Century Still Seeking Slogan Suggestions
February 12, 2015
The Town of Century is still looking to the public for a help in finding a new identity, and there’s still just a day left to make suggestions.
The town is accepting new slogan ideas through February 13, with the town council to consider a winner at their regular meeting on February 16. Century Mayor Freddie McCall is personally contributing a $50 prize for the winner.
The town council has previously voted to eventually remove “Welcome to Century” signs that welcome visitors into Century from the north and south on Highway 29. The signs, dedicated two years ago, were built by Century Correctional Institution and feature a giant saw blade with the town’s most recent slogan “The Dawn of a New Century.”
“Our image needs to change,” Century Mayor Freddie McCall said recently, noting that the town’s sawmill has been closed for over 50 years. “We are not a sawmill town anymore.” He said the signs would be donated to the local Alger Sullivan Historical Society for use in their museum.
To submit a slogan idea for the Town of Century, click here for an entry form.
The change is coming after a recommendation from Brice Harris of the University of West Florida’s Haas Center, author of the town’s new strategic plan.
NorthEscambia.com photos.
Cold Blast: Low To Mid 20’s Tonight
February 12, 2015
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Thursday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 24. North wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Friday Sunny, with a high near 49. Wind chill values between 15 and 25 early. North wind around 5 mph.
- Friday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 28. West wind around 5 mph.
- Saturday Sunny, with a high near 64. West wind around 5 mph.
- Saturday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 35. West wind around 5 mph becoming north after midnight.
- Sunday Sunny, with a high near 50. North wind around 10 mph.
- Sunday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 31. Northeast wind around 5 mph.
- Washington’s Birthday A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 56.
- Monday Night A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Cloudy, with a low around 51.
- Tuesday A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 68.
- Tuesday Night A 40 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 40.
- Wednesday A 20 percent chance of rain. Mostly sunny, with a high near 48.
Three Winning Tickets In $564 Million Powerball Drawing
February 12, 2015
There were three winning tickets sold in North Carolina, Texas and Puerto Rico in Wednesday night’s $564 million Powerball lottery drawing — one of the country’s largest prizes in history. The tickets matched the winning numbers 11, 13, 25, 39, 54 with a Powerball of 19.
The odds at winning with a single ticket were estimated at 175 million to one.
The Powerball is played in 44 states, but Alabama does not participate. That led to a steady stream of hopeful winners at lottery retailers on Highway 97 south of Atmore Wednesday afternoon and into the evening.
Pictured: A billboard just a few feet into Florida teases a $500 million jackpot to those driving into Florida early Wednesday afternoon on Highway 97 from Atmore, AL. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Escambia County Offers Cold Weather Safety Tips: Pets, Plants, Pipes And More
February 12, 2015
With temperatures expected to drop well below freezing tonight, Escambia County residents should prepare their family, pets and home for the extreme cold. Considerable attention should be provided to people performing outdoor activities to make sure they have the appropriate layered clothing on to protect themselves from the near zero degree wind chill. Parents need to provide special consideration to those children waiting at school bus stop in the morning and making sure that children cover exposed skin and dress in layers.
Escambia County offers the following cold weather safety tips:
Protecting People
- Stay indoors, dress warmly and use safe heating sources.
- Guard against wind chill – One of the gravest dangers of winter weather is wind chill. The wind chill is based on the rate of heat loss from exposed skin by combined effects of wind and cold. As the wind increases, heat is carried away from the body at an accelerated rate, driving down the body temperature. Animals are also effected by wind chill.
Pets
- Do not leave pets out in the cold.
- Bring all pets indoors and make sure they have a warm blanket to lie on, as well as plenty of food and water.
- If pets must stay outdoors, provide a pet house or other type of shelter and line the bottom with plenty of blankets or hay along with extra food and water. Try installing a light bulb flood light in the pet house at a safe distance away from the pet to avoid burns. The heat from the bulb will help keep them warm. However, do not use light bulbs when bedding with hay.
Pipes
Water expands when it freezes and can shatter pipe seals or the pipes themselves, sending water pouring through your house if ice forms. You can avoid thousands of dollars of damage to your home by taking a few simple measures to protect your home:
- Use faucet covers, wrap rags, paper, trash bags or plastic foam around faucets and outdoor pipes.
- Cover any vents around your home´s foundation.
- Protect outdoor electrical pumps and bring water hoses indoors.
- Open the cabinets under the sinks in your kitchen and bathrooms to allow heated indoor air to circulate around water pipes.
- Insulate your outdoor water meter box and be sure its lid is secure.
- If you have a swimming pool, either drain the circulation system or keep the pump motor running. Run the pump motor only in a short freeze. Running the motor for long periods could cause damage.
- Let faucets drip, but do not run a big stream of water.
