Firefighters Respond To Cotton Trash Fire At Gin Company
January 17, 2019
Fire departments from across the area responded to the West Florida Gin on Meadows Road in Davisville about 10:40 Thursday morning.
A fire was smoldering in cotton “trash”, a by-product of the cleaning and ginning process. The fires happen usually happen each year, and sometimes take several hours to extinguish.
There was no immediate reports to damage to the structures in the facility and no injuries reported.
The Walnut Hill, McDavid and Century stations of Escambia Fire Rescue, the Atmore Fire Department and the Nokomis (AL) Volunteer Fire Department were among those dispatched to the cotton gin.
NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Ceremony Marks Start Of Demolition Of Old Jail Damaged In Explosion
January 17, 2019
Demolition is now on the former jail building that was heavily damaged in an explosion in 2014.
Escambia County hosted a ceremony this morning to mark the demolition of the former Escambia County Central Booking and Detention Facility.
The brief program included the history of the building, plans for the site, and a moment of silence and prayers for the approximately 600 inmates and staff who were in the building when an explosion in the basement laundry room occurred during the April 2014 flooding event.
The explosion killed two and injured 184.
Robert Earl Simmons, age 54 of Railroad Street in McDavid, was arrested on multiple felony animal cruelty charges three months before the jail explosion. He was being held without bond due to an alleged probation violation in a 2012 grand theft and trespassing case. He was due for a probation violation hearing to determine his possible bond eligibility.
David Paul Weinstein, age 45, was arrested February 28, 2014, for fraud providing false owner information a pawned item, dealing in stolen property and grand theft. His bond was set at $12,500, but he was placed under a “hold” by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office where he had an outstanding warrant. His trial in Escambia County was set for mid-July 2014.
Both men were found dead surrounded by debris in the same part of the jail.
About 600 inmates were inside when the explosion caused by a natural gas leak ripped through the Escambia County Central Booking and Detention Facility on West Leonard Street.
People as far away as Molino and Gulf Breeze reported feeling or hearing the blast.
Tate QB Club Raising Funds To Assist Banks, McCoy Family
January 17, 2019
The Tate High School Quarterback Club is accepting donations to help the family of Sean Banks and Antoinette McCoy, the siblings killed last weekend in a traffic crash.
“The Banks family was experiencing extreme financial hardship to fund flights for immediate family members to travel from Virginia to Pensacola for the services and burial. Based upon time constraints related to booking and arranging flights, the Tate QB Club paid for these airline tickets in full,” the Quarterback Club said in a news release.
The cost of the airline tickets was $2,787. Any funds received in excess of that amount will be provided to the Banks family to offset other expenses association with the funeral expenses.
Checks should be made payable to the Tate QB Club, noting “Banks Airline Tickets” in the memo line. Mail checks to: Tate QB Club, P.O. Box 303, Gonzalez, FL 32560.
Online donations can be made in $5 increments at www.tatehighfootball.com/shop (change the item quantity to increase the donation amount).
“Thanks so much for your kindness and support of this family during this time of extreme grief,” the Quarterback Club said. The Tate Quarterback is a 501(c)(3) organization.
For information on funeral services, click here.
Click the image to read the entire letter from the Tate Quarterback Club.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Cantonment Firefighter Named VFW’s Fire Rescue Person of The Year
January 17, 2019
VFW Post 706 named Escambia Fire Rescue Lt. Bryan Caro as Fire Rescue Person of the Year Wednesday night.
He was honored for pulling a woman from a burning home on Portobella Place, just south of East Kingsfield Road, on November 2, 2018. The home was heavily damaged by fire.
Caro serves at the Cantonment Station of Escambia Fire Rescue.
Pictured above: Escambia Fire Rescue Chief Rusty Nail, Lt. Bryan Caro and ECFR Deputy Chief Paul Williams. Pictured below: Caro was honored for pulling a woman from this burning home on Portobella Place last November. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Funeral Services Set For Sean Banks, Antoinette McCoy
January 17, 2019
Funeral services will be Saturday for a brother and sister killed in a tragic crash on East Kingsfield Road.
Sean Banks, a 15-year old sophomore scholar three-sport athlete at Tate High School, and sister Antoinette McCoy were killed in a tragic car crash early Saturday morning when their vehicle was hit by an alleged DUI driver on East Kingsfield Road. It was just hours after Banks’ last basketball game for Tate, and only about a month since McCoy graduated from college.
