Helen Ramsey Lumpkin
April 2, 2015
Helen Ramsey Lumpkin, 102, of Atmore, passed away Wednesday, April 1, 2015, in Atmore. She was owner and operator of Helen’s Beauty Shop. She was born in Indiana on May 5, 1912, to the late Hugh Lively and Lillian Coyle Ramsey.
She is preceded in death by her husband, William E. “Red” Lumpkin; siblings, Alice Mason, Roberta Holloway, Jane Turner and Ruth Allen.
Survivors are two nephews, Phillip (Sharyn) Allen of Jackson, MS and Hugh (Jeanie) Allen of Kernersville, NC; three great nieces and a host of friends.
Services will be Friday, April 3, 2015, at 10 a.m. from the First United Methodist Church of Atmore with Dr. Debora Bishop officiating.
Interment will follow in Oak Hill Cemetery.
Family will receive friends, Friday, April 3, 2015, at the First United Methodist Church of Atmore from 9 a.m. until service time.
Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home is in charge of all arrangements.
Century Partners With UWF To Develop Marketing Plan
April 1, 2015
Century is taking part in a University of West Florida program to work with UWF marketing professors to develop a marketing plan that will help the Century community develop its business assets and promote them to site selectors and companies looking to expand or relocate.
Century and the Community Economic Development Association for Escambia County are the first participants in the UWF Office of Economic Development and Engagement’s Northwest Florida Asset Valuation and Marketing Support Program.
“We are very pleased to have the Town of Century and the Community Economic Development Association partner with the UWF Department of Marketing and Economics to produce a comprehensive marketing strategy for the town,” said Brice Harris, director of strategic initiatives for OEDE. “This is exactly the type of project that we envisioned when launching the Asset Valuation and Marketing Support Program, and so we are delighted to provide funding to support this important initiative.”
Century Mayor Freddie McCall said the town is excited to work with UWF faculty.
“The town is very appreciative of these partners in helping the town to move toward achievement of its vision to be the model for rural economic redevelopment, excelling in cultivating its workforce, facilitating the growth of regional industry and enhancing the quality of life for its residents and the surrounding communities,” McCall said.
Likewise, UWF faculty members look forward to working with economic development officials in Century.
“The Town of Century has a wonderful story to tell, and we would like to help tell that story to a wider audience,” said UWF associate professor Stephen LeMay. “Century has a history, access to wilderness areas and a strong logistics infrastructure. Those things, among others, should not be secrets.”
UWF associate professor Felicia Morgan said the partnership will provide an opportunity for her to use her marketing skills to help Escambia County grow and prosper.
“The Town of Century and the area around it hold so much potential for human and economic development, and I hope that our work on the marketing plan will be a spark for that engine,” she said. “In short, this is simply an incredibly worthwhile endeavor that I think will be both challenging and fun.”
Century has much that makes it an attractive place to grow or expand a business, said UWF professor Scott Keller.
“It is clear that the Town of Century has many jewels that when promoted to the public will be of great interest to a variety of consumer and industrial target market segments,” Keller said. “It is a pleasure to collaborate with the people of Century, and help the city build a successful marketing plan.”
Launched in February, the $250,000 Northwest Florida Asset Valuation and Marketing Support Program provides participants with funding to help offset the cost of hiring UWF faculty, staff and students to conduct market studies, create promotional campaigns and deliver other services that enhance the marketability of locales and geography-based assets in Northwest Florida.
Individual awards can be no larger than $20,000, and participating organizations must contribute at least $1 for every dollar awarded through the program.
The program is not open to for-profit organizations. OEDE will continue to accept applications until all the money allocated to the program is used.
Texting While Driving Targeted In Florida Senate
April 1, 2015
A Senate committee Tuesday narrowly approved two bills that would strengthen the state’s ban on texting while driving. The Senate Communications, Energy and Public Utilities Committee voted 5-3 to approve the bills by Sen. Thad Altman, R-Rockledge, and by Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach.
Both bills would lead to enforcement of texting while driving as a “primary” offense — meaning police could pull over motorists for texting behind the wheel. Currently, police can only cite motorists for texting while driving if they are pulled over for other reasons. The bills were considered separately because Sachs’ proposal also would double fines for texting while driving in school zones or at designated school crossings.
“Texting and driving kills people,” Sachs said. “That’s the bottom line.”
The committee, however, voted 5-3 to reject a proposal by Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, that would make it a felony if motorists are texting while driving and cause fatal accidents. Also, the committee approved a proposal by Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, that would ban the use of cell phones while driving in school zones, at designated school crossings or on school-district property.
