Manager Of Molino Tax Collector Office Honored With Statewide Service Award
September 6, 2024
Janet Middleton, manager of the Escambia County Tax Collector Molino Office, was recently awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Florida Tax Collector Association. This prestigious honor recognizes Middleton’s significant contributions to modernizing title and registration systems throughout the state.
With over 25 years of experience at the Escambia County Tax Collector Office, Middleton has established herself as a leading expert in state and federal laws pertaining to motor vehicle transactions.
Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Verizon Purchasing Frontier Communications For $20 Billion
September 6, 2024
Verizon Communications is buying Frontier Communications for $20 billion in cash. The purchase will increase Verizon’s scale with 2.2 million fiber subscribers and will extend Verizon’s network reach to 25 million premises across 31 states and Washington, D.C.’
In the North Escambia area, Frontier is local telephone company that still provides traditional landline service and DSL in Walnut Hill, Molino, Bratt and Atmore. The company does not currently offer fiber in the North Escambia area.
Over approximately four years, Frontier in other areas of the nation has invested $4.1 billion upgrading and expanding its fiber network, and now derives more than half of its revenue from fiber products at 7.2 million fiber locations. Frontier s committed to its plan to build out an additional 2.8 million fiber locations by the end of 2026.
Frontier has not announced any specific plans for their local markets.
According to the companies, Frontier customers as a whole will have has access to Verizon premium offerings and experience for Frontier’s consumer and small business customers, and Frontier’s premium broadband offering will unite with Verizon’s premium mobile offering.
Additional Transaction Details
Under the terms of the agreement, Verizon will acquire Frontier for $38.50 per share in cash, representing a premium of 43.7% to Frontier’s 90-Day volume-weighted average share price (VWAP) on September 3, 2024, the last trading day prior to media reports regarding a potential acquisition of Frontier. The transaction is valued at approximately $20 billion of enterprise value.
The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Verizon and the Frontier Boards of Directors. The transaction is expected to close in approximately 18 months, subject to approval by Frontier shareholders, receipt of certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
Pictured: The Frontier Communications switching central office in Bratt. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge
Here Is Friday Night’s High School Football Schedule
September 6, 2024
Here is this week’s high school Friday night football schedule.
All games are at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted.
Florida
Northview at Freeport
Tate at Pensacola
Lighthouse Private Christian Academy at Jay
Fort Walton Beach at West Florida
Washington at Milton, 7:30 p.m.
Pine Forest at Niceville
Central at Baker
BYE: Pace
Alabama
Escambia Academy at Fort Dale Academy (Greenville)
Jackson at Escambia County (Atmore)
Monroe County at T.R. Miller
St. Michael Catholic at W.S. Neal
Excel 28, Flomaton 22 (Thursday)
Pictured: Northview traveled to Opp last Friday night. Photos by www.joeleeimages.com (sports photographer for the Opp Bobcats) for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Big Free Food Distribution Tuesday In Cantonment
September 6, 2024
The Cantonment Improvement Committee will host a special food distribution on Tuesday, September 10 at Carver Park, 208 Webb Street.
There will be a bag of food for the first 500 families, an estimated total of 25,000 pounds or more.
The distribution is sponsored by SEG Grocers/Winn Dixie and Farm Share. Organizers said residents of the greater Cantonment, Molino, Walnut Hill, Century and surrounding areas are invited. No identification is required.
The event will start at 3 p.m. Attendees should like up facing north on Webb Street. The bag of food will be placed directly in the vehicle.
NorthEscambia.com file photo.
UWF Football Beats McKendree 38-6 In Season Opener
September 6, 2024
by Bill Vilona, Argos correspondent
For openers, UWF’s football team produced a desired performance.
The nationally ranked Argos quickly jumped to a sizable lead, got a shutdown effort from their defense, shined on special teams and cruised their way to a 38-6 win Thursday night against the Mckendree Bearcats at PenAir Field in the season’s first game for both teams.
A crowd of 4,305 got an early start with a massive turnout by students in a pregame tailgate and also featured UWF’s expanded marching band, which has doubled in size.
