County Board Approves Plans For New First Baptist Church Of Cantonment Building
August 16, 2018
The Escambia County Board of Adjustment voted Wednesday to approve the conditional use of property owned by the First Baptist Church of Cantonment to construct a new sanctuary.
The church on Morris Avenue has proposed building a new 19,000 square foot building just west of their current location on a vacant lot the church owns and uses for sports fields and overflow parking. The new building and about 130 parking space will be located close to the Morris Avenue end of the eight acre property.
The existing First Baptist Church of Cantonment has been located at 118 Morris Avenue for over 60 years. The church purchased the vacant lot about 15 years ago for the purpose of one day building a new facility.
“The church has been growing and now has a need to expand a new church building to accommodate the growing needs of its increasing number of members,” according to their county application.
The church must still obtain the approval of the Escambia County Development Review Committee and complete the normal permitting process.
NorthEscambia.com photos and graphic, click to enlarge.
Tate Graduate Forecasts Career In Television Weather
August 16, 2018
Cantonment native Alexandra Kent is forecasting a career as a television meteorologist.
Kent was the featured weather personality Wednesday afternoon on WTVA TV in Tupelo, MS. She has interned at the station this summer as she works toward her meteorology degree at Mississippi State.
She will graduate in 2019, and plans to apply for a masters degree program at the University of Oklahoma.
Kent graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2014 from Tate High School where she was a member of the Multimedia Academy. She also attended Ransom Middle School and Pine Meadow Elementary, and volunteered at Escambia Westgate.
Courtesy image for NothEscambia.com ,click to enlarge.
Nine Mile Road Carjacking Foiled Because Suspect Couldn’t Drive Stick Shift; Bystander Pulls Gun
August 16, 2018
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a carjacking suspect that could not get away because he was unable to drive a stick shift when a bystander pulled a gun.
On August 9th, the suspect entered an occupied vehicle at the Circle K at 3225 West Nine Mile Road. He then pulled a gun on the driver and demanded he exit the vehicle, the ECSO said Wednesday.
The driver yelled for help. Another citizen heard him yell, exited his own vehicle with a gun and demanded the suspect get out of the car. Deputies said the suspect was unable to drive away because he couldn’t operate the standard transmission car. A surveillance video shows him running through the parking lot of a nearby business.
The suspect was described as a black male in his mid-20s. He was wearing a gray hoodie, black running pants with two white stripes down each side, according to the ECSO.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620 or CrimeStoppers at (850) 433-STOP.
Survelliance images provide by the ECSO.
Details Released In Century Counterfeit Cash Arrest; Deputies Search For Suspect
August 16, 2018
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is continuing their search for a man they say passed counterfeit cash in Century, a week after another suspect was arrested.
Montaio Dearies Mitchell was booked into the Escambia County Jail last Thursday night and released on a $2,500 bond.
An employee of Odom’s Bar on North Century Boulevard reported the counterfeit $100 was passed to her at the business’s drive-thru window when Mitchell requested a 99-cent bottle of orange juice.
When the employee told him the bill was counterfeit, Mitchell told her to return it to him, and he paid for the orange juice with a $1 bill, according to an arrest report.
The same day, deputies responded to Odom’s Bar where counterfeit bills were allegedly passed by Antonio Demetrius Ewing. Ewing fled from deputies on foot and was not pursued, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Ewing is wanted for fleeing and eluding law enforcement, driving with a suspended license and vehicle theft. If you have any information on Ewing’s whereabouts, call Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP or the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620.
DUI Driver Pleads Guilty In Pace Crash That Left Two Sisters Dead
August 16, 2018
A Santa Rosa County man has entered a guilty plea to 14 charges in connection with the DUI manslaughter death of two girls in Pace.
Kailen Kelly, age 35 of Pace, was traveling at a high rate of speed May 6 when he crossed into another lane on Woodbine Road and slammed his 2008 Ford pickup head-on into a 2010 Buick driven by 39-year old Melanie Harrell of Pace. . Stormie P. Harrell, 7, and Michaela D. Sidney, 17, were killed. Melanie Harrell and 18-year old McKenzie Murphy were injured.
Kelly’s license was suspended until April 2018 — reinstated just days before the crash — after he refused to submit to a DUI test in Okaloosa County in 2017. His past includes threatening a person with a firearm and discharging a firearm in Escambia County and two prior DUI convictions.
He had a blood alcohol level of .149, had marijuana in his system and refused a breath test after the double fatal crash May 6, according to testimony. He showed no remorse, and a 12 pack of beer was found in his truck.
Kelly was charged with two counts of DUI-vehicular manslaughter, DUI with serious bodily injury to another, refusing to submit to a DUI test after license suspension, reckless driving, fleeing/eluding police and other traffic offenses.