House versions of the Altman, Sachs and Thompson bills have been filed but have not been heard in committees.
by The News Service of Florida
Florida House Keeps Guns, Ammo In Proposed Sales Tax Holiday
April 1, 2015
Guns and ammunition remain in a proposed Independence Day sales-tax holiday on hunting gear that is part of a wide-ranging tax cut package that advanced Tuesday in the House.
In supporting the $690 million tax-cut package (PCB FTC 15-05), the House Finance & Tax Committee rejected efforts by Democrats to remove firearms and ammo from a proposed one-day sales tax holiday for July 4. Also, it rejected a separate amendment to remove a tax exemption on admissions and membership fees for gun clubs.
The tax package, which is expected to next go to the House Appropriations Committee, awaits a Senate counter offer.
“I think we’ve got a great broad-based tax package that’s going to help millions of Floridians, all 20 million of them,” said House Finance & Tax Chairman Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach.
Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami, sought to remove firearms and ammo from the Independence Day tax holiday. He said the proposal sends mixed messages, as law enforcement will be telling people at the same time not to fire guns into the air.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that it really is a bad policy when we have law enforcement expending resources to address a public safety issue and in our tax code he have the exact opposite incentive and we’re encouraging people to purchase ammunition for the holiday,” Rodriguez said.
But Rep. Frank Artiles, R-Miami, said the proposal could help increase tourism by promoting hunting and fishing in the state.
In addition to rifles, shotguns, spearguns, crossbows, and bows, the July 4 sales-tax event would cover camping tents and fishing gear.
“While I understand my Democratic colleagues don’t like firearms and ammunition, the reality is that fish hooks also kill fish,” Artiles told Rodriguez. “But apparently fish are not important to you.”
National Rifle Association lobbyist Marion Hammer called the Fourth of July tax holiday “tremendously appropriate.”
“On Independence Day honoring our founding fathers, who used firearms and ammunition to purchase our freedom, is not only symbolic, it is a tribute to the patriots who carried firearms and ammunition against our enemies and built our new nation,” Hammer said.
The committee, in being asked to consider 15 amendments to the tax plan, agreed to a couple of minor changes, including one that would maintain a tax credit for groups such as Habitat for Humanity and Building Homes for Heroes when those projects are within areas of former enterprise zones.
Lawmakers are allowing the reauthorization of enterprise zones to die at the state level, Artiles said.
The Senate, which continues to review individual bills offering tax cuts and business incentives, has held off on introducing a tax package as Florida continues to negotiate with the federal government over funding for the Low Income Pool program. The program helps pay for health care for low-income and uninsured patients.
Katie Betta, a spokeswoman for the Senate President Andy Gardiner, said in an email Tuesday that no timetable has been set for the Senate’s tax-cut package.
The House tax-cut proposal is $17 million larger than a $673 million package requested by Gov. Rick Scott. Both packages are highlighted by a Scott proposal to reduce taxes on cell-phone and pay-TV bills by 3.6 percentage points.
The House package also includes such moves as eliminating sales taxes on college textbooks and cutting a tax on commercial-real estate leases from 6 percent to 5.8 percent.
The package also would lead to a three-day period starting July 31 when back-to-school shoppers would be able to avoid paying sales taxes on clothes and other school-related items. Also, the House has proposed a small-business tax holiday two days after Thanksgiving.
by The News Service of Florida
Mira Awards Honor Escambia County’s Most Creative High School Seniors
April 1, 2015
About 70 of Escambia County’s most creative high school seniors were honored recently during the 2015 Mira Creative Arts Awards Banquet at New World Landing.
Mira Creative Arts Awards recipients were nominated for the award by their high school teachers and will receive commemorative engraved medallions as well as Certificates of Special Congressional Recognition from Congressman Jeff Miller.