“Very excited about the team and what we did (Thursday),” said UWF head coach Kaleb Nobles, after starting his second season at the helm. “Doing some really good stuff in all three facets of the game. I thought we played pretty well on offense… and defense? I thought we played lights out. I thought we finished the game really strong. I didn’t want to give up a touchdown there at the end. McKendree had the ball at the UWF 4, which we didn’t. But there are so many things to clean up. Obviously as a head coach, I wrote a whole list of things down.”
The good news for UWF is there is plenty of time to shore up that list.
The Argos, ranked No. 12 in American Football Coaches Association NCAA Division II coaches poll, No. 14 in the D2 Football.com poll, won’t play their next game until Sept. 21 when hosting West Alabama in their Gulf South Conference opener.
It’s the longest gap between games in UWF’s eight-year history.
“It will be something new that we’ve never done before at UWF,” Nobles said. “But we kinda set this up on purpose to make sure we could try and get a good win (Thursday) and then give ourselves a really good chance to start prepping for teams like West Alabama.”
Thursday’s game was a return half of UWF’s series with McKendree, located in Lebanon, Illinois, just east of St. Louis, and a member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Argos traveled there in 2023 and got a 35-3 win in their second game of the season.
Part of the rematch intrigue was which UWF quarterback would start the game.
Redshirt freshman Marcus Stokes from St. Augustine-Nease High School, earned his way to the top of the depth chart and was solid in his first start. He completed 20 of 27 passes for 231 yards.
Both of his interceptions were on tipped passes and he was sacked twice. Backup Michael Rich Jr. made his only play count when he rushed on 4-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
“I thought he played very well, I thought he played pretty efficient,” Nobles said. “Two hundred some yards passing in his first college game win (start). I thought he handled himself very well. He was very calm, very composed. He’s a high energy guy, but he was very relaxed, very calm, which I think is great for him.”
The Argos first two touchdowns came on one-play drives, following outstanding punt returns by senior defensive back Virgil Lemons, who finished with 147 yards on two returns, one of those 86 yards to the 1-yard line that was advanced by teammate McGrew Fortune.
The first one of 61 yards midway in the first quarter resulted in Jamontez Woods rushing in from the 4-yard line. Woods then finished the second one on a hand off from the one. He finished as UWF’s leading rusher with 38 yards on 13 carries.
“We have iPads on the sidelines now and we get to watch (punt returns) what happens and I watched both of them and said, wow, this is phenomenal blocking. This is what it should look like,” Nobles said. “I told Virgil, if you can give me every offensive possession starting inside the (opponents) 5, I become the best player caller in the world. I’m excited about how we performed on special teams and think we have a lot of momentum moving forward.”
Said Lemons of his two returns, “Heart stopping. Thank God. I was just happy. I just had trust in my guys. This is my second year returning and I got two of my corners out there blocking.”
Three of UWF’s first four offensive possessions resulted in touchdowns. Jay Sharp’s 1-yard run in the second quarter finished a 13-play, 90 yard drive that was UWF’s best offensive sequence.
A 21-0 halftime lead was further expanded on Cade Lombardo’s 29-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter.
Rich’s touchdown run answered McKendree’s only score of the game on a short run that capped a 14-play 74 yard drive.
Linebacker Ralph Ortiz, one of the team’s best defensive players, had a big night. In addition to six solo tackles and a pass breakup, he returned an interception 27 yards late in the fourth quarter for the game’s final points.
Defensively, UWF kept forcing punts early in the game. The Bearcats longest play went for 35 yards. They were limited to just 49 rushing yards and 5-of-15 on third down conversions.
“We had a good start, but we still have a lot of work to do,” Lemons said.
WHAT’S NEXT?
WHO: West Alabama Tigers vs. UWF Argos.
WHEN: Sept. 21, 6 p.m.
WHERE: Pen Air Field.
GAME THEME: Family Weekend
TICKETS: www.goargos.com/tickets
Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Wahoos Silenced by Carela, Barons in 4-1 Loss
September 6, 2024
written by Erik Bremer
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos saw their newfound momentum halted on Thursday night, falling 4-1 to the Birmingham Barons in their first loss of the series.
After 5-1 wins on Tuesday and Wednesday, Pensacola managed only one run on six hits as Juan Carela (W, 2-3) led a dominant performance from the Birmingham pitching staff.
