No Injuries In Molino Crash
June 14, 2016
There were no serious injuries in a two vehicle crash Tuesday morning on Highway 99 at Molino Road. The accident involved a passenger vehicle and a pickup hauling a loaded horse trailer. The horse also did not suffer any serious injuries. The accident remains under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol. The Molino and Cantonment stations of Escambia Fire Rescue and Escambia County EMS also responded. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Update: Driver Cited After Log Truck Overturns In Century
June 14, 2016
The driver was cited after a log truck overturned in Century Monday afternoon, shutting down North Century Boulevard.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, 66-year old Ronald Edward Crutchfield of Brewton was traveling north in the outside lane of North Century Boulevard near Jackson Street just before 5 p.m.. As he rounded a curve in the roadway, the weight of his load shifted to the right side, causing the vehicle to overturn as it exited the curve.
Crutchfield suffered minor injuries and was transported to D.W. McMillan Hospital in Brewton. He was cited by the FHP for careless driving.
Power lines were downed by the accident across North Century Boulevard, closing all four lanes of the highway. Gulf Power initially reported 24 customers without power following the crash.
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NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Century Council Discusses Transportation Wish List With State
June 14, 2016
When Highway 29, the main artery through your town, is closed due to an overturned truck and downed power lines, it makes it a bit easier to explain transportation needs to the state.
“Right now, Highway 29 is shut down because another big truck has wrecked in that curve,” Mayor Freddie McCall said. “That curve needs to be fixed.”
Tuesday evening, the Century Town Council met with Virgie Bowen of the Florida Department of Transportation to discuss the department’s Five-Year Plan — a tentative work plan for fiscal years 2017-2021. As the meeting was going on, the clean up was continuing on Highway 29 near Jackson street after a log truck overturned in a curve and hit a power pole. [Click here for more on the accident.]
“The elevation is wrong in the outside lane,” McCall told Bowen about the curve. Several trucks have overturned in the curve over the past several years, including a peanut truck a few years ago that damaged a city sewage system lift station. The station was rebuilt mostly underground to lessen or prevent future damage.
Bowen also heard a request that the state consider a parking or signage for tourists that stop for photos with the “Welcome to Florida” sign on Highway 29 at the state line. Sometimes, McCall said, tourists will stop in the travel lanes of Highway 29, turn on their emergency flashers and get out for a photo.
Bowen discussed a FDOT Transportation Alternative Program that would fund projects such as sidewalks on roadways that are not state highways. The council discussed the possible need for a sidewalk along West Highway 4, a county road within the town limits, from Highway 29 past Industrial Boulevard to a local dialysis center. A community center, nursing home, church, numerous residences and a large apartment complex are along the roadway, leading to a large number of pedestrians.
Members of the Century Town Council additionally complained about speeders on Highway 29 through the town. They acknowledged that they often see the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office actively enforcing speed limits, and they questioned in a portable radar-speed sign might be available that would display a driver’s speed compared to the legal speed limit.
The council’s requests will be compiled by Bowen, and she will return for a June 20 meeting with the council.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
State Fire Marshal Investigating Bluff Springs Travel Trailer Fire
June 14, 2016
The Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of a fire that destroyed a travel trailer Monday night.
The unoccupied trailer in the Bluff Springs Campground in the 900 block of Bluff Springs Road was fully involved when the first fire units arrived on scene. It was a total loss.
There were no injuries reported.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Three Inmates Stabbed At Holman Prison
June 14, 2016
Three inmates were stabbed this past weekend at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections.
A correctional officer found an inmate that had been stabbed about 10:20 Saturday night. That inmate was transported to an area hospital. About 3:30 a.m. Sunday, two other inmates were stabbed. One inmate was treated in the infirmary at the prison, the other was transported to a Mobile hospital for treatment.
Further details have not been released by the Alabama DOC.
Woman Sentenced For ‘Brutal’ Murder Of Stepfather
June 14, 2016
A young woman accused of the 2014 murder of her stepfather near Munson has been sentenced.
Taylor Lynn Crongeyer was sentenced Monday to three years in prison to be followed by one year of community control and two years probation. She will get credit for 18 months that she has already served in jail.
