Century To Pay $10K to Settle Bad Debt Lawsuit
April 8, 2020
The Town of Century will pay up $10,000 to settle a bad debt lawsuit against them by a Georgia consulting company.
In 2008, City Services, Inc. (CSI) entered into a contract with the town to provide consulting, maintenance and repair services to the town’s natural gas system. The town contracted with the company for an annual natural gas leak survey, pipeline evaluations, testing, rate reviews and other services. Without a timely termination notice, the agreement renewed annually.
According to a City Services bill dated January 8, 2020, the town fell behind on their $1,200 per month bill in October 2018 and last made a payment in December 2018. The bill has continued accrue and with finance charges and stood at $19,287.19 when City Services filed suit.
Monday night, the town council agreed to pay $10,000 to settle the case at the recommendation of town attorney Matt Dannheisser.
“Our case was not very good,” Interim City Manager Vernon Prather said. He told the council that funds were available to pay the settlement and “we will find it in the budget”, but he did not specify where exactly the town would get the money.
Escambia (AL) Hospitals Report Five Confirmed COVID-19 Cases, 199 Administered Tests
April 8, 2020
Five people tested at the two hospitals in Escambia County, Alabama, are confirmed positive for COVID-19, according to the Escambia County (AL) Healthcare Authority, which oversees Atmore Community Hospital and D.W. McMillan Hospital in Brewton.
They have administered a total of 199 tests, making the positive rate 2.5%, considerably less than the Alabama statewide positive rate of 14.7%.
Data released Tuesday evening shows there have been 126 total specimens collected at Atmore Community Hospital with four positives, 97 negatives and 24 awaiting results.
At D.W. McMillan Hospital, there have been 73 total tests with one positive, 61 negatives and 11 pending results.
The Alabama Department of Public Health was reporting three confirmed COVID-19 cases and 84 total tests in Escambia County as of Tuesday night. The difference between the health department’s total and the hospitals’ totals can be attributed to timing of the data releases. Also, the health department will officially record a case in the patient’s county of residence.
NorthEscambia.com file photo.
ECUA May Be A Little Late On Your Sanitation Collection. Here’s Why And When They Will Catch Up.
April 8, 2020
Did ECUA miss your pick up?
Not to worry, ECUA Public Information Officer Nathalie Bowers said. She said that this time of year, yard waste levels are extraordinarily heavy as residents take advantage of longer days and seasonable weather to spruce up their yards, especially on weekends. And COVID-19 is indirectly adding to the delay.
“This year, with so many residents working from home and students out of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are also experiencing very high levels of household garbage, recyclables, and bulk waste items. These elevated levels mean our trucks fill up faster and need to make more trips to the landfill, taking more time to complete their route,” Bowers said.
Collections on some routes are currently running approximately half-a-day behind schedule.
“If any waste collections are missed, it is likely that the truck did not finish its daily route. Be assured that the truck will complete its route the next day. In Escambia County, all collections will completed by Saturday. Collections in Santa Rosa County will be caught up by Wednesday and Saturday,” she added.
If a collection is still missed beyond the expected delay, customers can call (850) 476-0480.
“We appreciate our customers’ understanding as we work through the issues that arise due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the greater-than normal springtime yard waste volumes,” Bowers said.
Attorney General Continues Coronavirus Price Gouging Crackdown
April 8, 2020
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s Office continues to crack down on those jacking up prices on items in demand due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
“Members of my Rapid Response Team, Consumer Protection Division and Price Gouging Hotline are working with a sense of urgency to address consumer concerns in real time. Since activating the hotline, our office has secured more than $130,000 in refunds for consumers and issued 59 investigative subpoenas. We will not relent in our efforts to protect Floridians from gouging and scams during this unprecedented time of crisis. You can help by reporting outrageous price increases on essential commodities to my office whenever and wherever you encounter them,” Moody said.
The attorney general said that since activating her 1(866) 9NO-SCAM price gouging hotlines, her office has:
- Received approximately 2,000 consumer contacts about the price of essential commodities;
- Made more than 2,700 referrals and contacts to merchants about allegations of price gouging, refunds and scams;
- Secured more than $130,000 in refunds related to travel, leisure and product purchases;
- Issued 59 subpoenas to further price gouging investigations; and
- Worked with online platforms to deactivate more than 130 posts offering items for outrageous prices.
Moody recently announced an investigation into Norwegian Cruise Lines. The Office is also taking action against third-party sellers using Amazon to allegedly gouge consumers.
