Free Meals At Escambia Schools End May 22. Here’s How To Find Alternative Locations.
May 15, 2020
Free student meals at public schools in Escambia County will end on May 22, and school district officials are urging families to seek other sites.
“Since closing schools due the pandemic, ECSD Food Service staff members have served over 157,000 meals; from muffins and yogurt, to cheeseburgers with fresh vegetables,” said Escambia County School Superintendent Malcolm Thomas.
The 27 participating schools served 4,604 students on just Thursday.
Families are encouraged to locate an alternative summer community feeding location by going to https://summerbreakspot.freshfromflorida.com/, and entering a home address. The map will still show the school sites until May 22, but alternative locations should be noted. Families without internet access can call 2-1-1 or text FOODFL to 877877.
NorthEscambia.com photo.
A Very Slight Chance Of A Pop-Up Shower Friday Night
May 15, 2020
A burn ban remains in effect for Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Tonight: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low around 63. South wind around 5 mph becoming northeast after midnight.
Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 89. East wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south in the afternoon.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 64. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Sunday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 88. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph in the morning.
Sunday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 68. South wind around 5 mph.
Monday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 84. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 63. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 83. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph in the morning.
Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 59.
Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 84.
Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 61.
Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 87.
Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 63.
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 90.
Fire Damages Mobile Home In Cantonment
May 15, 2020
Fire damaged a single wide mobile home in Cantonment Thursday night.
Escambia Fire Rescue responded to the reported kitchen fire in the 1100 block of Well Line Road about 7:55 p.m. Firefighters were able to quickly bring the fire under control.
There were no injuries reported.
The Cantonment, Ensley, Beulah, Ferry Pass, Molino and McDavid stations of Escambia Fire Rescue were dispatched to the fire, along with Escambia County EMS.
Reader submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Pensacola Warns Of Fraudsters Posing As Permitting City Office
May 15, 2020
The City of Pensacola has received reports of a fraudulent email sent to local contractors this week posing as the City Inspection Services/Permitting Department. This email was not sent by the City of Pensacola and was sent from outside of the city’s network.
Anyone who receives this email should immediately delete it. Do not click on any links or attachments.
Contractors are able to update their own information with the city using the MyGovernmentOnline online portal, and City of Pensacola Inspection Services will never threaten to penalize contractors or request information via email in this manner.
Suspect Named In 2003 Escambia County Cold Case Homicide
May 15, 2020
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a suspect in a 2003 cold case homicide.
David Lasha Dale, 39, is wanted for the murder of Marcus Virgin.
Virgin went out with his friends on May 8, 2003, and was never seen again.; his body was never found. Over the following years, investigators received information that indicated Virgin had been murdered. DNA evidence was discovered in 2007, but was not enough for an arrest at the time. In 2019, as part of a renewed focus on cold cases, the DNA evidence in the case was reexamined and led to new information, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of David Dale is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP or the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620
Century High Stadium Sign Is Headed To Historical Park To Honor Kayo Stanton, The Voice Of The Blackcats
May 15, 2020
“Heeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrreeeee come the Blackcats!”
So many times those words echoed through Kayo Stanton Stadium at the former Century High School. Very little of the stadium remains today; the remnants of the home bleachers and the press box remain, but they suffered heavy structural damage during the EF-3 tornado that hit Century on February 15, 2015.
On Thursday, crews used a crane to remove the “Kayo Stanton Stadium” sign from outside the press box and transported it to the Alger-Sullivan Historical Park where it will be put on display.
The main Century High School school building was constructed in 1937. Century High School closed a quarter century ago after being merged with Ernest Ward High School in Walnut Hill to form the current Northview High School.
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Who was Kayo Stanton?
Kayo’s full name was Vivian Earl Stanton, Jr. “Kayo” is a term used in boxing to denote a knockout but his daughter Anne Williamson of Thomasville said his nickname was for a character in the 1930s-50s “Moon Mullins” Sunday comic strip named “Kayo.”
Stanton’s deep voice was easily recognizable – his trademark was “Heeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrreeeee come the Blackcats,” as the Century team came onto the field before the game started. His son, David Stanton said his father borrowed the line from the Florida Gators after attending games in Gainesville when David was a student there. “He came back and tried it, and it went over pretty good,” he said. “He kept it for the next 20 years.”