With the loss, the Blue Wahoos lost ground to the Biloxi Shuckers in the hunt for a wild card playoff spot. The Blue Wahoos trail the Shuckers by 3.5 games and the Mississippi Braves by 2.0 games with nine to play in the regular season.
Jacob Miller (L, 1-1) was perfect through two innings, but ran into trouble in the third. Five singles, including RBI knocks from Rikuu Nishida and Wilfred Veras, gave the Barons a 2-0 lead. All eight of Birmingham’s hits in the game were singles.
The Blue Wahoos got a run back in the fourth when Nathan Martorella doubled off the top of the right field wall and scored on Graham Pauley’s RBI single. That would be all the damage done against Carela, who worked 5.0 innings of four-hit, one-run ball.
Terrell Tatum added to the Birmingham lead with an RBI single in the fourth, and Jason Matthews scored on a wild pitch from reliever Nigel Belgrave in the seventh to bring the score to 4-1.
Caleb Freeman (S, 4) worked a 1-2-3 ninth to earn a save and lock down the Barons win.
The series continues Friday in Birmingham, with a 7:00 CT first pitch at Regions Field.
Transparency In Question: Century Council Approves Budget After Shutting Out Public Review
September 5, 2024
Tuesday night, the Century town council approved a tentative $10.6 million budget for the next fiscal year, and NorthEscambia.com was forced to publish a story without complete details after our records request was ignored and complete budget was not made available to the public before the vote. That led to the media and at least one citizen questioning the town’s transparency in the budget process. We later obtained the complete budget document Wednesday afternoon (more on that later).
Since August 30, NorthEscambia.com has asked for a copy of the complete tentative budget for 2024-2025, which provides details supporting the income and expenditures in a one-page summary that the town sent us (pictured below). We later learned the complete budget is a 19-page document with great detail on how they arrived at the budget, plus a 3-year historical comparison. The town only provided a summary (pictured left, click to enlarge).
On August 30, when Century administrative assistant Mallory Walker emailed a public notice for Tuesday’s night’s budget meeting, NorthEscambiac.com sent a reply minutes later stating, “Thank you. Please provide a copy of the complete budget and the millage rate info.” We received a one page “Consolidated Budget Summary”. We replied a few minutes later “Please provide the COMPLETE tentative budget, not just the summary”. No response was received.
We attempted to obtain the complete budget again, sending another email separate from the previous thread in case the reply was accidentally overlooked. On August 30, we emailed Walker and Mayor Luis Gomez, Jr. stating, “Sending this as a breakout email with a separate subject line in case you didn’t see my response question on the thread earlier today: Please provide the COMPLETE tentative budget, not just the summary.” Again, no response.
When we asked at the meeting, we were told by council members that they had received a copy of the complete budget before the vote. The complete budget was not available to the public at the meeting or on the town’s website.
“Why was there no copy available to the public before tonight? You’re approving numbers. The public has no idea what you’re approving,” NorthEscambia.com Publisher William Reynolds asked during the meeting.
Century administrative assistant Mallory Walker (pictured left) told the council that we didn’t make a public records request.
“He did not state it was a public records request,” she told the council. “He was provided with a summary.”
The subject line of the email we sent Walker was “Budget PRR” — PRR in the world of government is used commonly as shorthand for “Public Records Request”. Our records show dozens of emails to previous town clerks in Century that included “PRR” in the subject line and responses from the town.
No response was received to the August 30 email.
Florida’s Sunshine Law has no requirement that anyone requesting a record make any statement that it is a public records request, nor that the request be in person or in writing.
“We gave a complete budget summary and everything else we had the time. He sent an email back that said I want a complete budget.” Gomez stated, referencing the email above. “And we had sent him everything we had, and the council was issued a complete budget.” NorthEscambia.com questioned Gomez about how the council received a “complete budget” that did not exist, according to his statement.
“Y’all have everything y’all need to complete this business tonight,” Gomez told the council.
“The budget, you don’t give that out,” Century resident Emma Fletcher asked the mayor later in the meeting.
“I have him everything that we had,” Gomez responded, to which she replied, “you don’t have an itemized copy?”
“The council has everything they need to get this tentative budget passed tonight,” the mayor stated.
