Ellouise Nellie Smith
April 8, 2015
Ellouise Nellie Smith, 93, of Pensacola passed away on April 6, 2015. At a young age, Ellouise was saved at Berney Points Baptist Church in Birmingham. She enjoyed learning to know Christ and was later baptized. As an adult, Ellouise enjoyed volunteering at Olive Baptist Church and Manna Food Bank, where she received an award for her long-time service. She was also a member of Steadfast Sunday School class at Olive Baptist Church.
Ellouise said, “Jesus has always been a step ahead of me in my joys and especially of my needs. There was always people to love and to be near when they were needed, and always made sure there was manna for me”.
She was preceded in death by her parents; siblings; and her husband, Richard E. Smith.
Survivors include her sons, Richard Smith and Matt (Trina) Smith; grandchildren, Andy (Ginger) Smith, Laura Smith, Adam Smith, Emily Smith, and Helen Smith; great grandsons, Braedon and Rowan.
Trahan Family Funeral Home, 419 Yoakum Court, is in charge of arrangements.
Visitation will be held from 3-6 p.m. with a service at 5 p.m., Thursday, April 9, 2015, at the funeral home. A visitation will be held the following day from 10 a.m. to noon, Friday, April 10, 2015, at the Central Baptist Church, McNeill, MS, with interment to follow at First Baptist Church Cemetery, in Carriere, MS.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Manna Food Bank.
Softball: Jay Beats Laurel Hill; West Florida Over Pace
April 8, 2015
SOFTBALL
Jay 13, Laurel Hill 3 (5 inn.)
The Jay Royals beat Laurel Hill 13-3 Tuesday in Jay. The Lady Royals will host the Lady ‘Canes of Flomaton Thursday afternoon.
West Florida 11, Pace 6
Pictured: The Lady Royals of Jay beat Laurel Hill Tuesday. Photos by Diann Tagert for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Victim Identified In Fiery I-65 Crash
April 7, 2015
Alabama State Troopers have released the name of the woman killled April 2 in a fiery crash on I-65 near the Flomaton exit.
The victim was identified Tuesday by troopers at 51-year old Mary Daphine Bridges of Spanish Fort, AL. She was identified with the assistance of the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. Bridges was the driver of the silver car in the foreground of the photos on this page.
Five other people were injured in the nine-vehicle crash which involved six passenger vehicles and three semi trucks in the northbound lanes.
For an earlier story and more photos, click here.
NorthEscambia.com and reader submitted photos, click to enlarge.
Century Approves Paving Project Including 12 Streets
April 7, 2015
The Century Town Council has approved resurfacing and patching a dozen streets around the town.
The total cost will be $153,122.69 to contractor Roads, Inc. The project will not be bid; the council will piggyback on an existing Escambia County contract with Roads.
The following streets will be resurfaced or patched as noted:
- Jefferson Avenue – Resurface from curve at Mincey Lane to railroad tracks – $11,467.50
- Jefferson Avenue – Patch near Carver Community Center – $696
- Robert Road — Patch – $319
- Tedder Road – Patch near fire station $1,517
- Pond Street – Resurface from Century Business Center to bridge near sewer plant – $32,817.90
- Pinewood Avenue – Resurface from Hecker to Front Street – $17,701.65
- Mayo Street – Resurface from Hecker to Front Street – $25,437
- Mayo Lane – Resurface from Mayor Street to Jefferson Avenue – $16,367
- Kelly Field Road – Pave gravel road beside railroad tracks – $6,090
- Kelly Field R0ad – Overlay section between ball field and cemetery – $6,595.65
- Kelly Field Road – Resurface from Hecker Road to ballpark gate - $8,201
- Lodge Drive – Resurface from Hecker to Front Street $12,690.70
- Wood Street – Resurface from Lodge Drive to Bradley – $4,746.85
- Hecker Road -Parch near Alger Road – $725
- Renfroe Street – Resurface from Hwy 29 to Ivey Street – $5,650.35
The contract also includes mobilization fee of $2,100. There no word yet on an exact start date.
Learn To Knit, Stitch Or Can This Month At The Molino Branch Library
April 7, 2015
Patrons can learn to knit, stitch and can this month at the Molino Branch Library.
The Twisted Stitchers Yarn Club will meet Tuesday, April 7 at 6 p.m. at the library. It’s for anyone that loves to knit, crotchet or loom knit, as participants of all ages and skill levels sit and stitch. Participants should bring their own current yard project or supplies to practice their skills.