Violators of the price gouging statute are subject to civil penalties of $1,000 per violation and up to a total of $25,000 for multiple violations committed in a single 24-hour period.
Two Juvenile Pedestrians Were Injured In A Hit And Run On Quintette Road. Driver Later Told FHP He Thought He Hit A Deer.
April 7, 2020
Two juveniles were critically injured in a hit and run crash Monday night on Quintette Road. The driver later called troopers to say he thought he hit a deer.
The Florida Highway Patrol said 12-year old Hailey Locke and a 13-year old not named in the crash report were walking west on Quintette Road approaching Carrington Lake Boulevard when they were struck by a Ford Escape driven by 58-year old Robert William Etheridge of Cantonment.
The front of the Ford Escape collided with the first pedestrian’s back, throwing him onto the hood and into the windshield. Locke, 12, was thrown about 65 feet onto the right shoulder of the roadway. Both were transported to Sacred Heart Hospital in critical condition — one of them airlifted by Shandscair helicopter as a trauma alert.
The FHP said Etheridge immediately fled the scene and later contacted FHP to say he may have hit a deer in the same area. A trooper was dispatched to his home and located the vehicle that collided with the pedestrians.
FHP said charges against Etheridge are pending.
NorthEsambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
Century Council Declares State Of Emergency, Learns Large Groups Were Shooting Hoops Last Weekend
April 7, 2020
The Century Town Council declared a state of emergency during a telephone meeting Monday night, and council members discussed a problem with large groups of people gathering to play basketball against social distancing guidelines.
Monday night was the first time the council had met since March 2 and their first chance to declare an official state of emergency concurrent with those declared by the state and county due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The council also discussed the need for town crews to immediately remove basketball goals from town parks and reinforce that the playgrounds should not be used due to the coronavirus.
Council member James Smith said residents of surrounding areas like Atmore and Brewton were traveling to Century to play hoops because basketball goals were already removed in their towns. Smith said he there were about 50 people at a basketball game outside a community center in Century.
Council member Luis Gomez said there were about 100 people gathered, and a fight broke out.
Ordinarily, a majority of a governing body like the Century Town Council must be present in the same location in order to conduct a meeting in Florida, but that requirement was suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis. That allowed the council to hold the phone meeting.
Mayor Henry Hawkins, Interim City Manager Vernon Prather and two other town staffers were the only people present in the council chambers for the meeting. All five council members participated by phone.
The phone meeting using a free conference call service went reasonably well. At least two council members dropped their connections during the call but were able to quickly reconnect. The meeting was delayed for a few minutes because someone did not mute their phone and background noise from a television made it impossible for callers to hear each other.
“It’s not me,” Council member Sandra McMurray Jackson quipped about the noise from a TV. “I’m at the funeral home.”
The council meeting ended with a prayer from Hawkins and a round of goodbyes between callers.
You Are Loved! Check Out Pine Forest High School’s Shoutout To Students
April 7, 2020
Pine Forest High School posted a shoutout to students Monday night on social media.
With handmade signs for each word and individual photos, the shoutout said “Dear Eagles. We miss you so very much and want you to know you are loved!”
Click the photo to enlarge.
Escambia County Company Begins 3-D Printing Face Mask Shields Inspired By Facebook Post
April 7, 2020
As COVID-19 spread across the United States in March, Caroline Shaw knew the pandemic would alter many parts of her job as a sourcing manager at GE Renewable Energy’s wind turbine factory in Pensacola.
What Shaw hadn’t expected was for the virus to present her with a problem that seemed to have no simple solution.
A team of her coworkers had been assigned to screen employees for fevers or other signs of infection, and her job was to keep the team supplied with proper personal protective equipment, especially N95 face masks that limit the spread of the disease. Yet Shaw knew that adding to the small supply she had on hand would mean diverting masks from doctors and nurses who were in even more dire need of protection. “There’s a supply out there for the medical community,” Shaw says, “but we didn’t want to tap into that.”
Shaw hit upon a possible way out while browsing Facebook on Sunday, March 22. A message posted by a friend from her church described a couple in Virginia who were using a simple 3D printer to build plastic shields for protecting disposable N95 masks.
3D-printed mask shields are meant to extend the life of the N95 masks. The concept is simple — by placing the protective mask shield over the N95 masks, it helps to limit exposure of the mask to contaminants. In turn, this offers an opportunity to extend the life of an N95 mask beyond its typical one-time use while supply remains constrained. “These masks are intended to be disposable, but the CDC has guidelines on what to do in crisis situations,” Shaw explains.