Kayo didn’t try to be a play-by-play announcer. He once said, “The fans can see what’s going on. I just tell them the yard marker, since we can see from this high vantage point. The men who work as spotters in the press box tell me the players’ numbers and I pass that to the crowd.”
The stadium was named in his honor during the football season of 1990. He was beginning to be paralyzed from the cancer by the end of the football season, but he could still walk some at the time of the dedication. By the end of the season he was confined to a wheelchair and would listen to the games from the wheelchair sitting in his front yard.
Stanton was “The Voice of the Blackcats” as public address announcer for Century football for 40 years, starting in the early 1950s.
Stanton was also a third generation businessman in Century. At 19, he went to work for his father, Bubba Stanton, at Stanton’s grocery on Mayo Street. The family closed the grocery store in 1963, and when Bubba died in 1964, Kayo took over the operation and eventually turned it into a furniture store.
Stanton prepared for games as if he were going to broadcast them, studying series records against Century’s opposition for the week and scores against common opponents, to be shared with the fans.
His attendance record was almost spotless, even after he opened another store in Pensacola in 1979. The new store kept him out of town for much of the week in the six years it was open. But Fridays always found him in the press box.
Stanton’s tenure was interrupted only once, as family ties put him in a different place in the stadium during the 1968 season. That was the senior season for Kayo’s son David, an All-State linebacker for Century.
But he returned to the booth the following year and stayed for the next 20 years, before cancer forced him to give up announcing. He died June 13, 1991.
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Century Blackcat Football
Century’s high school ventured into football in the early 1930s. According to “Blackcats: A history of Century Football 1931-1975″ by Jim Curenton, football was first played behind the Baptist and Methodist churches in 1931. In 1934, Marvin Kelly donated a parcel of land northwest of the present-day Carver-Century K-8 (the site of present-day Showalter Park) and it was used for Century’s athletic teams. Football was played at Kelly Field during the daytime hours since there were no lights.
It’s not clear just when the first games were played at the new high school, built in 1936. Curenton’s book says of the 1941 season, “Kelly Field had not been used as a football field in two or three years.” At any rate, at the end of World War II, for the first time, home games were played under lights on the field behind the new high school. Century played its first night game against W.S. Neal. A solid white ball was used to make it more visible at night. Curenton reported that since grandstands were non-existent and there were no fences as yet, crowds pressed closer and closer to the action, actually narrowing the field of play.
The school property bordered the crest of a hill on the edge of a small swamp around Findley Branch. Coach Bill Turberville took advantage of the slope. He had the boys carry each other up the hill repeatedly to build the legs and endurance of the players. Coaches following Turberville also used the slope for practice drills, and Eddie Simmons believes Coach Jay Smith made the most use of it. He had two boys race down the hill – one boy had to block them both and push them back up the hill. He would alternate two on one going up and then going down, tackling and blocking.
By 1944 a grandstand was erected on the north side of the field. It was a wooden affair with about five or so rows of seats, seating maybe some 50 people. However, it was a start. It was a sign of progress and of a “slowly growing interest in high school football,” according to Curenton. Crowds increased and that resulted in larger stands being constructed. Later cars pulled up to the fence on the south side and fans sat in their autos, blowing their horns when there was an exceptional play. About 1948, a grandstand and dressing rooms were built with wooden seats atop them. Running water was added to the dressing rooms in 1952, with Kayo Stanton doing most of the plumbing work.
Grover Hicks, Mr. Peavy and Angus Hall of the county’s maintenance crew used wheelbarrows to build a concrete extension onto the east end of the existing grandstand that was used by opponents’ fans.
A deep gully at the east end was filled in during Jim Manderson’s coaching tenure at CHS some time during 1952-54. A classroom was built adjacent to the southwest corner end zone and encroached on the end zone. In the 1980s, Paul Jones, owner of the land east of the field, donated property so the field could be extended in that direction.
The cement grandstand and press box on the south side wasbuilt with the help of the Century High School Quarterback Club in the 1960s and 70s.
Historical information and photos courtesy Jerry Simmons, Alger-Sullivan Historical Society. Modern day stadium photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Food Distributions Saturday At Gonzalez Baptist Church, Flomaton Community Center
May 15, 2020
Local food distributions will take place Saturday at the Gonzalez Baptist Church and in Flomaton.