- If you leave town, consider turning off your water at the shut-off valve while faucets are running to drain your pipes. Make sure the faucets are turned off before you turn the shut-off valve back on.
- If you drain your pipes, contact your electric or gas utility for instructions on protecting your water heater.
If Pipes Freeze
- Turn off the water at the shut-off valve and call a plumber for help.
- Do not use lamps or electrical appliances to thaw frozen pipes. Leaking water from thawing pipes could cause a short and you can be electrocuted.
- If you try to thaw your own pipes, apply heat slowly, and move the heat toward the coldest spot on the pipe. Never concentrate heat in one spot – cracking ice can shatter a pipe.
Practice Fire Safety
- Use extra care with supplemental heating units.
- Make sure that all-combustible materials such as drapes or chairs are at least three feet away from any heating unit.
- Avoid using flammable liquids to start fireplaces and do not leave a fireplace unattended.
- Most importantly, check your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to make sure they are working properly.
Plants
- Water your plants thoroughly. The water will act as an insulator. Dry plants are more susceptible to freezing.
- After watering, cover plants with a breathable material, such as fabric not plastic.
- Place mulch at the base of your plants and do not prune prior to a freeze. Pruning encourages soft growth, which is susceptible to freezing. Spraying the leaves of plants with liquid seaweed will also toughen them against cold.
ECSO To Honor Jail Explosion Heroes, Other Deputies
February 12, 2015
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office will hold its annual award ceremony today during which several deputies will receive the Medal of Courage for rescues during the flooding and jail explosion last April.
Escambia County Jail employee Kelley Bradford will be recognized with the Civilian Gold Medal of Honor, and Chris Hankinson will be honored with the law enforcement Purple Heart. Hankinson was paralyzed as a result of the natural gas explosion, while Bradford is credited for saving his life.
Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Atmore’s Traffic Nightmare: Most Railroad Crossings Closed For Another Week
February 12, 2015
Traffic has been a nightmare in Atmore for the past several days, and the delays are set to continue as most of the city’s railroad crossings remain closed.
CSX is currently upgrading and repairing railroad crossings in Atmore, with six of eight crossings closed. According to the Atmore Police Department, railroad crossings are closed at Industrial Drive, Swift Street, Wilson Avenue, Trammell Street, Presley Street and Martin Luther King Drive.
The only crossings currently open are Main Street and Second Avenue, which are slated to close February 18 if all other crossing repairs are completed by that date.
Thursday morning about 8:00 a.m., a three block trip across the tracks at the Main Street intersection took our photographer about 25 minutes. And drivers — or even emergency vehicles — can’t even think about hopping across the tracks at one of the closed crossings because they are physically blocked by piles of asphalt.
NorthEscambia.com has contacted CSX for comment on this story, and we are awaiting a response.
Pictured top and inset: Approaching the Main Street crossing in Atmore Thursday morning, and even waiting on a slow moving train (top). Pictured below: Crossings, like this one at Industrial Drive, are closed and blocked by piles of asphalt. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge
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Lawsuit Filed Over Florida Dept. Of Corrections Gag Order
February 12, 2015
Six whistleblowers are suing the Florida Department of Corrections over a “gag order” issued by Secretary Julie Jones that they say violates state and federal law.
The legal challenge was filed Tuesday, one day before Jones told a Florida House panel the directive was necessary to shut down gossip and protect investigators.
Last week, Jones issued a staff “confidentiality agreement” barring inspectors from disclosing information about investigations to anyone except “those who have a need to know and only in connection with the official business of the Office of the Inspector General.” Violation of the policy could result in immediate firing.
The lawsuit was filed by six investigators who work for the agency’s inspector general, an official who answers to Gov. Rick Scott’s inspector general, Melinda Miguel. Miguel refused to grant four of the investigators whistleblower status last year, which prompted them to file a separate legal challenge claiming they were being retaliated against after exposing cover-ups involving the death of an inmate at a Panhandle prison.
On Wednesday, Jones defended her directive after being questioned about it during an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee.
Jones said she met with Department of Corrections Inspector General Jeffery Beasley in December prior to taking over her post and asked him if he had whistleblower complaints and if the whistleblowers claimed they were being retaliated against. His answer to both questions was yes, she said. She also said Beasley told her he did not have confidentiality agreements with the inspectors.
Jones, a veteran law-enforcement officer who previously headed the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and came out of retirement at Scott’s behest to take over the embattled corrections agency last month, said that such agreements are the norm in other agencies. The ban on disclosing information about investigations helps protect inspectors who may be pressured by more senior staff, she indicated.