As it happened, Shaw knew a lot about additive manufacturing, as 3D-printing is more formally known. Her plant uses an industrial-grade 3D printer to make tooling and custom-made gauges and prototype wind turbine components.
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So Shaw got moving. One of the central advantages of additive manufacturing is the speed it can move from idea to prototype to finished product. Shaw hit upon the idea on Sunday, the same day as her Facebook eureka moment, printed a plastic prototype of the N95 protective shield on a simple 3D printer on Monday and gave it to the on-site nurse to try out that afternoon.
Word spread fast. That same Tuesday, Tiffany Craft, a senior repair engineer, had caught wind of Shaw’s efforts and immediately began printing the mask shields. Craft gave the shields to her emergency response team and dropped a couple off at the local hospital. Craft has also been testing multiple materials and prototyping full mask designs to provide protection. Today, she’s helping build a design library where GE teams from around the world planning to 3D-print personal protection equipment can go for insights.
Soon, 20 of Shaw and Craft’s colleagues from around GE joined in the effort, coordinating their contributions to crowdsourcing improvements in the design. They included U.S. and Hungary-based teams from GE Aviation, GE Research and GE Power.
While the initial version worked well enough, the testers reported back several flaws. The tabs that kept the shield in place had a tendency to break off, so the team thickened the tabs and narrowed the slots they fit into on the chin piece. They also eliminated the elastic strap and created a plastic nub where the band of the N95 mask could fit, making the shields easier for workers in gloves to get on and off.
Shaw, Craft and their colleagues aren’t done. While additive manufacturing excels at rapid prototyping, it takes about 40 minutes to make each shield. The next and faster iteration of the manufacturing process could involve water jetting, which uses streams of water laced with tiny pieces of garnet to carve the masks out of sheets of plastic. This method has the additional advantage of being able to form the shield from plastics that are less porous than the ones 3D-printed. This could make them easier to clean by lowering the chance of a virus being able to cling to the shields.
That advance should allow shields to be produced every 5 minutes. After that, the team is looking to move to laser or die cutting, with the goal of being able to produce a shield in just 5 seconds.
Five Staff Members, Four Inmates COVID-19 Positive At Blackwater Prison
April 7, 2020
Five staff members and four inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 at a Milton prison.
The Florida Department of Corrections said Monday that five employees or contract staff members at Blackwater Correctional Facility have tested positive as they confirmed the four positive inmates. Blackwater is privately operated by the Geo Group, Inc. under a contract with the state.
A week ago, the coronavirus count at Blackwater was three workers and no inmates.
A staffer at the Century Correctional Institution has also tested positive for coronavirus. No CCI inmates were positive as of Monday’s report.
Poarch Creeks Donate $1 Million To Atmore Hospital For Equipment, COVID-19 Testing
April 7, 2020
The Poarch Band of Creek Indians Monday announced a $1 million donation to the Atmore Community Hospital which serves the city of Atmore and western Escambia County, Alabama, where the Poarch Creek Tribe’s trust lands are located.
The donation, which was earlier approved by Poarch’s Tribal Council, provides funding that the hospital urgently needs to replace vital equipment such as a CT scanner, ultrasound imaging, and new hospital beds.
Additionally, funding from the Tribe will help the hospital meet added expenses and staffing needs associated with collecting samples for testing and caring for patients potentially affected by the Covid-19 virus.
In announcing the donation, Poarch’s Tribal Chair and CEO Stephanie Bryan said, “We know how critically important Atmore Community Hospital is to our Tribe and all of our neighbors who live in and around Atmore. We understand the financial challenges that rural hospitals like it face every day, and we support its mission and its leadership. That is especially true now that our country is dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. We are committed to doing everything we can to make sure this great hospital that serves our community has what it needs.”
Chris Griffin, CEO of The Escambia County Healthcare Authority noted, “This extremely generous donation from the Tribe could not have come at a more opportune time. We are committed to caring for our community, especially now during the Covid-19 crisis. These funds will help us pay for the expensive equipment and capital improvements that we have sorely needed, and the Tribe has also made it possible for us to cover the unexpected costs associated with the virus. We are so grateful that Poarch has supported us at critically important times through the years, and this is certainly one of them.”
Atmore Community Hospital is governed by the Escambia County Healthcare Authority Board of Directors. It is a not-for-profit acute care hospital and generates the majority of its funding from the services it provides.