Gonzalez Baptist Church
A drive-thru food distribution will be held Saturday, May 16 beginning at 10 a.m. at Gonzalez Baptist Church at at 1590 Pauline Street (one block off Highway 29 and Old Chemstrand Road, behind Winn Dixie).
Each person in a household will receive a box of food and an additional bag of non-perishable food. Last week, the church had enough for 200 families and quickly ran out of food. This Saturday, they expect to double that number.
Town of Flomaton
The Town of Flomaton will hold a food giveaway Saturday, May 16 starting at 10 am. at the Flomaton Community Center at 600 McCurdy Street.Persons do not have to be a resident of Flomaton to receive food.
Persons are asked to follow the route in the map below provided by the Flomaton Police Department. Signs and police officers will direct people in the direction they need to go. Persons receiving food must stay in their vehicle at all times. Each person will be also asked a few simple questions.
Pictured: A previous food distribution at the Gonzalez Baptist Church. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Tiny Homes Could Become Easier To Build In Escambia County
May 15, 2020
Tiny homes could become easier to build in Escambia County by early next year.
New regulations from the Florida Building Commission are set to go into effect on December 31 that will offer some relief from stringent requirements that apply to standard residential construction. The rules loosen requirements on things like stair and landing sizes, ceiling heights and the size of rooms.
The Florida Building Code is used as the framework for the Escambia County’s building code. The Escambia County Commission on Thursday directed the county planning board to make local changes based upon the new state regulations.
Escambia County Commission Chairman Steven Barry said, “I think we’re going to have a lot of counties that are going down the path that we’re going, and I think it is a reasonable thing if our board ended up asking our planning board to discuss some of the variables that would be built into it, not the building code part, but on the land use and those types of things.”
All the provisions and regulations of the current Land Development Code (LDC) would apply. In all zoning districts, a tiny home could be a single-family dwelling per lot. A tiny home could be an accessory dwelling unit where a single-family dwelling unit exists. Up to four units would be allowed, without a site plan review, in zoning districts where multi-family dwellingsor multi-developments are allowed.
Commissioners also expressed that tiny homes could equate to more affordable housing in Escambia County.
Tiny homes are defined in Florida building code as being less than 400 square feet. Recreational vehicles do not qualify as tiny homes.
Laura Elaine Lucas
May 15, 2020
Laura Elaine Lucas was born on February 25, 1925 on a farm in Bay Springs, Florida, a rural area northeast of Pensacola, Florida. While sleeping, she passed away peacefully on May 8, 2020 at age 95. Elaine was the first female child of Robert Lee Lucas and Laura Etta Barks Lucas. She was the fourth of eight children. In time, she would have four brothers and three sisters, five of whom preceded her in death. Elaine grew up materially poor in Bay Springs during the Great Depression and knew both happiness and want. At an early age, she was sent “down the road” to live with her grandmother (Miss Maggie) where Elaine lived until she met Troy Booker at a church camp meeting, where he fell in love with her the first time he heard her play the piano. They were equally matched in their love of music and their deep faith in God. They were married on December 20, 1942.
Elaine was a very gifted and loving child. She attended school in Walnut Hill, Florida where she graduated as valedictorian of her high school class. She earned many academic awards, was chosen to teach and tutor students in lower grades, and her original essay was featured in the Pensacola News Journal after she won first prize in a statewide contest for young writers. She was an accomplished pianist and vocalist, playing and singing for churches and social occasions. After high school, Elaine moved to Pensacola, taking an apartment with several girls. Prior to her marriage, she worked as executive secretary to the Commanding Officer, Naval Air Station, Pensacola. After marriage, she was a devoted wife and a mother to two children, Troy and Emily. Her marriage and her family were her passion and her devotion. In Longview, Texas, while her husband earned his engineering degree, and to help with school costs, Elaine first worked in the LeTourneau College library and then worked as executive secretary to Mr. R.G. LeTourneau, builder of the largest earth-moving equipment in the world.