“Canning and Food Preservation” will be presented Saturday, April 11 at 10 a.m. at the library. Attendees will learn to preserve and can jellies and jams. Knowledgeable canners will pass down the tradition that is just one step beyond cooking.
“Learn to French Knit” will be presented at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 20 at Molino Branch Library. Participant explore the basics of French knitting and loom knitting, and learn how to make their own loom using recycled materials. Space is limited, and registration is required.
For more information, or to register for the French Knit class, call the Molino Branch Library at (850) 435-1760. The Molino Library is located at 6450-A Highway 95A in the Molino Community Complex.
Palm Print Leads To Vehicle Burglary Arrest
April 7, 2015
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office says a palm print led to the arrest of a Cantonment man for vehicle burglary.
Justin Scott Martin, 21, was charged with felony burglary of a vehicle and petit theft. He was booked into the Escambia County Jail and remained there Tuesday morning with bond set at $35,000.
According to an arrest report, Martin burglarized two vehicles on Memphis Avenue, stealing cellular phone chargers and Gatorade worth a total of $55. Deputies said a part of the crime was caught on video.
A palm print left behind on the vehicle positively matched Martin, according to investigators.
Savage Steps Down As Century Council VP; Boutwell Appointed
April 7, 2015
Century Town Council member Annie Savage has relinquished her position as council vice president, citing health reasons.
The council voted Monday night to name Benjamin Boutwell as vice president. The vice president’s primary duty is to fill in and conduct meetings in the absence of Ann Brooks, the council president.
Savage, who periodically misses an entire meeting and is often late to meetings due to her health, will still retain her council seat.
Pictured: Annie Savage listens during Monday night’s meeting of the Century Town Council. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Scott Opposition To Health Expansion Adds Fuel To The Fire
April 7, 2015
Adding more drama to a $5 billion budget standoff between Republian legislative leaders, Gov. Rick Scott on Monday reversed course on his one-time support for providing health coverage for low-income Floridians as part of the federal health-care law known as Obamacare.
Scott blamed his rejection of a state Senate plan on a distrust of the federal government, the result of an apparent breakdown in negotiations between his administration and federal officials over a program that pays hospitals and health providers for unreimbursed care. The feds contribute at least $1.3 billion a year toward the Low Income Pool, or LIP, program.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last year gave the state a one-year extension on LIP — set to expire on June 30 unless Scott and federal officials reach a new agreement — but the Obama administration is unwilling to renew the program in its current form.
The Senate and Scott included $2.2 billion to cover the costs of LIP in their budget plans, but Republican House leaders did not.
To sweeten the deal for the feds, the Senate linked the revised LIP program with another $2.8 billion for the “Florida Health Insurance Affordability Exchange,” or FHIX, to pay insurance premiums for about 800,000 Floridians with incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty level. Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government would pay the state about $47 billion over the next eight years for the program. That money would come from a pot that is earmarked for Medicaid expansion across the country, though Senate officials have tried to distance their proposal from the Medicaid program.
The House has balked outright at a Medicaid expansion — or anything that looks like a Medicaid expansion — and on Monday Scott joined the chorus of Republican naysayers.
“… Given that the federal government said they would not fund the federal LIP program to the level it is funded today, it would be hard to understand how the state could take on even more federal programs that CMS could scale back or walk away from,” Scott said in a statement.
As a candidate seeking reelection to a second term, Scott gave tepid support in 2013 to a similar Senate plan but failed to campaign for the doomed proposal’s passage.
“While the federal government is committed to pay 100 percent of the cost, I cannot, in good conscience, deny Floridians the needed access to health care,” Scott, who made his fortune in the hospital industry, told reporters in February 2013.
It may not come as a surprise that Scott, who ran as a tea party “outsider” in 2010, has shifted his position on Medicaid expansion. The conservative Americans for Prosperity has targeted Republican senators, including Senate President Andy Gardiner, for supporting the issue, part of what was once considered a cornerstone of the Affordable Care Act but which the U.S. Supreme Court left up to the states in a seminal ruling upholding the federal law.
Scott’s turnaround didn’t persuade Gardiner to back down from his chamber’s proposed fix for hospitals and low-income, uninsured Floridians.
In a statement issued Monday in response to Scott, Gardiner made a veiled threat about Scott’s push for record-high public school funding and nearly $675 million in tax cuts.
“The Senate also shares the governor’s commitment to tax relief and record funding for education; however, if our state is forced to make up the difference of $2.2 billion in hospital funding, every area of our budget will be impacted,” Gardiner, R-Orlando, said. “Moving forward the Senate will continue to advance the conservative, Florida-based, free-market solutions we have proposed. We believe these innovative, bipartisan proposals can gain the approval of our federal partners, and we stand ready to meet with the House or Governor Scott at any time to discuss a way forward.”
