Boil Water Notice Lifted: Filly Road, Filly Court, Winner’s Circle
May 24, 2017
Update 5/24 4 p.m.: Effective immediately, the Precautionary Boil Water Notice -PBWN- issued by the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority (ECUA) to customers located in the area listed below has been lifted. All results of bacteriological samples are clear.
A Precautionary Boil Water Notice -PBWN- has been issued by the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority to customers located in the following area:
- Filly Road
- Filly Court
- Winner’s Circle
- 791 and 803 E. Kingsfield Rd.
This notice is being issued following a break in the water main. Precautionary Boil Water Notices are issued as a part of the standard protocol following any loss of water pressure, whether as a result of planned maintenance activities or unscheduled repairs.
Residents located in the specified PBWN area are advised to boil water for one minute at a rolling boil or to use 8 drops of regular unscented household bleach per gallon of water, for water to be used for drinking or cooking purposes. Two independent bacteriological samples have been initiated and the advisory will be lifted as soon as possible. This process routinely takes 48 hours.
ECUA crews repaired the main and have flushed out the lines. Residents are advised that there is a possibility of discolored water as a result of the utility work, and to flush their home’s plumbing by running their taps for a few minutes. If problems persist, customers are asked to contact ECUA Customer Service at 850-476-0480 for assistance. Precautionary boil water notice guidelines are available on the ECUA website at www.ecua.fl.gov/water-quality/boil-water-notices-and-why-we-issue-them.
Special Election: Jay Residents Vote To Appoint Town Clerk
May 24, 2017
In a special election Tuesday, voters in Jay decided that the position of town clerk will be appointed every four years by the town council rather than elected.
The vote was 31 in favor of the change, 12 against There were no other issues or candidates on the special ballot.
With 43 total votes out of 405 registered voters, voter turnout was a low 10.62 percent. There were 30 ballots cast in person on Tuesday, while 13 were received by mail.
Brewton Mill Completes $388 Million Energy Project, Announces Another $50 Million Investment
May 24, 2017
Local and state officials recently joined Georgia-Pacific Brewton mill employees and their families to celebrate the completion of a $388 million energy improvement project after two years of construction. The project modernized and streamlined the mix of equipment in the mill’s recovery boiler system and now provides the mill with the ability to generate its own energy using natural gas and biofuel residuals from the paper-making process.
On the heels of this completion, Brewton also kicked off another $50 million investment for upgrades to the mill’s paperboard machine. Slated to begin in late summer, this project will rebuild part of the machine and will improve the quality of the mill’s white-top linerboard product and increase the mill’s competitiveness.
“The investments in Brewton, and across Alabama, drive home our focus on continuously improving operations and meeting the needs of our customers, our company and communities for the long term,” said Christian Fischer, president and CEO, Georgia-Pacific. “I’m proud of the hard work and dedication from our 450 Brewton employees and I’m confident that the mill is positioned for continued success.”
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Alabama Governor Kay Ivey and other state and local officials were on hand to congratulate the mill team for the successful completion and startup of the energy project. Approximately 700 people including employees, family members and special guests were in attendance.
“Georgia Pacific’s total investment of $438 million to grow and expand its business is a testament to the continued opportunity for the success of economic investment in Alabama. Our state is a great place to live, work and to raise a family,” Governor Kay Ivey said. “I am committed to continuing to work with existing businesses, like Georgia-Pacific, and to attract new ones to invest here. It’s a new day in Alabama and we’re open for business.”
Brewton Mayor Yank Lovelace, Sr., said, “We are very happy for the Brewton mill team and proud to have this mill as part of our community. This project and others at the mill demonstrate GP’s intent to remain a valued business partner of the region for years to come.”
This year marks the 10-year anniversary of Georgia-Pacific’s $355 million acquisition of the Brewton mill from Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. In the last five years, Georgia-Pacific has invested approximately $8.5 billion into operations across the country, including Alabama, where approximately $1.2 billion in capital has been invested to grow existing operations, acquire new operations, and improve safety and environmental performance across all businesses.
Escambia County Commission Chairman Raymond Wiggins, added, “These projects will keep Georgia-Pacific competitive for generations to come, providing more opportunities for people to make a good living and raise their families here in Escambia County.
Teams at the Brewton mill produce white-top linerboard and solid bleached cartonboard. The mill is the largest employer in Brewton, with approximately 450 employees.
“Today is not just a celebration of this project, but also a day to acknowledge the hard work and commitment our employees made in making this a reality for the mill,” said Jeff Joyce, vice president and general manager, Brewton mill. “Today is about recognizing what we’ve achieved, celebrating those successes and turning our focus to our future and the other important projects planned for our long-term growth.”
In Alabama, Georgia-Pacific employs approximately 2,300 people directly, and those jobs create an additional 8,500 jobs indirectly. Total compensation and benefits for Georgia-Pacific Alabama employees is approximately $216 million directly, resulting in a broader economic impact of $644 million in combined wages and benefits.
Convicted Felon Gets 15 Years For Firearm Possession
May 24, 2017
An Escambia County man is headed to prison as a habitual offender.