Pictured top: Kelly’s vehicle following a double fatal crash. Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Tate’s Decoux Commits To Coastal Alabama North
August 16, 2018
Amber Decoux, member of the Tate High School Class of 2019, has verbally committed to further her education and play softball at Coastal Alabama North in Monroeville, AL. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Jacksonville Beats The Wahoos
August 16, 2018
Nick Neidert (W, 11-6) shut down the Wahoos offense on Wednesday and earned his league-leading 11th win of the season as the Jumbo Shrimp rolled to a 9-2 win at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
Pensacola found themselves trailing 1-0 after MLB-rehabber Lewis Brinson homered on Vladimir Gutierrez’s (L, 9-10) first pitch of the game. After that pitch, Gutierrez struck out the next two batters and induced Joe Dunand into a weak groundout to end the first. The Cuban right-hander picked up seven strikeouts through 3.2 innings, but surrendered two more runs in the fourth. He finished the night after six innings and yielded five runs (four earned) with no walks allowed.
The Blue Wahoos took the lead in the third inning when Chris Okey belted a two-run homer off Neidert to give the Wahoos a 2-1 lead. However, the offense was held in check for the rest of the night. Neidert went seven innings and held the Wahoos to four hits while also striking out seven. Pensacola finished with just five hits, which was their lowest hit total since July 27.
Jacksonville put the game out of reach in the seventh inning with a four-run rally. Already 5-2, Justin Twine delivered a two-run single off Alejandro Chacin before Dunand launched a two-run homer to make it 9-2. For Dunand, it was his second homer of the night.
Trump Support Propels DeSantis In Governor’s Race
August 16, 2018
The Republican primary for governor may come down to an occasional Florida resident who is not even a registered voter in the state.
But President Donald Trump, who owns and frequents the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, has had a huge impact in the Aug. 28 GOP primary. And the beneficiary has been U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, a three-term Republican congressman from Northeast Florida.
Trump, who is intervening in a number of local and state races across the country, has been talking up DeSantis’ prospects as the next governor since last year. He issued an endorsement tweet on June 22.
“Ron is strong on Borders, tough on Crime & big on Cutting Taxes – Loves our Military & our Vets,” Trump tweeted, while also noting DeSantis’ Ivy League education credentials.
On July 31, Trump made it personal, endorsing DeSantis, who turns 40 next month, at a political rally in Tampa before a raucous crowd of some 10,000 supporters. It provided a bright presidential spotlight for a once-obscure congressman in the state’s largest media market.
“He’s going to be an incredible governor,” Trump said.
DeSantis, a lawyer and U.S. Navy veteran who has carved out a record as one of the most conservative members of Florida’s congressional delegation, has fully embraced Trump’s support. He has melded that with frequent appearances on Fox News, where he has defended the president, as well Trump’s efforts in Congress.
On the morning of his first primary debate with Republican rival Adam Putnam in late June, DeSantis was in Washington, D.C., where as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, he led questioning of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about the “anti-Trump bias” in an investigation of the president.
The next day, DeSantis told party activists gathered at a summit in Kissimmee that there are clear differences between himself and Putnam, whom he has labeled as a “career politician.” Putnam is finishing his second term as state agriculture commissioner and previously served in Congress and the Legislature.
“Do you want somebody who has been in politics their whole life and is more of a transactional Republican? Or do you want a conservative, Iraq veteran endorsed by President Donald Trump?” DeSantis told the crowd. “That’s a great contrast. You guys pick.”
Independent polls have shown the strategy has given DeSantis, who flirted with a U.S. Senate bid in 2016, the momentum in the primary, despite the fact that Putnam had raised $37 million for his campaign and political committee through Aug. 3, while DeSantis had raised $16 million.
The trajectory was predicted in an April memo from Brad Herold, DeSantis’ campaign manager, noting that nearly nine of every 10 primary voters approved of Trump and that they were “more likely” to support a candidate that had his endorsement.
“Meaning, as we get closer to the primary election, more of these voters will naturally gravitate to Ron DeSantis as long as we have the resources to inform them of the president’s support,” Herold wrote.
DeSantis’ Washington-centric campaign has drawn harsh criticism from Putnam and his supporters, who charge the congressman has failed to tell voters what he would do as governor.
In their final debate in Jacksonville, Putnam likened DeSantis’ campaign to the television show “Seinfeld,” which was famously a comedy “about nothing.”
“But, unlike Seinfeld, it’s not funny,” Putnam said about DeSantis’ campaign. “Floridians deserve better than to have a candidate that makes it all about themselves and not about the future of Florida.”
DeSantis’ supporters liken Putnam’s campaign to another long-time Florida politician, former Attorney General Bill McCollum, who lost to a political newcomer, Rick Scott, in the 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary. Using his personal wealth, Scott was able to align his successful campaign with the rise of tea party conservatives.