She pleaded guilty last month to a lesser charge of second degree manslaughter, claiming that she was physically abused. Prosecutors said she shot 40-year Aubrey Dewayne Cooley who was found dead December 26, 2014, with a gunshot wound to his head at his Dale Hall Road home. He was tied to the trailer hitch of a pickup truck with a rope around his ankles.
When deputies arrived on scene, Crongeyer, who was 18 at the time, exited the residence with a large amount of blood on her clothing, according to an arrest report. When deputies walked through the residence, they found blood spots on the floor, a bedroom mattress and outside on the front and back porch areas. They also found a rifle on the floor at the foot of a bed in the master bedroom.
A spokesman for the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office called incident a “brutal homicide”, arresting Crongeyer just hours after the shooting.
Warm, Rainy Pattern Continues
June 14, 2016
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Tuesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 90. West wind around 5 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon.
Tuesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 74. Southwest wind around 5 mph.
Wednesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 91. Southwest wind around 5 mph.
Wednesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 74. Southwest wind around 5 mph.
Thursday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 92. West wind around 5 mph.
Thursday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 76. Southwest wind around 5 mph.
Friday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 94. West wind 5 to 10 mph.
Friday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 74. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming northwest after midnight.
Saturday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 89.
Saturday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 69.
Sunday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 86.
Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 68.
Monday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 86.
FWC Law Enforcement Report
June 14, 2016
The Florida FWC Division of Law Enforcement reported the following activity during the weekly period ending June 9 in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
Throughout the week, Officer Lewis made 14 arrests in Blackwater River State Forest for possession of not more than 20 grams of cannabis, possession of drug paraphernalia and a felony warrant. Officer Lewis also issued various citations and warnings for forestry violations including operating vehicles off the established roads, possessing alcoholic beverages where prohibited, and possessing glass containers in or around waterways.
Officer Hutchinson assisted Lieutenant Berryman after a fleeing driver of a stolen vehicle attempted to elude capture by speeding on the interstate before fleeing on foot. He was spotted hiding in a nearby hotel and taken into custody. A search of the car revealed crack cocaine and various drug paraphernalia. The man stated that he swallowed a bag of heroin and was taken to a local hospital for medical attention. He spent the next several days talking to various officers that maintained a watch over him. He admitted to taking the vehicle from a friend to go and buy heroin. He stated that he was shooting up during the pursuit and admitted to being heavily intoxicated and under the influence of drugs. After being medically cleared, the man was transported to jail where he was booked for possession of cocaine, fleeing and eluding, and grand theft. Additional charges of DUI and reckless driving are pending.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY
(No report was submitted this week from 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.
Learn How To Do Business With ECUA At Workshop
June 14, 2016
This Wednesday, the Florida Procurement Technical AssistanceCenter (PTAC), will offer a free workshop entitled, “How to do Business with the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority” (ECUA). The event will be held at the University of West Florida, Innovation Institute, 321 N. DeVilliers Street, Suite 308, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
The informational meeting will educate attendees about the potential of doing business with the Authority, while increasing participation in obtaining future contracts. Participants will learn about the bidding process, qualification requirements, future business opportunities, and how the ECUA hiring process is conducted.
The featured speakers will include; Bill Johnson, ECUA director of engineering, Tony Howard, ECUA senior purchasing agent, and Chiquita Payne, ECUA human resource generalist.
The workshop is free; however, pre-registration is recommended. For additional information contact Laura Subel, PTAC procurement specialist, lsubel@uwf.edu (850) 474-2549 or register at clientsfloridasbdc.org/center.
Leaders After Massacre: ‘Tears Are Not Enough”
June 14, 2016
Walking through a Chicago airport on Sunday, it wasn’t merely the horrific massacre of 49 clubgoers at a gay bar in Orlando earlier that morning that reduced Christian Ulvert to tears.
It was how he heard a couple of fellow travelers characterizing the event.
“They said it was such a tragic event, but at least it wasn’t a school where children were, it was a club where gays hung out,” Ulvert, a gay Democratic political consultant told The News Service of Florida in a telephone interview Monday. “That was a very painful moment. It was very hard to hold back the tears.”