Without telling Scott, Gardiner last week dispatched two senators to meet with federal health officials to discuss the Senate’s plans. The next day, Scott’s office announced that the Obama administration official in charge of negotiations had abruptly ended the talks. It was later learned that the lead federal negotiator, Eliot Fishman, had left the country for a long-planned trip to Israel.
Senate budget chief Tom Lee, who met with Scott and his top aides late last week, said Monday that the governor made it clear “he was no big fan of dealing with the uninsured in Florida.”
Lee likened the Legislature’s position to being in a “box canyon,” another term for a three-sided, deep ravine with only one way in or out.
“Behind us, we have the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services telling us that we don’t have a budget solution on the one hand. And we have the governor saying you can’t fix this problem using general revenue. And on the other hand, we’ve got people saying they’re re not going to talk about insuring low-income Floridians, which is part of the problem here. We have too many Floridians creating this unreimbursed care. So we’re very much in a box canyon right now,” Lee, R-Brandon, said.
A fiery speech last week by Lee’s House budget counterpart Richard Corcoran, slated to take over as House speaker after the 2016 elections, deepened the divide between the two chambers over the coverage expansion.
“We’re not dancing this session, we’re not dancing next session, we’re not dancing this summer,” Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, said before a House vote on the budget Thursday
The showdown between the two chambers, coupled with the breakdown in talks between the Scott administration and federal officials over LIP, heightens uncertainty about whether lawmakers will finalize budget negotiations before the scheduled May 1 end of the legislative session.
Politically, the House has more to lose than the Senate by caving on the Medicaid-expansion issue, said GOP strategist J.M. “Mac” Stipanovich.
“There’s only one person here who has to prevail in his position, and that’s Rep. Corcoran. Can President Gardiner not exert himself? Can he not lay waste to all the priorities of the House? Can he not show the Senate’s strength and its outrage? Of course he can. He doesn’t have to win on Medicaid. He has to be strong and purposeful and he has to punish what is a pretty flagrant breach of protocol. But he doesn’t have to win on Medicaid,” Stipanovich said.
Meanwhile, House Republicans — and Scott — are relying on the Obama administration to come up with the LIP money left out of the House spending plan.
“In an ironic way, the perception of victory for the conservatives probably lies in the hands of their arch-enemies in Washington,” Stipanovich said.
Poll Shows Heavy Support For Medical Marijuana – Again
April 7, 2015
Five months after narrowly rejecting a medical-marijuana ballot initiative, Florida voters overwhelmingly support allowing doctor-prescribed pot in the state, according to a poll released Monday.
The Quinnipiac University poll found that 84 percent of Florida voters back letting adults use medical marijuana if doctors prescribe it.
But here’s the rub: Polls in late 2013 and the first part of 2014 also showed support for medical marijuana topping 80 percent. In the November 2014, election, however, a proposed ballot initiative received about 58 percent of the vote — shy of the 60 percent needed to approve constitutional amendments.
The numbers plummeted, at least in part, because opponents spent millions of dollars on television ads warning that the ballot initiative included loopholes that could lead to widespread abuse.
The group behind the 2014 amendment, People United for Medical Marijuana, has signaled it is willing to put a revised pot initiative before voters in 2016 if lawmakers don’t approve legalization. Republican legislative leaders have largely dismissed the idea of legalizing full-blown medical marijuana, saying they want to focus on moving forward with a 2014 law that allowed a limited type of non-euphoric cannabis for certain medical conditions.
People United for Medical Marijuana would need to collect 683,149 petition signatures to get on the 2016 ballot. The state Division of Elections website indicates the group had not submitted any valid signature as of Monday morning.
The Connecticut-based Quinnipiac frequently conducts polls in Florida and other states. The latest poll of 1,087 Florida voters was conducted from March 17 to March 28.
Cantonment Winn Dixie Tops In Manna Drive
April 7, 2015
Last month, Winn Dixie stores across the area teamed up with MANNA Food Pantries to fight hunger in Northwest Florida. Customers were encouraged to donate at any store register, with every dollar benefiting MANNA Pantries and programs in the communities served by Winn Dixie.
The Winn Dixie Store in Cantonment raised over $3,000 to help MANNA fight hunger — the top store in the district.
Pictured: Winn Dixie Cantonment collects for MANNA Food Pantries. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.