“I think he is this year’s Rick Scott in terms of his ability to articulate an outside message to Republicans who are tired of long-time, career politicians,” former state Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said before an Aug. 2 political rally for his son, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz that also included DeSantis and Donald Trump Jr.
The elder Gaetz said he would like to see more discussion about critical state issues, but he also said DeSantis was responding to a GOP electorate that is interested in national issues like immigration, the economy and the U.S. military.
“That’s what is on people’s minds,” Gaetz said. “In that sense, DeSantis is made for the moment because he’s a candidate with a national understanding. But he certainly has the capacity and the experience to be the governor of Florida.”
Ronald Dion DeSantis was born Sept. 14, 1978 in Jacksonville. But he grew up in what he described as a blue-collar environment in Dunedin with his parents, Ronald and Karen, and a sister. DeSantis had an early brush with fame when his local baseball team made it to the Little League World Series in 1991.
DeSantis’ performance as a student at Dunedin High School helped him win admission to Yale University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history. He was also the captain of the school’s baseball team.
He went on to earn a law degree from Harvard University in 2005 and joined the U.S. Navy’s Judge Advocate General Corps. As a military lawyer, DeSantis was assigned to duties at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, which houses suspected terrorists.
In 2007, he was assigned to a SEAL team that was deployed to Iraq, and he served as a legal adviser. He returned to the United States in 2008 and left active military service in 2010.
In 2009, he married Casey Black, a Jacksonville television personality. The couple has two young children, with a son born in March and a daughter born in November 2016.
DeSantis reported a net worth of $311,000 in 2017, with his largest asset being a $400,000 home in Ponte Vedra Beach, a seaside community in St. Johns County south of Jacksonville.
DeSantis won election in 2012 to an open congressional seat, which after redistricting now includes Volusia and Flagler counties and portions of St. Johns and Lake counties. He was re-elected in 2014 and 2016.
In Congress, DeSantis was one of the founding members of the Freedom Caucus, a hardline conservative faction that has pushed for reductions in federal spending, advocated for tougher immigration measures and called for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
How DeSantis will apply those conservative principles to his role as governor is largely unknown because of the dearth of detailed policy statements from the candidate.
He has repeatedly talked about appointing “conservative constitutionalists” as judges, noting three new state Supreme Court justices will be appointed in January.
DeSantis said he wants to emphasize the teaching of the U.S. Constitution in Florida classrooms in “a big way.”
He has also vowed to confront the issue of toxic algae in waterways in Southeast and Southwest Florida and to back the use of an electronic verification system to determine the immigration status of workers.
But a recurring theme in all of DeSantis’ campaign speeches has been his relationship with Trump. It was exemplified by his concluding remarks to party activists in Kissimmee in June.
“I have compiled a record of conservative leadership that is second to none, and I am endorsed by the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump,” DeSantis said, before reading a portion of a December tweet where the president called him “a brilliant young leader” who would make “a great governor.”
by Lloyd Dunkelberger, The News Service of Florida
FHP Looking For Cantonment Man That Fled Hospital After Nine Mile Crash
August 15, 2018
The Florida Highway Patrol is searching for a Cantonment man that fled from the hospital following a Nine Mile Road crash Wednesday morning.
Brandon Joseph Levy, 35, was traveling north on Old Palafox near Nine Mile Road fleeing the scene of a previous hit and run wreck in a 2006 Chevrolet Malibu when he caused another crash involving four other vehicles, according to the FHP.
Four other drivers – Charles Scott Swenson, 76, of Pensacola, Margaret Louise Voorhees, 86, of Cantonment, Amanda A. Tidwell, 82, of Cantonment, and Marcus Alan Greene, 53, of Pensacola – were not injured.
Levy was transported to Sacred Heart Hospital where he fled on foot and could not be located. He is wanted on charges of hit and run, reckless driving and resisting without violence.
Anyone that knows the whereabouts of Levy is asked to call Trooper Knowles at *FHP, email constanceknowles@flhsmv.gov or call Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-TIPS or (877) 433-TIPS.
Pictured: Brandon Joseph Levy of Cantonment in a 2016 photo.
ECSO Identifies Suspect That Caused Tate High Campus To Go Into Lockdown
August 15, 2018
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office has identified a suspect that caused the Tate High School campus to go into lockdown Tuesday afternoon.
Deputies responded to a call of a suspicious person armed with a firearm near the school. They said James Edward Jordan, Jr., fled and hid under a mobile home in before being taken into custody on nearby railroad tracks.
Jordan, 34, was charged with obstruction of justice, resisting arrest without violence and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. He remained in the Escambia County Jail Wednesday with bond set at $3,000.
The Tate High lockdown was after dismissal time, but was a precaution due to students on campus for extra-curricular activities.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Smith, click to enlarge.