“You don’t give it out to the public. I mean some records,” she stated. Gomez interjected, “Did you do a records request?” Fletcher replied, “So i I’ll ask for a records request, I’ll get an itemized copy?”
During the public form, NorthEscambia.com again questioned why the town did not provide a complete budget in response to our asking if it was sent to the council members prior to the meeting.
“
Say whatever you want to say, I told you everting we had, you go,” Gomez (pictured left) said.
“For the record, Mr. Reynolds, we don’t have all day to sit there and cater to your shenanigans,” Gomez stated to NorthEscambia.com publisher William Reynolds. “Yes, that’s what it is, shenanigans.”
The Florida Government in the Sunshine manual states: “Accordingly, in the absence of a statutory exemption, a custodian must produce the records requested regardless of the number of records involved or possible inconvenience.”
Most, if not all, of the public records requests made to the town of Century this year by NorthEscambia.com have been for documents directly discussed or voted on by the town council that were not made available to the public prior to the meeting.
“But you’re going to get…you are going to stop,” Gomez said as he accosted Reynolds in the town hall lobby after Tuesday night’s meeting (pictured top).
Early Tuesday morning, we published the story Century Approves Tax Rate, $10.6 Million Budget But Details Shrouded In Mystery. The story was published without complete budget details because that information was not made available gtom the town.
Wednesday, NorthEscambia.com again requested (email below) a copy of the complete budget and an additional document. Both items were emailed to us about one and a half hours later.
We will analyze the complete budget and provide an update in an upcoming story on NorthEscambia.com.
NorthEscambia.com photos and images, click to enlarge.
Bratt Elementary Celebrates Leaders Of The Month
September 5, 2024
Bratt Elementary School recently celebrated their August leaders of the month. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Cloud Cover, Cooler And Rain For Thursday And Friday
September 5, 2024
Cloud cover, cooler and rain are the weather words for Thursday and Friday.
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Thursday: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. High near 79. East wind around 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Thursday Night: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 70. East wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Friday: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. High near 74. East wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
Friday Night: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 1am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1am. Cloudy, with a low around 67. Northeast wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Saturday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 80. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 63. North wind around 5 mph.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 82. North wind around 10 mph.
Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 63. North wind around 5 mph.
Monday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 85.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 66.
Tuesday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 83.
Tuesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 66.
Wednesday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 81.
Couple Of Days Remaining To Stock Up On Storm And Disaster Supplies Tax Free
September 5, 2024
Shoppers in Florida can stock up on storm supplies tax free through Friday, September 6 during a Disaster Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday
This year, Floridians are expected to save millions on vital disaster preparedness supplies such as pet supplies, tarps, batteries, generators and flashlights, which are all included in the list of items eligible to be purchased tax-free.
Below is a list of all qualifying items:
Selling for $10 or less
- Wet dog or cat food if sold individually or the equivalent if sold in a box or case
Selling for $15 or less
- Manual can openers
- Collapsible or travel-sized food or water bowls for pets
- Cat litter pans
- Pet waste disposal bags
- Hamster or rabbit substrate
Selling for $20 or less
- Reusable ice packs
- Leashes, collars, and muzzles for pets
- Pet pads
Selling for $25 or less
- Cat litter weighing 25 or fewer pounds
Selling for $40 or less
- Candles
- Flashlights
- Lanterns
- Pet beds
Selling for $50 or less
- Portable self-powered radios, two-way radios, or weather-band radios
- Gas or diesel fuel tanks
- Batteries, including rechargeable batteries, listed sizes only – a AA-cell, AAA-cell, C-cell, D-cell, 6-volt, 9-volt
Selling for $60 or less
- Nonelectric food storage coolers
- Portable power banks
Selling for $70 or less
- Smoke detectors or smoke alarms
- Fire extinguishers
- Carbon monoxide detectors
Selling for $100 or less
- Tarpaulins or other flexible waterproof sheeting
- Ground anchor systems
- Portable pet kennels and carriers
- Ratchet straps
- Tie-down kits
- Dry dog or cat food weighing less than 50 pounds
Selling for $3,000 or less
- Portable generators used to provide light or communications or to preserve food in a power outage
A previous two-week isaster Sales Tax Holiday was held June 1-14.