The shooting deaths of 49 people, many of them Hispanic, at Pulse, a popular gay nightclub in downtown Orlando, has sparked outrage, grief and a global outpouring of support for the LGBT community.
Federal authorities say gunman Omar Mateen, 29, acted alone, but, in the words of President Barack Obama, was “radicalized” by Islamic terrorists via the internet.
In the short time since the event, much of the analysis has focused on Mateen’s links with terrorists.
But while reeling from the worst mass shooting in the nation’s history, many LGBT people throughout Florida, and the nation, feel they’re being ignored.
“I think it’s pretty much gone viral that our political leaders not only in Florida but throughout the country need to say the words that this was an attack on our gay community,” said Ulvert, a Miami resident who has been married to his husband, Carlos Andrade, for three years. “You have to say those words.”
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Sunday, Obama called the tragedy that brutalized Orlando “an act of terror and an act of hate” that was “especially heartbreaking for all of our friends … who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.”
In his remarks to the media, Gov. Rick Scott has talked about terrorism and expressed sorrow for the victims and their families. But he has avoided references to the gay or LGBT component of the attack.
“This is clearly an attack on the LGBTQ community. It was clearly an attack on Latinos as well. A supermajority of the victims that have been named so far are young Latino men, most of them LGBTQ,” said Carlos Guillermo Smith, governmental affairs director for Equality Florida, a gay-rights advocacy group.
“We have to remember that it is an attack on our community, which we have to call out for what it is — an anti-gay, anti-Latino, disgusting act of terror and hate,” Smith, a Democrat running for the state House in Orlando, said in a telephone interview.
The timing of Sunday’s attack — during LGBT Pride month — was especially heart-wrenching.
On a June night in 1969, habitues of the Stonewall Inn — an integral component in New York City’s gay community — fought back during a police raid, in an event widely believed to have given birth to the gay liberation movement.
Since then, gay nightclubs like Pulse, the scene of Sunday’s bloodbath, have been considered safe havens for LGBT patrons.
“These types of places, they’re the gathering spots for gay people. It is where we can be ourselves. We can go have a good time and be away from the critical eye of society and be out and open and free. The clubs have always been a really important part of our culture,” said Susan Gage, a gay activist who lives in Tallahassee.
Gays in Florida — and the nation — have racked up victories in the courtroom in recent years. Same-sex marriage has been legal in Florida for more than a year, and gay couples are now permitted to legally adopt children.
But the reaction to Sunday’s attack, for many, is seen as a step backward, especially after reports that Mateen’s father said his son was enraged after witnessing two men kissing in Miami.
“Our work to change hearts and minds needs to continue in a more aggressive way because that’s the only we overcome the hate,” said Ulvert, who described news of Sunday’s historic massacre as being like “a punch in the gut.”
Jim Brenner, who was one of the plaintiffs in a successful challenge to Florida’s prohibition on same-sex marriage, is focused on pushing for a ban on assault weapons, but he is also concerned that the hate-crime component of the Orlando mass murder is being downplayed.
“Tears are not enough anymore. We have got to stand up and make it known that we are going to make this stop. If we have to march through hell itself, we are going to make this stop. We’re not a bunch of wimps that are going to go like lambs to the slaughter. This is not going to happen anymore,” Brenner, a Tallahassee resident, said.
Many gay leaders also view Sunday’s tragedy as an opportunity to strengthen the community.
“That’s the thing that this whole episode is never going to take away from the gay community. We pull together and then we become even more of a juggernaut,” said Gage. “We’ve been hurt. We are crying. We are in pain. But we’re not backing down.”
Gage is a longtime member of Mickey Faust, a community theater group she said has been a “haven” for LGBT locals in the Tallahassee area. The troupe’s Friday show will go on, Gage said.
Ulvert favored a sort of “turn the other cheek” approach, despite hateful comments he said he viewed on social media accusing gays of being punished for their lifestyle.
“Our community has to be resilient and not show hate with hate, instead stick to what we’ve been doing, which is love will conquer,” he said. “It’s challenging, though, when you do go online and you see people commenting. I’ve stopped looking.”
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida