Officials Call For Solutions To Trains Blocking Crossings; Law Provides For Fines
December 14, 2018
Elected officials are tired of trains blocking local roads and cutting off neighborhoods, and they are looking for solutions — including a call by one county commissioner to starting fining CSX under a law passed nearly 25 years ago.
“I’ve got constituency whose quality of life is being harmed, if not their personal safety,” Escambia County Commissioner Steven Barry said. During a commission committee meeting Thursday, he entered into the record about 40 pages of comments on the train issue that were made Wednesday by NorthEscambia.com readers on our website and social media channels.
Trains blocking local roadways is quality of life issue, he said, because people can spend 30 minutes or more each day waiting for a train blocking Highway 29 near Muscogee Road. And Barry said it’s an obviously a public safety issue when first responders are blocked from reaching citizens in need.
One Cantonment neighborhood, east of Highway 95A from Countri Lane to McKenzie Road, has been completely cutoff for hours by a stopped train. There are documented incidents where fire trucks and EMS units were unable to respond to medical emergencies in the neighborhood due to stopped trains.
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Escambia County has had an ordinance on the books since 1994 that allows for a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail when a train blocks a crossing for more than 15 minutes, except in the case of an emergency or mechanical failure.
But enforcing that ordinance becomes difficult, according to county attorney Alison Rogers.
“This is a very difficult and frustrating area of the law. Railways and railroad companies have very significant federal protections and preemption,” Rogers said in an August email to NorthEscambia.com. “…I don’t recall anytime in recent memory that it has been tested. That said, there is no question that when dealing with railway issues, it is a challenge and cooperation is often difficult to obtain.”
Barry said a state law says that if a train is functioning and stopped, the railroad company must break the train for emergency vehicles, “but that’s not what happens”.
Barry and State Senator Doug Broxson said they are planning a sit down meeting with CSX decision makers early next year to address the issue.
“I’m very hopeful that we can sit down and figure something out …looking for a court to say the county does not have the ability to enforce the state and local ordinances,” Barry said Thursday. “”If we can’t get movement (from CSX), then I hope a majority of my colleagues would support at least making someone tell us that we can’t enforce the ordinances that we have.”
“We want to be civil about this and be gentlemanly in our approach, but if we have to modify the law to make sure our citizens are not being abused, that is what we will do,” Broxson said.
Commissioner Doug Underhill said it is time for Escambia County to start lobbying for funding for bridges over the railroad tracks on Airport Boulevard and Nine Mile Road and task county staff to determine if additional roads could support a secondary route.
Commissioner Lumon May said the Airport Boulevard crossing is sometimes blocked for 45 minutes by stopped trains.
“Those are critical moments that someone with a heart attack could be dead,” May said.
Pictured: An Escambia County Fire Rescue truck and an Escambia County EMS unit blocked by a stopped train on Highway 29 near Muscogee Road on two separate, unrelated emergency calls. Pictured below: A train blocked the Becks Lake Road crossing near Muscogee Road for about two hours early Thursday morning. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Navy Federal Donates Over 1,600 Toys For Christmas
December 14, 2018
The Navy Federal family is helping make the holidays brighter for children in Pensacola. On Thursday afternoon, members of the United States Marine Corps Reserve visited Navy Federal’s campus in Beulah to collect more than 1,600 toys and nine bicycles donated by employees and credit union members from the Pensacola community.
“Our members and employees have a passion to serve,” said Debbie Calder, executive vice president of Navy Federal’s Greater Pensacola Operations, “and this Toys for Tots collection will help insure local children will be able to enjoy the magic of this holiday season.”
Navy Federal has been collecting the new, unwrapped gifts at its campus in Beulah and its seven Pensacola-area branches since mid-November. In addition to the toys that were collected, Navy Federal donated $1,500 to the Toys for Tots Foundation.
“Many of us who donate are inspired knowing that Christmas will be brighter for many local children in need,” said Donald Belcher, Navy Federal training supervisor and Marine Corps veteran.
The primary goal of the Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots program is to help less fortunate children experience the joy of Christmas. Once they are collected by the Marines, the toys are then distributed into the communities where the toys were collected.
In addition to its support of Toys for Tots, Navy Federal employees in Pensacola also donated more than 1,170 items to the Council on Aging’s “Adopt a Senior” program and employees are currently supporting the “Adopt a Family” program though the Escambia County School District.
Corporately, Navy Federal has been supporting Toys for Tots for more than 20 years. Worldwide, the credit union collected more than 19,400 items for this effort in 2018.
Four Vehicles Involved In Cantonment Hit And Run Crash
December 14, 2018
At least one person was injured in a four-vehicle accident Thursday afternoon on Highway 29 near Kingsfield Road.
The driver of a pickup rear-ended the an 18-wheeler with a flatbed trailer. That pickup was then reportedly struck by a by a pickup that was hauling another pickup. A unknown white GMC then hit the second pickup involved the crash. The GMC fled the scene.
One person was transported to an area hospital by Escambia County EMS.
The crash is under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
Northview High Students Tour Escambia County Sheriff’s Office
December 14, 2018
A group of students from Northview High School’s criminal justice class toured the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office this week.
Students had the opportunity to go behind the scenes of the Sheriff’s Office with a tour of the dispatch center and demonstrations from the SWAT team, K-9 deputies, crime scene and the ECSO Mounted Posse.
For more photos, click here.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Safety Panel Backs Allowing Armed Teachers In Florida
December 14, 2018
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.
Debbi Hixon, a teacher 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.
Also included in the law — quickly passed and signed by Gov. Rick Scott, weeks after the shootings — was the controversial guardian program, which drew pushback from educators, parents and others. Lawmakers eventually settled on a compromise requiring school districts and sheriffs to approve the program for it into go into effect in counties.
The commission’s approval this week of the recommendation to allow armed teachers on school campuses quickly drew criticism from gun-rights advocates.
Allowing teachers to have guns is “a bad idea,” the Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence said in a news release.
“Instead of arming teachers, whose only job should be to teach our children, we call on the Legislature and Gov.-Elect (Ron) DeSantis to allocate proper and recurring funding for programs that include much-needed counseling and intervention services for young people along with de-escalation techniques and better environmental designs for Florida’s schools,” the group said.
But Gualtieri defended expanding the law.
“There are simply not enough cops to go around. So, if there are not enough cops to go around, then the best way to comply with that is to use the law to its maximum and allow the guardians to perform that function,” he told reporters during a break in Thursday’s meeting.
Under the law, school districts are permitted to hire guardians — people who have special training by county sheriffs but who are not full-time classroom teachers — to patrol school campuses. School boards must approve guardian programs by a majority vote, but sheriffs are not required to provide the training.
The law also requires each school in the state to have at least one school resource officer, which is usually a sheriff’s deputy, or a guardian.
About two dozen of the state’s 67 districts have opted for the guardian program as a cost-saving measure, because deputies are more expensive. Other sheriffs maintain they lack the manpower or funding to assign a resource officer to each school because the law enforcement training is more intensive than the training for guardians.
Decisions by some sheriffs to not implement the guardian program, even after county school officials said they wanted it, frustrated several members of the commission, which was finalizing a 407-page draft report in advance of a Jan. 1 deadline for recommendations to be complete.
Some sheriffs are refusing to train the guardians because their insurance providers have warned about potential liability, according to commission member Grady Judd, sheriff of Polk County.
“What we have right now is the St. Bernard-tail wagging the chihuahua dog,” Judd said. “I’m dadgum passionate about this. … I’m recommending that we change ‘may’ to ‘shall,’ at the request of the majority of the school board.”
The commission unanimously approved the recommendation, which was supported by Schachter and Ryan Petty, whose 14-year-old daughter, Alaina, was one of the slain Parkland students.
“I don’t think anyone should have, including the sheriffs of this state, should have any wiggle room to get around the legislative intent of (SB) 7026,” Petty said, referring to the legislation that passed earlier this year. “Sheriffs shall establish a guardian program.”
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
NorthEscambia.com file photo.