“You have an inspector that has no specific rank is investigating presumed wrongdoing inside the institution. Someone of rank walks up and asks, ‘So what are you doing? What’s going on? Who are you investigating?’ And that individual needs to go look back and rely on a confidentiality agreement to say, ‘I can’t talk to you about that’ and feel real good about it,” she said. “Even in situations that are unfounded, you don’t want gossip. You don’t want water-cooler talk. You don’t want anyone talking, ‘I investigated so-and-so. Guess what they were accused of doing.’ It’s not professional … .”
But she conceded at least one misstep regarding the issuance of the directive, which came just two days after a Senate panel grilled Beasley.
“The timing was terrible. I just decided it’s just time to rip the Band-aid off and go forward. It was not intended as a gag order. It does not keep those investigators from collaborating on information,” Jones told the House panel on Wednesday, adding that the agreement also does not prohibit investigators from speaking to lawmakers. “So it was more or less, I think a good housekeeping piece toward how do you guarantee someone’s safety and their integrity when they come forward with concerns and keep that information confidential.”
In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, the inspectors’ lawyer, Steven Andrews, argued that Jones exceeded her authority by requiring the confidentiality agreement because Florida law requires that inspectors general offices be independent of agency oversight or control.
Andrews in the lawsuit also accused Jones of, among other things, misusing her position by trying to keep the inspectors from exposing wrongdoing at Florida prisons. One of the inspectors in the lawsuit described the directive as a “virtual gag order.”
“It is clear that the Staff Member Confidentiality Agreement was enacted to confer a special benefit or privilege on Inspector General’s such that they are prohibited from reporting misconduct outside of the agency including staffing of institutions below critical needs standards and ongoing prisoner abuse,” Andrews wrote.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Gulf Power Turning To Oklahoma Wind For Power
February 12, 2015
Gulf Power Company is turning to the Oklahoma wind as a power source for Northwest Florida.
Wednesday, Gulf Power filed a petition asking the Florida Public Service Commission to approve an agreement that would make the utility a leading purchaser of wind generation among Florida utilities. The agreement would be the first of its kind in the state.
The project, called Kingfisher Wind, would be sited in Piedmont, OK, where conditions are favorable for wind energy.
“Kingfisher Wind will help Gulf Power add renewable generation that makes environmental and economic sense,” said Jeff Rogers, Corporate Communications manager. “Smart renewables, like Kingfisher Wind, are cost-effective for customers.”
With FPSC approval, the projected commercial operation date of Kingfisher Wind would be by December 31. The project includes 89 wind turbines and could supply 180 megawatts — enough energy to power approximately 50,700 homes per year.
“Kingfisher Wind, if approved, would represent approximately 5 percent of our projected energy mix,” said Rogers. “Wind power helps diversify the power supply and Kingfisher Wind is projected to provide lower overall energy costs.”
This wind project would be Gulf Power’s fifth renewable energy project following the Perdido Landfill Gas-to-Energy Facility, which has produced more than 100 million kilowatt hours of electricity since 2010, and three solar energy projects that will begin construction in February 2016 if approved by the FPSC.
Gulf Power announced in January that the utility is partnering with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force to build solar energy farms at three different facilities across Northwest Florida.
If approved by the FPSC, the solar energy farms will be constructed at Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach (30 megawatts), Holley Field in Navarre (40 megawatts) and Saufley Field in Pensacola (50 megawatts) and could be in service as early as December 2016.
“Adding alternative energy facilities to our energy portfolio mix takes a large amount of careful planning to ensure we provide our customers with what they want and need — renewable energy that diversifies our power supply while remaining cost-effective,” Rogers said.
Pictured: Turbines representative of the type that will be constructed for the Kingfisher Wind project if approved by the FPSC. Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
One Critically Injured In Flomaton Bridge Crash
February 12, 2015
One person was critically injured in a three-vehicle crash on the Big Escambia Creek Bridge on Highway 31 in Flomaton just before 5:00 Wednesday afternoon.
A 40-year old woman was transported by ambulance as a “trauma alert” to the McDavid Station of Escambia Fire Rescue and then airlifted by LifeFlight to a Pensacola Hospital. Authorities said she was in the driver’s seat of a pickup that was either stopped or moving slowly with mechanical problems on the bridge. Two other vehicles were involved in the rear-end, chain reaction type crash. There were no other serious injuries reported.
Reader submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Vendors Needed: Blue Jacket Jamboree Returns March 7
February 12, 2015
The annual Blue Jacket Jamboree is returning to Northview High School on Saturday, March 7, and local vendors are needed to sell their wares.
Interested craft vendors should contact Linda Till at (850) 572-1076 or Pam Kleinatland at (850) 712-6267. Food vendors should contact Kleinatland or Angus Brewton at (850) 256-5831.
The Blue Jacket Jamboree will be held on the campus of Northview High School from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on March 7. Admission is free for the event, which will include arts, crafts, food, a car show and entertainment.
NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.