Crowds Experience A ‘Night in Bethlehem’ At Molino Church
December 17, 2018
Highland Baptist Church hosted a “Night in Bethlehem” on Sunday.
The church recreated the town of Bethlehem, with stops representing the inn, blacksmith shop, manger and other aspects of the Biblical city. Visitors toured the city and experienced the Nativity story as if they were a part of it.
For a photo gallery, click here.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
AAA: Holiday Gas Prices To Hit Two-Year Lows
December 17, 2018
Florida gas prices have declined a little more than 50 cents in the past two months, and could drop another 10 cents before the end of the year, according to AAA.
“Holiday travelers will have more jingle in their pockets after they fill-up the family vehicle,” said Mark Jenkins, spokesman, AAA – The Auto Club Group. “Prices are already at 2-year lows for the holidays, and should slip even lower in the next two weeks. Oil prices have been unable to gain significant upward momentum after OPEC announced plans to cut production. The price of crude declined last week and should drop again this week, because industry analysts are skeptical that OPEC’s plan could rebalance what is currently an oversupplied market. If oil prices drop even further this week, that would reduce the cost of producing gasoline and allow additional price cuts at the pump.”
On Sunday, gas prices averaged $2.30 per gallon statewide. In Escambia County, the average price per gallon was $2.29.
Prices for the holiday season are forecast to hit two year lows, as AAA estimates 5.3 million Florida drivers will hit the holiday road. Florida gas prices averaged $2.44 per gallon on Christmas Day 2017, and $2.29 in 2016.
Pictured: Regular unleaded gas was $2.11 Sunday night at this station on Highway 29 in Molino. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Nine Mile Road Closed Tonight Under I-10
December 16, 2018
Nine Mile Road eastbound will be closed beneath Interstate 10 from 8 p.m. Sunday until 4 a.m. Monday, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
Crews will be repairing a damaged beam on the overpass. The work is not related to the current widening project.
Nine Mile Road eastbound traffic will detour to I-10 eastbound State Road (S.R.) 297/Pine Forest Road (Exit 7). Drivers will have the option to return via westbound I-10 to Exit 5 and continue east or drivers can travel north on Pine Forest Road to go east on Nine Mile Road. Detour signs will be in place to alert drivers of the temporary road closure and detour route.
Driver Hits Tree In Cottage Hill
December 16, 2018
A driver was not seriously injured in a collision with a tree about 5:40 a.m. Sunday on WIlliams Ditch Road in Cottage Hill.
The driver refused transport to the hospital by Escambia County EMS.
The accident remains under investigation by the Florida Highway patrol. The Cantonment Station of Escambia Fire Rescue also responded.
NorthEscambia.com photo by Kristy Barbour click to enlarge.
University Of West Florida Confers 100,000th Degree At Fall Commencement
December 16, 2018
The University of West Florida celebrated a significant milestone at the Fall 2018 Commencement on Saturday, awarding the 100,000th degree since the institution opened in 1967.
“Fifty-one years ago, UWF opened its doors and classes began,” said President Martha Saunders. “At our first graduation ceremony in June 1968, 58 graduates received their bachelor’s degrees. During Saturday’s ceremony, we will confer the 100,000th degree from UWF. I think it is fitting that we celebrate this achievement as a community of learners.”
Saunders conferred 1,777 degrees upon graduates from five academic colleges and the Graduate School, resulting in a total of 100,305 degrees conferred in the institution’s history. The three ceremonies took place at the Pensacola Bay Center.
For a NorthEscambia.com photo gallery, click here.
UWF alumna and Trustee Jill Singer was this year’s commencement speaker. Singer is the vice president for national security at AT&T Government and earned her bachelor’s degree in computer science in 1984 and master’s degree in systems analysis in 1985 from UWF.
“UWF’s ongoing commitment to education, research, life-long learning and community is extremely impressive and has a remarkable impact on the region and a growing impact on the country,” said Singer. “As an alumna, I’m honored to carry a bachelor’s and master’s degree from UWF. As a Trustee, I’m honored to take part in the continued growth of UWF as a premier national and international university.”
Pictured: Northview High School Class of 2016 Valedictorian Bethany (Reynolds) Landis accepts her Bachelor’s Degree in Sales Management from UWF President Martha Saunders. Landis has worked with NorthEscambia.com for several years. Pictured below: Celebrating 100,000 UWF graduates with fireworks. Pictured second below: Saunders addresses members of the UWF Class of 2018 Saturday morning. Pictured third below: UWF alumna and Trustee Jill Singer was the guest speaker. Pictured bottom: Degree candidates from the UWF College of Business enter the Pensacola Bay Center. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
No Injuries In Cantonment Rollover Crash
December 16, 2018
There were no serious injuries in a single vehicle rollover accident Saturday night in Cantonment.
A driver lost control and overturned on Becks Lake Road about 7:20 p.m. Two people refused transported to the hospital following the crash.
The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating. The Cantonment Station of Escambia Fire Rescue and Escambia County EMS also responded.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
Farmers Use Pink Cotton Bales To Spread A Message Of Hope
December 16, 2018
Farmers across North Escambia used huge pink cotton bales during the harvest season to spread a message of hope.
The plastic bale wraps are pink — really, really John Deere pink. The pink cotton bales have lined the highways as they awaited transportation to the cotton gin. John Deere makes the pink bale wrappers available for breast cancer awareness and a way for farmers to show support for those battling breast cancer.
The pink wraps, at about $12-14 per bale, don’t cost the producer any more than the traditional yellow.