ECSO: Cantonment Man Caught With Dozens Of Driver’s Licenses
December 13, 2018
A Cantonment was jailed after he was allegedly found with dozens of driver’s licenses in his possession.
Brett Henry Barlow, 27, was charged with five counts of possession of a fictitious Florida driver’s license, possession of drug paraphernalia and giving a false name to a law enforcement officer.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded to a prowler complaint on Unity Court near Lincoln Park where Barlow was allegedly sitting on someone’s back porch. When deputies approached Barlow and asked for identification, he reached down and grabbed one of several identification cards that were at his feet. The photo on the card not appear to be Barlow, according to arrest report, and he verbally provided a false name and date of birth.
Inside Barlow’s satchel, deputies reported finding 36 driver’s licenses from 19 different states and five Florida driver’s licenses. The Florida licenses were not valid, and the the identifications from the others states were “noted to a have numerous suspicious errors,” the arrest report states.
Deputies were able to contact the person listed on a military identification card, two bank cards and a matching New Mexico driver’s license also found in the satchel. The victim told deputies she had left her wallet in a public bathroom at a motel on Barrancas Avenue.
Barlow also had two syringes in his possession, one of which was filled with a brownish liquid that tested negative for heroin, according to the Sheriff’s Office. It is being forwarded to a laboratory for further testing.
Once Barlow provided his correct name to deputies, they determined he had an outstanding warrant from Escambia County for failure to appear on a petit theft charged and Georgia warrant for a probation violation.
Barlow remained in the Escambia County Jail Thursday morning.
Deputy Cleared In Shooting Of Jay Man; The Man Shot Is Now Jailed
December 13, 2018
A deputy has been cleared in the shooting of a Jay man, and the man that was shot has now been arrested.
The State Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday they have completed their review into the October 20 shooting by a Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office deputy at a home on Highway 4 in Jay.
Glen Dillon Phillips, 26, was shot after he pointed a crossbow at deputies. He has now been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and three counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.
The incident began when the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Officer received a call from a man that said Phillips was threatening to kill him with the crossbow. Phillips refused to exit the Highway 4 residence for over an hour after deputies arrived.
Officers eventually made entry into the residence where they found Phillips naked and armed with a crossbow, according to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement report. He then pointed the crossbow at the deputies, with a deputy firing a single shot that struck Phillips under the right armpit.
Three days later, Phillips told investigators that he was naked on the floor, praying to his “Earth and native God”. He advised that he pointed the crossbow at deputies, but once they identified themselves as law enforcement he threw the crossbow onto a couch before he was shot.
He said “that he believed that people or aliens may be coming to take a meteorite he had previously located because he believed it was worth a lot of money,” the FDLE report states.
He told officers that he had not used narcotics prior to the incident. However, his hospital records indicate that he tested positive for amphetamines, cannabinoids, and benzodiazepines. During subsequent television interview with WEAR 3, Phillips said he had been using methamphetamine prior to the incident.
One Injured In Highway 29 Wreck
December 13, 2018
One person was injured in a two vehicle accident Wednesday evening on Highway 29 at Archer Road. The driver of a car apparently rear-ended a pickup truck and trailer. The trailer was loaded with a tractor. The 5:50 p.m. crash is under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol. NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
Tate Alumni Association Collects Food For Molino Ministry
December 13, 2018
The Tate High Alumni Association collected food items at their Wednesday meeting for the mission program at the Cross Roads Thrift Store in Molino. The food was delivered by Grace Howard Paulcheck (pictured). Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Century Prison Visitor Caught With Marijuana
December 13, 2018
The Florida Department of Corrections continues their zero tolerance policy for any type of contraband.
Sunday, the Century Correctional Institutions K-9 team alerted on a visitor’s vehicle. During a search of the vehicle, the visitor admitted to possessing marijuana. Their visitation was terminated
Whenever contraband is recovered on a visitor, local law enforcement is also contacted and makes the determination whether to make an arrest. No information was provided by the FDOC on any arrest in connection with Sunday’s incident.
NorthEscambia.com file photo.