is traditionally a local government expense and we don’t believe that we should transfer that local expense of wastewater treatment on to the state of Florida.”
Meanwhile, the Senate Education PreK-12 Committee zeroed in on the number of tests that the state’s students are taking.
“I’ve got a message very clearly from our members that they’re interested in doing something,” said committee Chairman John Legg, R-Lutz.
But as for the details of the would-be bill, Legg conceded that “I don’t know what it looks like yet.” Issues that might be addressed range from which grades of students should be tested, to how many tests should be administered, to whether “assessments” required by the state necessarily have to be tests at all.
Even lawmakers who spearheaded the state’s accountability movement, which led to many of the testing requirements now on the books, are beginning to rethink things.
“Here’s what I’ve learned today: We don’t know how much time is consumed by state-mandated tests. We don’t know how much money it costs to perform state-mandated tests. We don’t know whether tests that are performed by state mandate are valid and reliable,” said Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican who has long backed education reform.
In a potentially related development, the state’s largest teachers union said Thursday it will stop challenging a 2014 law that included expansion of a voucher-like program that helps send children to private schools.
The Florida Education Association said it will not appeal a ruling last week by Leon County Chief Circuit Judge Charles Francis, who dismissed the challenge to the law. Francis said the named plaintiffs in the case, a Lee County teacher and two parents, did not have the legal standing to sue.
In a prepared statement, the union said it decided against appealing after a series of meetings with Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando.
“We have opened a dialogue with the Senate president on a broad range of issues, including testing, special needs students and other public education concerns of paramount importance to the FEA,” union Vice President Joanne McCall said. “We look forward to working together for the benefit of our children.”
STORY OF THE WEEK: Gov. Rick Scott and members of the Florida Cabinet were sworn in Tuesday for their second terms.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “My lawyer called me this morning and said, ‘We’ve changed the world, Jim,’ ” Jim Brenner, who, along with his partner Chuck Jones, filed the initial lawsuit against the state challenging the gay marriage prohibition, on the first day of same-sex marriages in Florida.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Citizens Property Insurance Continues To Shed Policies
January 10, 2015
As regulators approved another round of policy “takeouts” from Citizens Property Insurance Corp. on Friday, the state-backed insurer says it can get smaller than previously thought.
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation announced it approved up to 93,500 policies that can be acquired, or taken out, by four private-insurers in March.
The announcement came two days after Citizens President and CEO Barry Gilway told lawmakers he has revised a prior projection about how many policies will remain with Citizens in the future because they are uninsurable in the private market. The earlier projection put the number at 650,000 polices, but he said it is now down to 525,000 to 550,000.
“The appetite for Florida domestic (insurance) companies has increased dramatically,” Gilway told the House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee. “I would have told you a year ago that nobody was going to write a mobile home in Florida that was produced in 1994 and prior. Yet we now have a company in Florida, Mount Beacon, that’s basically focused on mobile homes in Florida that were built in 1994 and prior.”
Citizens currently handles about 661,000 policies, down from 1.47 million two years ago, Gilway said.
More important, Gilway said, the potential financial exposure for Citizens from a disaster has gone down from more than $510 billion to nearly $200 billion. State leaders have pushed for years to reduce the size of Citizens because of worries about the financial risks.
The appetite of private companies to insure Florida properties has grown as the state has gone through its ninth consecutive year without a hurricane making landfall. Gilway hedged his projection on the number of Citizens policies because of uncertainty about whether the trend will continue of hurricanes missing Florida.
Mount Beacon Insurance was among the four companies approved for the March takeout, with the potential to acquire up to 35,000 single-family home policies.
Anchor Property & Casualty can grab up to 28,000 single-family home policies in March, and Heritage Property & Casualty can acquire up to 20,000 single-family home policies and 500 commercial-residential policies. Southern Oak Insurance was approved for up to 10,000 single-family home policies.
The overall number of policies eventually shifted through the “takeout” process is not expected to reach the approved maximum, as private companies cherry-pick the least-risky policies and often go after many of the same customers. Citizens customers can also opt to remain with the state-backed insurer.