Visitation will be held Friday from 2-8 p.m. at Tracy Morton Memorial Chapel at 55 Coast Road. The funeral service will be at 9 a.m. Saturday at Hillcrest Baptist Church at 900 East 9 Mile Road.
No Spell Check Needed! Middle School Spelling Bee Winners Named
January 17, 2019
Middle School winners in the 43rd Annual Sandy Sansing Spelling Bee were:
Middle School Overall
- 1st- Jayson Tran – Sims Middle
- 2nd- Maverick Marley – Sherwood Elementary
- 3rd- Shelby Lewis- Ranson Middle
8th Grade
- 1st- Jayson Tran- Sims Middle
- 2nd- Shelby Lewis- Ransom Middle
- 3rd- Carey Vinson- Workman Middle
7th Grade
- 1st- Trustin Canada- Holley Navarre Middle
- 2nd- Jackson Burkette- Sims Middle
- 3rd- Ashlyn Dionne- Bailey Middle
6th Grade
- 1st-Caleb Parnell- Sims Middle
- 2nd- Mateo Soto- Holley Navarre Middle
- 3rd- Charlie Hall- Pensacola Christian
Pictured top: Eighth grade winners. Below: Seventh grade winners. Bottom: Sixth grade winners. Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Century Heat Beats The Pelicans In Atmore
January 17, 2019
The Century Heat youth basketball team defeated the Pelicans in Atmore 9-6.
Jakel Phifer, Milkavion White, Keyunta Ewing, Marquise Banks, and TyCoren Burt lead the Century Heat in the win.
Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
DeSantis: Hurricane Debris Remains ‘Huge, Huge Undertaking”
January 17, 2019
Gov. Ron DeSantis directed the state Division of Emergency Management to speed money to Panhandle communities that are being swamped financially by “massive” amounts of debris from Hurricane Michael.
Emerging from a closed-door meeting Wednesday with Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long and local officials, DeSantis said that, in addition to upfronting disaster relief money to local governments, he will push the White House to increase federal reimbursements for debris cleanup.
“I think that this warrants it,” DeSantis said after the meeting at A.D. Harris Learning Village in Panama City. “Obviously, there is a lot of stuff going on in Washington right now, it’s not the best of times. But I think that would be very good for the local community.”
DeSantis and Long later planned to tour Tyndall Air Force Base, Mexico Beach and a site where temporary housing was being put up in Panama City.
In addition to receiving the concerns from local officials about debris removal, Long said additional temporary housing is on the way.
“I think we have to take a deep breath and understand large-scale disaster recovery takes many years. It’s not just a matter of months,” Long said. “While a lot’s been accomplished, we realize we have a long way to go.”
Long also said he doesn’t expect Michael’s recovery to require a request for additional emergency funding from Congress or that the response for Michael will be impacted by the federal shutdown, which has halted paperwork for people seeking reimbursements from 2017’s Hurricane Irma.
Florida Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz said the state understands the needs of local governments that are burning through their annual budgets responding to Michael.
“It’s an impossible task when you have a $5- or $10- or $20-million annual budget, but yet the debris is two or three times your annual budget,” Moskowitz said.
State officials have estimated the Oct. 10 hurricane created about 20 million cubic tons of debris, as the Category 4 storm barreled a path from Mexico Beach into Georgia. Much of the debris is still strewn across the region.
By comparison, Hurricane Irma, which cut a path from the Florida Keys to Jacksonville, resulted in about 2 million cubic tons of debris.
Local governments expect to eventually receive 75 percent reimbursement from the federal government for debris removal. DeSantis said his request is to bump that figure to 90 percent on the federal side.
“I’m just constantly surprised at the scale of the debris,” DeSantis said. “For a storm that hit a relatively small portion of our state to have 10 times the debris of a storm (Irma) — that, granted, wasn’t as powerful but really ran up the whole state — that is a huge, huge undertaking.”
DeSantis said he’s seen progress in the clean-up and that the quicker the debris is cleared, other steps in the recovery will follow, such as reopening businesses and being able to better welcome tourists.
Wednesday was the second time DeSantis has gone to Bay County to view the recovery effort since he took office Jan. 8.
As of Friday, the storm had resulted in 141,039 insurance claims, with estimated insured losses of $5.023 billion. So far, nearly 73 percent of the claims have been closed, and 84 percent of the closed cases have resulted in money changing hands.
Still, state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said he’s urging insurance companies to more quickly close claims.