Pictured: Cotton baled and wrapped in pink wrappers along Highway 97 in Walnut Hill. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Christmas Bicycle Giveaway Held In Cantonment
December 16, 2018
A bicycle giveaway was held Saturday in Cantonment with the Cantonment Rotary Club, Cantonment Improvement Committee, Escambia Fire Rescue and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Jay High’s Edwards Signs Golf Scholarship
December 16, 2018
Jay High School senior Sarah Edwards has signed a golf scholarship with Florida Gulf Coast University. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Preparing For Florida Power Shift
December 16, 2018
With the November elections rapidly disappearing in the rearview mirror, Tallahassee this week started to turn to its attention to the future.
House and Senate members came to town for orientation and to start committee assignments under new legislative leadership. Senators began looking at financial challenges lawmakers will face when they prepare a new state budget in the 2019 session, which begins in March.
And preparations continued for the transition of power from Gov. Rick Scott, who heads to the U.S. Senate next month, to Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis, who takes office on Jan. 8.
DeSantis, a three-term congressman from Ponte Vedra Beach, continued to fill out his administration’s new team.
Some familiar faces will help the new governor. He tapped state Rep. Halsey Beshears, R-Monticello, to head the state Department of Business Regulation. He selected Ken Lawson, head of Visit Florida, to lead his Department of Economic Opportunity.
Transition committees appointed by DeSantis to advise him on issues including health care, education, natural resources, public safety and the economy continued their work.
DeSantis outlined a fairly traditional schedule for his inauguration activities, including an inaugural day prayer breakfast at Florida A&M University and a ceremony on the east-side steps of the old Capitol building. He and his wife, Casey DeSantis, will host an inaugural ball at the Leon County Civic Center on the night of the inauguration.
But, adding his own touch, DeSantis said he also intends to give a separate speech to House and Senate members in the state Capitol, following the outdoor inauguration ceremonies.
GUN-TOTING TEACHERS
A controversial law that allows trained “guardians” to bring guns to public schools didn’t go far enough — gun-savvy teachers also should be able to have weapons in the classroom.
That’s the near-unanimous view of a state panel created to make recommendations to beef up school security in the wake of one of the country’s deadliest mass school shootings on Valentine’s Day in Broward County.
“You’ve got to have somebody there who can swiftly and effectively neutralize the threat, and that means killing the killer. The only way you are going to do that is if you have a good guy with a gun who can take that action,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, who chairs the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, said in an interview Thursday.
Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son, Alex, was among the students slain at Marjory Stoneman Douglas and who serves on the panel, was the lone holdout in a 13-1 vote on the proposal Wednesday.
“I understand the sheriff’s point that we do need more good guys with a gun on campus,” Schachter said, adding, “nobody understands that wish … more than myself.”
But he said he doesn’t think teachers should carry guns.
“I think they have enough on their plate,” he said.
Broward County teacher Debbi Hixon agreed. Her husband, Chris, was the Parkland school’s athletics director and wrestling coach and was among the victims.
Teachers already have to prepare students for standardized tests and are responsible for their emotional and physical well-being, Hixon said.
“To add the burden of knowing that you’re responsible for taking out a shooter if they come into your room, even if a teacher thinks they are up to that task, I just think it is unfair to have that expectation for them,” she said Thursday.
Under the proposal, which would require legislative action, teachers who have concealed-weapons licenses — just like school “guardians” already authorized in the law — would be able to get extra training and bring guns to school.
The commission has spent months delving into the Feb. 14 catastrophe, in which 14 teenagers and three faculty members were killed and 17 others were injured.
Confessed killer Nikolas Cruz, a former student at the school, had a lengthy history of interactions with law enforcement and mental-health professionals.
The commission — which spent eight months delving into details about Cruz’s background, the response to the shooting by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and local police departments and crafting recommendations — met Wednesday and Thursday in Tallahassee to finalize a sweeping report that deals with everything from failings in law-enforcement communications systems to the need for bullet-proof windows in school buildings.
The report was highly critical of the manner in which state, local and federal officials dealt with, or neglected to deal with, Cruz. The recommendations include a number of items focused on better coordination between mental-health, education and law-enforcement agencies, something that was also required in a 2018 law passed in response to the shooting.
ILL WINDS FOR BUDGET
Florida’s budget will face increased pressure from the impact of Hurricane Michael, a new report reviewed Wednesday by the Senate Appropriations Committee showed.
The state’s costs for emergency-relief and recovery efforts related to Michael, a major storm that struck the Panhandle in October, will exceed the costs for Hurricane Irma, a 2017 storm that damaged a larger portion of the state, the report said.
The hurricane impact and factors showing slower economic growth are enough for state analysts to now project that a potential $223 million budget surplus for 2019-2020 — outlined in a September report — “has likely disappeared.”
“The projected discretionary balance identified in September has gone to zero (in the best case scenario) or is negative by as much as $250 million (in the more realistic scenario), as a result of Hurricane Michael and the (revenue-estimating) conferences held to date,” according to the revised long-range financial outlook.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said the new report means lawmakers will have to be “even more diligent in making sure that we are very, very conservative” in their approach to the new state budget and revenue projections. Lawmakers will work on a 2019-2020 budget during the annual session that starts in March.
The financial impact of Michael has been amplified because it struck a largely rural portion of the state that was already “economically challenged” prior to the storm, with lower wages and higher poverty than many areas in Florida, the report said.
“Their capacity to recover from Michael is probably less than counties that were most affected by Irma,” Amy Baker, coordinator for the Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research, told the Senate committee.
STORY OF THE WEEK: The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission endorsed the concept of allowing armed classroom teachers to improve school security.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “The numbers speak for themselves. Hurricane Michael was devastating for the people of the Panhandle and the people of the state of Florida. But it also adds real enduring effects on our budget this year and in future years.” — Senate Appropriations Chairman Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island.
by Lloyd Dunkelberger, The News Service of Florida