For 2014, regulators approved 1.1 million policies for private “takeout,” yet as of Dec. 19, the number moved out of Citizens stood at 416,623.
A big part of Citizens’ policy decrease has been the introduction last year of a legislatively approved electronic clearinghouse, which compares new and returning residential policies. When coverage by a private firm is found within 15 percent of Citizens’ premium for a new single-family policy, the policy goes to the private carrier.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Police Seek Man That Burglarized Vehicles In School Parking Lot
January 10, 2015
THE SUSPECT HAS BEEN ARRESTED. CLICK FOR AN UPDATE
The Flomaton Police Department is seeking the public’s help to identify a suspect that burglarized vehicles on a local school campus while students were in class.
The burglaries occurred Wednesday in the parking lot of Flomaton High School. The suspect entered the parking lot and stole Yeti brand coolers from two vehicles and later returned and attempted to break the window out of one of the vehicles.
The suspect is described as a white male wearing blue jeans and a dark color sweatshirt with a hood. When he returned, he was wearing a bright orange long sleeve shirt and blue jeans. The suspect’s vehicle was described as an approximately 2000 year model Chevrolet Blazer, two door, gold or champagne in color.
Anyone with information on the vehicle or suspect is asked to notify the Flomaton Police Department at (251) 296-5811.
Pictured: Surveillance images from the Flomaton High School parking lot showing an alleged burglar and his vehicle. Images for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
No Injuries In Molino Crash
January 9, 2015
There were no injuries in a two vehicle traffic accident this afternoon at Molino Road and southbound Highway 29 involving a pickup truck and a car. The accident caused a brief traffic delay on Molino Road. NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Price, click to enlarge.
Escambia County Settles Lawsuit Over 2009 Traffic Accident In Century
January 9, 2015
The Escambia County Commission voted Thursday night to settle a lawsuit over a 2009 traffic accident in Century by paying $60,000. Plaintiff Jessica Imholz, who was 17 at the time, was a passenger in a Nissan that ran a stop sign at Old Flomaton Road and East Highway 4 as was t-boned by a pickup.
Imholz and her parents, Mark and Jessica, filed suit in 2011 against several parties – including Escambia County, the Florida Department of Transportation and the Town of Century — claiming the parties were negligent and knew the intersection lacked properly visible signage and was dangerous. The Town of Century was later dismissed from the suit.
The accident happened about 4:30 p.m. on November 20, 2009, when the driver of the Nissan, Ryan D. Rodarte, 23, of Madison, AL, ran a stop sign at the end of Old Flomaton Road and traveled into the path of a pickup traveling east on Highway 4. The force of the impact sent the car about 85 feet into a nearby ditch.
Rodarte and and three passengers in the car were transported by ambulance to Jay Hospital. The Florida Highway Patrol identified the passengers as Jessica J. Imholz, 17, of Blythewood, SC; Demario Jordain, 18, of Columbia, SC; and Heather Dorner, 19, of Madison, AL. Imholz’s injuries were classified as severe at the time of the crash; she was later transferred by LifeFlight from Jay Hospital to Baptist Hospital in Pensacola.
Pictured above: Four people including then 17-year Jessica Imholz, were injured in the this Nissan in a two vehicle accident late in the afternoon of November 20, 2009, in Century. Pictured below: The driver of this GMC truck was not injured. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
County Approves Three-Year Contract With Administrator Brown
January 9, 2015
The Escambia County Commission voted Thursday night to extend the contract of Escambia County Administrator Jack Brown.
His contract, with an annual salary of $170,000, was extended for three years, plus an option for the board to approve two, one year extensions. The salary amount was based upon similar positions in the state.
Brown will also receive a $500 per month and will receive annual leave accrual at the level of a five-year employee. If terminated, he would be eligible for severance pay equal of to 25-percent of the annual salary. The three-year contract begins January 9, 2015, and runs through January 8, 2018.
Brown previously accepted a one year contract and moved from Perry, FL, where he was serving as the Taylor County administrator.
The contract was approved by a 3-0 vote, with Commissioners Lumon May and Grover Robinson absent from the meeting.