Circuit Judge Thomas Dannheisser sentenced Kiara Sanders to 15 years in state prison as a habitual felony offender. Sanders pleaded no contest to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a short-barreled rifle, and driving with no valid driver’s license.
On August 13, 2016, a traffic stop was initiated by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office on a vehicle driven by Sanders. When the deputy approached the vehicle, he smelled a strong odor of marijuana. A K-9 arrived at the scene and gave a positive alert for the presence of narcotics. A search of the vehicle was conducted which revealed a short-barreled rifle in the console. Sanders admitted that he did not have a valid driver’s license and that he was a convicted felon.
Kiara Sanders was deemed to be a habitual felony offender based on his prior criminal history which includes convictions for burglary, theft, trafficking in stolen property, false information to a pawnbroker, criminal mischief, battery upon a jail detainee, robbery without a weapon, possession of marijuana, violation of probation, and driving while license suspended.
He was most recently released from state prison in 2014.
Byrneville Elementary Building Committee To Hold Thursday Meeting
May 24, 2017
An organizational building committee meeting will be held Thursday afternoon at 1:30 at Byrneville Elementary School.
The charter school is considering the construction of a new multi-million dollar modern building containing some number of classrooms, likely a cafetorium and possibly even a small gym.
The committee will meet with teachers, staff and parents to learn about what they feel is needed in a new facility. After that meeting, the school’s board of directors hopes to determine a preliminary cost for a new facility.
Pictured top: The main building at Byrneville Elementary was constructed in 1941. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
‘Cat Fund’ Healthy Heading Into Hurricane Season
May 24, 2017
The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund is in its strongest financial position ever as the state heads into the annual storm season next month.
But state officials may bolster the fund, which helps private insurers pay claims if Florida gets hit by a major hurricane, with a purchase of $1 billion in private reinsurance.
“We had a sobering reminder last year of the perils that Florida faces every year,” Ash Williams, executive director of the State Board of Administration, told Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet on Tuesday.
But with relatively minimal damage from Hurricane Hermine and a fortunate glancing blow from the more-powerful Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Williams said the so-called “Cat Fund” was largely untapped last year, “which means we come into the current season in the strongest financial position we’ve ever been in.”
The 2017 hurricane season starts June 1 and will last through Nov. 30.
The fund has $14.9 billion in cash, with an additional $2.7 billion in funding from “pre-event” bonds. With a total of $17.6 billion, it has more than enough money to pay its potential $17 billion maximum liability.
The fund has grown because it has been able to collect premiums from private insurance companies, which rely on its backup insurance, for more than a decade without having to make a major payout because of the lack of storms.
Given the current funding, Williams said one option would be to “do nothing,” although that brings a certain amount of risk without knowing whether storms will hit the state this year.
“You won’t really know whether what you have done is the right thing until the subsequent season,” Williams said.
However, if Florida is hit by a major hurricane or series of storms, “you would feel awfully good” about having more financial protections in place, Williams told Scott and the Cabinet.
The key option would be buying $1 billion in reinsurance, which would be triggered if storm losses exceeded $10.5 billion. The option would cost approximately $68 million.
Williams said coverage could be purchased without impacting the overall reinsurance market. Private insurers typically buy private reinsurance, along with getting backup coverage from the Cat Fund.
He also said the coverage could likely be purchased at a lower rate than last year and would provide “equal or better terms” for the state.
“Capacity has continued to be ample, and prices have continued to fall,” Williams said about the reinsurance market.
Florida has purchased $1 billion in reinsurance for the Cat Fund the past two hurricane seasons.
Williams said he will test the reinsurance market for a proposal for this year and report back to the governor and Cabinet.
The financial health of the Cat Fund is important because the state can impose a surcharge on most insurance policies, including auto insurance, if the funding is depleted. That happened after the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, with consumers paying a surcharge, also known as a “hurricane tax,” through 2015.
Jay Tops Northview In Spring Game (With Photo Gallery)
May 24, 2017
In Spring Football action, the Jay Royals defeated the Northview Chiefs 30-16 Tuesday night in Bratt.
This fall the Northview Chiefs will open with a Kickoff Classic game away on August 18 against Lighthouse Christian. The Chiefs will open the 2017 regular season at home against J.U. Blacksher of Uriah, AL. The Jay Royals will open their season at home against Baker on August 18 and travel to Flomaton on August 25.
The Chiefs and the Royals will meet again on October 6.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
McDavid Man Charged With Weapons Theft, Assaulting His Grandmother
May 23, 2017
A McDavid man has been charged with assaulting his grandmother and in connection with the theft of several firearms.
Dakota Forest Smith, 22, was charged with four counts of grand theft of a firearm, armed burglary, grand theft, aggravated assault, resisting without violence and possession of drug paraphernalia. He remained in the Escambia County Jail without bond.
The woman told deputies that her grandson had threatened to shoot her while holding a rifle in his hand at her Brown Road home. The grandson lives on the same property in a separate small apartment, according to an arrest report.
When deputies went to that apartment, Smith answered the door and then attempted to shut the door in a deputy’s face before running inside. The ECSO said deputies located Smith hiding inside a bathroom.