Northview High School
- Autumn Leanna Ates, Visual Arts
- Tristan Brown, Theatre
- Ryan Chavers, Prose Writing
- Desiree Elliard, Prose Writing
- Julie Hester, Dance
- Jessica L. McCullough, Graphic Design
- Natassja Scott, Visual Arts
- Shania Lynn Ward, Graphic Design
- Tristan Williams, Instrumental Music
Tate High School
- Sarah Colburn, Instrumental Music
- Chandler Cotton, Instrumental Music
- Reema Eqab, Fine Arts
- Jamie Hendren, Vocal Music
- Jacob Howard, Instrumental Music
- Abreona Nixon, Mock Trial
- Gabriele Pyron, Visual Arts
- Kara Rhodes, Photo Journalism
- Jessica Roser, Ceramics
- Kristin Wheeler, Drama
West Florida High School
- Delaney Anderson, Journalism
- Ashley Cobb, Theatre
- Addie Leah Davila, Graphic/Digital Design
- Katarina Dombek. Visual Arts
- Lewis Elliott, Musical Theatre
- Antonio (Kai) Estrada, Photography
- Dalton Kristopher Merritt, Instrumental Music
- Hannah Power, Visual Arts
- Kaitlyn Tran, Graphic/Digital Design
- Devin Walker, Instrumental Music
Pine Forest High School
- Taylor Erdman, Carpentry
- Jada Espinoza, Design Services
- Alesandra Fatcheric, Visual Arts
- Ashley Frye, Vocal Music
- Nathan Kirk, Visual Arts
- Tyler Meatte, Instrumental Music
- Bekah Potter, Yearbook
- Destiny Redd, Technical Theatre
- Shayanne Ridenour, Theatre
- Alyssa Webb, TV Production
Escambia High School
- Ryan Berg, Instrumental Music
- Charlotte Blessing, Digital Media
- Drew Coats, Visual Arts
- Holly Coker, Vocal Music
- Savannah Daw, Yearbook
- Melvini’Quie Gordon, Visual Arts
- Evan Dawn Harris, Theatre
- Josh Johnson, Instrumental Music
- Johnathan Pierce, Instrumental Music
- Kirsten Serene White-Wood, Culinary Arts
Pensacola High School
- Erik Blount-Douglas, Instrumental Music
- Claire Escobedo, Visual Arts
- Matthew Ferguson, Drama
- Chelsea Gay, Instrumental Music
- Dana Jaalouk, Photography
- Caroline Johnson, Instrumental Music
- Elizabeth Parra, Visual Arts
- Heather Sartain, Creative Achievement
- Anne Schultz, Drama
- Nigel Walden, Drama
Washington High School
- Kaleb Broom, Instrumental Music
- Aleina delaCruz, Drama
- Samantha Marie Johnna Earley, Visual Arts
- Hallie Rana Friedman, Drama
- Allison Leigh Fuller, TV Production
- A. J. Pryor, Vocal Music
- Stephanie Rosemore, Visual Arts
- Alicia Katherine Diane Umbreit, Vocal Music
- Natalie Williams, Nonfiction Writing
- Avion Wright, Instrumental Music
In 1987, a group of teachers at J. M. Tate High School created the Mira Awards to recognize talented and creative students in the arts and sciences. The following year, the committee approached the Escambia County Public Schools Foundation to bring the awards under its umbrella and to initiate county-wide student participation each year in the areas of writing, performing and visual arts, and other creative disciplines. The term “Mira” is Latin for the name of the brightest star in the constellation Cetus.
Pictured top: Mira Award winners from Tate High School. Pictured below: Northview High School Mira winners. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Health Department To Offer Immunization Clinics For Kids In Century And Molino
April 1, 2015
Mark your calendars….the Florida Department of Health Escambia County will hold three walk-in immunization clinics for children ages six weeks to 18 years in Molino and Century.
The clinics will be held at the Molino Service Center at 3470 Highway 29 on Thursday, April 23 and Thursday, May 21 from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., and Wednesday, June 17 from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. at Healthy Start in Century, 501 Church Street.
For more information call (850) 595-6500 ext. 1700.
Fog Possible Overnight
April 1, 2015
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Wednesday Night
Patchy fog after 1am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low around 58. Southwest wind around 5 mph.
Thursday
Partly sunny, with a high near 83. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
Thursday Night
Partly cloudy, with a low around 61. South wind around 5 mph.
Friday
Mostly sunny, with a high near 84. South wind 5 to 10 mph increasing to 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon.
Friday Night
A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 58. South wind around 10 mph becoming west after midnight.
Saturday
Partly sunny, with a high near 68. North wind 10 to 15 mph.
Saturday Night
Partly cloudy, with a low around 46. North wind 5 to 10 mph.
Sunday
Mostly sunny, with a high near 71.
Sunday Night
A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 59.
Monday
A 30 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 80.
Monday Night
A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 60.
Tuesday
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 84.
State Colleges No More?
April 1, 2015
The battle over how far Florida colleges should be allowed to go in offering four-year degrees, once largely the responsibility of state universities, has spawned a new effort to more strictly limit those opportunities.
The newest measure is sponsored by Sen. Joe Negron, a Stuart Republican who could become Senate president after the 2016 elections and has worked before to limit college offerings that he says overlap with what four-year universities already provide.
“One of my goals over the next several years is to make our good universities great,” Negron said. “And you can’t find the funding to do that when you have unnecessary duplication of effort.”
Under Negron’s proposal, which was attached to an existing measure on higher education (SB 1252), colleges would have to give notice a year before they expect to start offering new four-year degrees, up from 60 days in the current law. It would cap at 5 percent the share of a college’s enrollment that could be made up of students pursuing baccalaureate degrees.
And in a shot to the marketing of the colleges — which used to be called “community colleges” — the institutions would no longer be allowed to use “state” in their names. Sixteen colleges would have their names changed to comply with that rule, in addition to Florida Gateway College being renamed Lake City College.
Negron said that part of the proposal would refocus the colleges on their regional missions. Each state college has an area of the state which it is supposed to serve spelled out in state law.
“As far as the use of the term ’state,’ it’s a misleading, inaccurate term,” he said. “When you say ‘Florida State College,’ that college does not serve all of Florida, it does not serve all the state.”
There has long been tension between colleges, which are overseen by the State Board of Education, and universities, which are managed by the Florida Board of Governors, about whether the Board of Education is too quick to grant four-year degrees to its institutions.
Last year, when he chaired the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, Negron threatened to slash $3.5 million from state colleges and give it to universities to try to force a change. Senators also considered taking away the Board of Education’s authority over four-year degrees.
Eventually, lawmakers settled on a moratorium on new four-year programs at state colleges.
Negron’s new proposal would do away with that moratorium, as would a House bill (HB 7127) approved Tuesday by the House Education Appropriations Subcommittee. However, the House measure doesn’t have Negron’s further language about the colleges and four-year degrees.
A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education said through email that officials there “prefer to not comment on proposed legislation since it may change.”
Jim Henningsen, president of the College of Central Florida, speaking to a Senate committee last week on behalf of college presidents, said colleges were focused on the narrow goal of the original authority for them to offer four-year programs.
“Our goal in our system is to support exactly as you stated, that regional approach to economic development, workforce training in those areas. … There are some (situations) where universities as well as the colleges work together and find a baccalaureate solution that was needed for that specific region,” he said.
But there have been some concerns raised about the enrollment cap, which Negron has conceded might need to be modified. St. Petersburg College, which was one of the earliest schools to offer four-year degrees, now has about 12 percent of its students enrolled in those programs, according to senators.
Negron said he would be open to language capping that school’s four-year enrollment at 15 percent, along with other levels for colleges that already have more than 5 percent of their students pursuing those degrees. Institutions with less than 5 percent of their students in those programs might still face the lower cap.
Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, said he doesn’t want the proposal to come across as adversarial, highlighting especially the impact of striking “state” from the names of the colleges.
“That means that the students are the ones that end up bearing the brunt of this,” he said.
But Negron said he doesn’t believe the institutions would lose any prestige under his proposal, which would change the name of the system to the Florida Community College System but would give the schools themselves names without that term, like Daytona College.
“To me, let’s agree on the place of the community colleges in our overall educational system,” he said.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Northview Beats PCA; Jay Gets Four-Homer Win Over Holmes
April 1, 2015
BASEBALL
Northview 12, PCA 1
The varsity Northview Chiefs beat Pensacola Christian Academy in Pensacola Tuesday 12-1. The Chiefs will take a week break before their next game on April 7 as they host the Jay Royals in a district game.
SOFTBALL
Jay 7, Holmes County 5
Destiny Herring and Samantha Steadham each had a home run for the Royals, and Emily Dobson had two including a two-run homer for the win in the seventh. Herring pitched seven for Jay, striking out three. The Royals will travel to Baker on Thursday.
Pictured: Northview at Pensacola Christian Tuesday. NorthEscambia.com photos by Ramona Preston, click to enlarge.
Governor Appoints Two To PSC Board Of Trustees
April 1, 2015
Tueday, Governor Rick Scott announced the appointments of Patrick Dawson and Kevin Lacz to the Pensacola State College District Board of Trustees.
Dawson, 49, of Milton, is the general manager of G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc Pensacola. He is a retired command sergeant major with the United States Army Military Police. Dawson currently serves as a board member for Santa Rosa Kid’s House. He received his bachelor’s degree from Baker College. He succeeds John O’Connor and is appointed for a term beginning March 31, 2015, and ending May 31, 2017.
Lacz, 33, of Gulf Breeze, is a physician assistant for Regenesis LLC. He was a platoon sniper, breacher, and combat medic with the United States Navy SEAL Team 3. Lacz received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut and his master’s degree from Wake Forest University. He succeeds Stephania Wilson and is appointed for a term beginning March 31, 2015, and ending May 31, 2018.
The appointments are subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.