Elaine had a lifelong love of flowers and the outdoors. She spent many long hours laboring in her yard, lovingly caring for the many flowering plants she gathered around her. As a member of the Pensacola Garden Club, she won many competitive honors in flower arranging. She won the highest award for creative flower arranging, the Tri-Color Award, and was featured in Florida state gardening and flower arranging publications. She went on to open a florist business in Pensacola, “Elaine’s Elegance in Flowers,” specializing in weddings and holiday home decorating. Her specialty was designing grand arrangements suitable for banquets and very large spaces. She decorated many high-visibility homes in Pensacola and donated her musical and decorating talents to her home church, First Baptist, Pensacola, where she was a faithful and active member for 60 years. She was a very successful florist, retiring only due to age and health concerns.
An avid entertainer, Elaine loved to decorate her home, inside and out, for each season and holiday. Her home decorations were spectacular, winning awards from the community and accolades from all who saw them, including a feature article in the holiday decorating section of the local paper. Concurrent with her florist business, Elaine took up ceramic and porcelain painting. She created wonderfully beautiful paintings of scenes from her childhood memories. Fine-detail portraits of incredible beauty and whimsical rural and floral scenes were all fired under-glaze from her own kiln.
She was a kind and loving mother to her two adoring children; a loving, devoted, and supportive wife to an equally-devoted and loving husband. She cherished her role as Grandma to four grandchildren and “GG” to her ten great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. To them, she was a patient, playful, and wise role model. She was a superb Southern cook, preparing innumerable delicious meals for family and friends. Looking back over her 95-year life, she was a very loving, forthright, and Godly woman who acted upon her many skills, abilities, talents, and interests to better herself, her family, and the world around her. She was an amazing woman, full of energy, enthusiasm, and talent. She is greatly missed. Proverbs 31: 25-28 best summarize her life: She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.
Elaine was preceded in death by her husband of 62 years, Troy Marion Booker, her second husband of six years, Mr. Paul Levan, five of her eight siblings, and her eldest great-grandson, Troy Michael Booker. She is survived by her son, Troy L. (Donna) Booker, Pensacola, FL; her daughter, Emily (Wes) Painter, Chattanooga, TN; four grandchildren: Lane (Candy) Booker, Jacksonville, FL; Laura (Scott) Kirk, Chattanooga, TN; Kara (Roy Mauldin) Greene, Cantonment, FL; Kristin (Douglas) Ross, Chattanooga, TN; nine great-grandchildren: Haley (Ethan) Hardin, Cantonment, FL; Ashley Booker, Jacksonville, FL; Brenna Saxon, Connor Saxon, and Ethan Saxon, Chattanooga, TN; Colin McCracken and John Kirk, Chattanooga, TN; Ryan Greene and Taylor Greene, Cantonment, FL; and great-great-granddaughters Isabelle Elaine Booker and Emma Marie Hardin; two sisters, Yvonne Obren, Pensacola, FL; Ellen Settle, Molino, FL; one brother, Phil Lucas, Bay Springs, FL; and sister-in-law Charlotte Lucas, Cantonment, FL.
Funeral services will be Friday, May 15, 2020 at 2:00 P.M. at Faith Chapel Funeral Home North with Dr. Ross Lankford and Dr. Dave Snyder officiating.
The family will receive friends from 1:00 P.M. to 2:00 P.M. on Friday, May 15, 2020 at the funeral home.
Interment will follow at Bayview Memorial Park.
Pallbearers will be her great grandsons. Honorary bearers will be Ronald Greene, Roy Mauldin, JP Minchew, and Gerald Taylor.
Central Water Works Issues Boil Water Notice Due To E. Coli Bacteria; Order Includes Century Prison
May 14, 2020
Central Water Works has issued boil water notice effective immediately due to the detection of E. coli bacteria. The warning includes not only the utility’s customers, but also the Century Correctional Institution.
Central is currently supplying the Century prison with water through an emergency fire hose connection after the failure of the Century water well that normally supplies the prison. At last report, prison inmates were not consuming the water from Central but were being provided with bottled water.
In a notice, Central Water Works said, “Fecal coliform [or E. coli] bacteria were found in some of the groundwater and distribution system samples taken on April 8, 2020. These bacteria can make you sick, and are a particular concern for people with weakened immune systems.”
All customers of Central Water Works were advised to not drink the water without boiling it first for at least one minute.
On the date of the sample — April 8 — Central was not supplying water to the prison.
Click here to read the complete boil water notice and instructions.
Central Water Works was founded in 1965 and provides water for about 1,000 members in Byrneville, McDavid and outside the municipal service areas of Century and Flomaton.