“The longer that we draw out the insurance claims process, the more frustrating our homeowners get with the claims process, the more likely they are to go out and seek other solutions, and sometimes those other solutions are going to lead to fraud in their insurance claim,” Patronis, a Panama City Republican, said.
Patronis has also urged the Triumph Gulf Coast Board to work with the state Division of Bond Finance to assist in establishing loans that local governments could use for rebuilding. Triumph Gulf Coast administers settlement money from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
“My team has reviewed the law governing Triumph funds, and it seems to provide many allowable uses,” Patronis wrote to the board Friday. “Specifically, we believe these funds are an appropriate funding source to help rebuilding efforts by making secured loans to local governments.”
The Triumph board is awaiting a report from Bay County about the economic impacts of the storm.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
During Pensacola Meeting, State School Board Tackles Hurricane, Security Issues
January 17, 2019
With the annual legislative session nearing, lawmakers and education leaders likely will have to grapple with the fallout of Hurricane Michael on Northwest Florida school districts and continued questions about how to bolster school safety throughout the state.
Those issues drew discussion Wednesday during a State Board of Education meeting in Pensacola that also included new appointee Andy Pollack taking his seat on the board. Pollack’s daughter Meadow was among 17 students and faculty members killed in February during a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County.
Escambia County Superintendent Malcolm Thomas, representing the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, outlined a handful of major issues facing public schools, including a need to provide support to districts that face rebuilding or replacing schools damaged by Hurricane Michael.
Board Vice Chairman Andy Tuck also raised a question about whether the hard-hit counties face an exodus of students — an issue that could affect the amount of money districts receive through the state’s school-funding formula.
“When you start losing students, it’s just going to make it that much tougher,” Tuck said.
The Category 4 Hurricane Michael made landfall Oct. 10 in Mexico Beach in southeastern Bay County and caused billions of dollars of damage as it roared north into the Georgia. In its path were rural, relatively low-income areas such as Calhoun, Liberty and Jackson counties.
Escambia County was far enough west that it was spared significant damage, but Thomas said that it has received students who moved away from Bay County after the storm. Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, a former House speaker and budget chairman, indicated the state would work with the hurricane-damaged counties to determine the financial impacts and provide help.
Requests for help also could extend to state colleges in Northwest Florida. Palm Beach State College President Ava Parker, representing college presidents at Wednesday’s meeting, said the state also needs to look at the financial impacts of the storm on Gulf Coast State College in Bay County and Chipola College in Jackson County.
Lawmakers will start the annual legislative session March 5, with education funding always a major point of discussion. But during this year’s session, they also will deal with school-safety issues that emerged after the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
House and Senate education committees next week are slated to receive presentations on a report by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, which was created by the Legislature and spent months delving into the shooting incident and ways to improve security.
One of the biggest debates likely will focus on having armed school personnel on campuses. While schools have long used law-enforcement officers, known as school resource officers, a law passed last year also allowed the use of armed school “guardians” — trained school personnel whose primary job duties are outside the classroom.
The commission recommended that classroom teachers be allowed to carry guns, though that idea was highly controversial when raised last year.
School districts have used different strategies to put armed security on campuses this year, but Thomas, the Escambia County superintendent, said the issue “remains a challenge.” When asked by Pollack for further explanation, Thomas said, for example, that his district chose to use off-duty law-enforcement officers to provide security, rather than guardians.
But he said the Escambia County sheriff “can’t afford to give up 32 deputies to go to 32 elementary schools, as much as he would like to.” Thomas suggested possibilities such as employing private security firms and using a centralized training system for guardians across the state to ease local training burdens.
by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida
Image courtesy The Florida Channel.
Suspect Arrested After Breaking Into Camper In Cantonment
January 16, 2019
A man was arrested after breaking into a camper trailer at a Cantonment residence Wednesday morning.
Jonah Richard Harris, 28, was charged with third degree felony burglary of an unoccupied structure, petit theft and simple assault.
About 6:40 a.m., the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded to Plaza Road after a resident discovered a man later identified as Harris inside a camper. Harris fled the scene, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
He later threatened a woman that he made contact with as he was fleeing the area, deputies said.
The Sheriff’s Office established a perimeter and K-9 units responded to search for the burglary suspect. Harris was taken into custody without incident and booked into the Escambia County Jail at 10:08 a.m. He remained in jail Thursday with bond set at $7,000.