Deputies reported finding a bolt action rifle in plan view on a bed; the rifle matched the description and serial number of one stolen in a burglary last Friday. The rifle, boxes of ammunition and a crossbow were discovered, and the grandfather provided deputies a photo of four firearms on Smith’s bed on May 19 that matched the description of firearms stolen from an address on Fannie Road.
Smith provided information to deputies, which was redacted from an arrest report, that led to his arrest for burglary.
Deputies also found syringes and 78 pills believed to be trazodone in Smith’s possession, according to an arrest report.
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Nine Mile Road Popeye’s Murder Case
May 23, 2017
Bolstering a state law requiring unanimous jury recommendations in death penalty cases, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider an appeal by Attorney General Pam Bondi on the issue.
The court’s decision to deny what is known as a “writ of certiorari” essentially cements a state law enacted this year in response to a seminal Florida Supreme Court decision in a case involving convicted murderer Timothy Lee Hurst.
That Florida Supreme Court ruling and the subsequent law said juries need to make unanimous recommendations before judges can sentence defendants to death. As is common, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday did not give reasons for turning down Bondi’s appeal of the Florida Supreme Court ruling.
“It would be hard to read exactly what exactly the U.S. Supreme Court meant by it, except that it will probably end most of the state’s litigation with regard to these issues,” said Pete Mills, an assistant state attorney in the 10th Judicial Circuit who also serves as chairman of the Florida Public Defenders Association Death Penalty Steering Committee.
Hurst, who was sent to Death Row for a 1998 murder in Pensacola, has been at the center of two major rulings that found Florida’s death-penalty sentencing system unconstitutional.
In an appeal by Hurst, the U.S. Supreme Court early last year struck down the state’s system of allowing judges, instead of juries, to find the facts necessary to impose the death penalty. The court found the state’s system was an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury, and sent the case back to the Florida Supreme Court.
At the time of the January 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Florida’s system allowed jurors by a simple majority to recommend the death penalty. Judges would then make findings of fact that “sufficient” aggravating factors, not outweighed by mitigating circumstances, existed for the death sentence to be imposed, a process known as “weighing.”
Florida lawmakers in 2016 hurriedly rewrote the law to address the U.S. Supreme Court decision, requiring jurors to unanimously find that at least one aggravating factor exists before a defendant can be eligible for a death sentence and requiring that at least 10 of 12 jurors recommend death for the sentence to be imposed.
In October, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the statute was unconstitutional because it did not require unanimous jury recommendations about imposing the death penalty, something not addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Bondi’s office in December asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the Florida court’s ruling.
In its request for discretionary review, the state argued that Florida court’s “expansive reading” of the U.S. court’s decision in the Hurst case was erroneous.
Hurst was sentenced to death for the 1998 killing of fast-food worker Cynthia Harrison in Pensacola. Harrison, an assistant manager at a Nine Mile Road Popeye’s Fried Chicken restaurant where Hurst worked, was bound, gagged and stabbed more than 60 times. Her body was found in a freezer.
A jury in 2000 recommended the death penalty for Hurst, now 38. After the state Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing hearing, a jury recommended death by a vote of 7-5 in 2012.
In its October ruling in the Hurst case deciding that death-penalty recommendations must be unanimous, the Florida Supreme Court relied both on state and federal constitutional guarantees to the right to a trial by jury.
The Florida court decision regarding unanimity will likely result in new penalty-phase hearings for about 55 percent of Florida’s 386 Death Row inmates.
The state court has already ordered new sentencing hearings for numerous cases involving non-unanimous jury recommendations, and Monday’s decision by the federal court takes the unanimity issue off the table, according to defense lawyers.
“It’s certainly good news for Mr. Hurst,” said Dave Davis, a recently retired assistant public defender in the 2nd Judicial Circuit who represented Hurst.
Davis and other public defenders, who warned lawmakers that the lack of unanimity in the 2016 law would not withstand court scrutiny, were relieved but not surprised by the U.S. court’s refusal to take up the case Monday.
With more than 100 cases poised to be sent back to lower courts, prosecutors are now faced with seeking capital punishment or life imprisonment. Some of the cases are decades old, posing problems with witnesses and evidence for prosecutors.
“Prosecutors are going to have to decide is it worth the effort to try to get death again. They’re going to have to examine their evidence … and decide what the likelihood is that they’re going to get 12 jurors to decide death,” Davis said.
The new requirement is especially relevant in the Hurst case, where a jury has never unanimously recommended the death penalty, Davis pointed out.
“Prosecutors have a tough problem here,” he said. “Some cases just get old. Can you find witnesses in a case that’s 14 or 15 years old? … Logistical and practical problems that crop up with cases that are in some cases 20 years old.”
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Jay Residents Vote On Town Clerk Question Today
May 23, 2017
Voters in Jay will vote today on amending the town charter to allow for the town clerk position to be appointed by the council.
The ballot question asks “Should…the town charter of the town of Jay be amended…to specify that the office of town clerk will no longer be an elected position, but, rather, will be a position that is appointed by the town council for a period of four years?” Voters will choose a yes or no response to the question.
Polls will be open for Jay residents from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.