Brick House: Northview Baseball Has Improved Field
February 23, 2018
The Northview High Chiefs baseball field that is sporting a brand new look.
The old chain link backstop is gone and the new brick backstop has been completed with new netting. The brick stretches from dugout to dugout, designed to enhance the appearance from both on and off the field. New concrete pads were also installed under the bleacher seating areas.
“The Diamond Club would like to express it’s sincere appreciation and thanks to all who worked on the project and especially to the many businesses and individuals who sponsor the baseball program at Northview High. Thank you so much,” David Preston, Diamond Club board of directors member, said.
Eric Scott Branch Executed For Brutal Murder Of UWF Student
February 22, 2018
More than 25 years after he sexually assaulted and murdered a University of West Florida student, Death Row inmate Eric Scott Branch was executed Thursday evening at Florida State Prison.
Branch, 47, died by lethal injection at 6:05 p.m. Central, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
Earlier in the day, Branch was visited by his daughter, who did not attend the execution. He had a last meal of pork chops, T-bone steak, french fries, ginger ale and two pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
Branch was sentenced to death in the January 1993 murder in Escambia County of University of West Florida student Susan Morris.
In their appeals, Branch’s attorneys argued, in part, that Branch was 21 at the time of the murder and that brain development continues into the mid-20s, according to court documents. As a result, they contended he should be considered like a juvenile for death-penalty purposes.
The U.S. Supreme Court has barred the death penalty for people under age 18 because it would violate an Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. But the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the argument that Branch should be considered like a juvenile, saying that “the United States Supreme Court has continued to identify 18 as the critical age for purposes of Eighth Amendment jurisprudence.”
On the evening of January 11, 1993, Branch attacked Susan Morris as she walked to her car in the campus parking lot of the University of West Florida. Branch dragged Morris into a nearby wooded area where he severely beat her in the face and head, strangled her, and sexually battered her. Branch then left Morris’ body in a shallow grave covered with dirt and leaves, and stole her car to flee out of the state.
An Escambia County jury convicted Branch in 1994 of first-degree murder and sexual battery.
Branch was previously convicted for the 1991 sexual battery and beating of a 14-year-old girl in Indiana, and was subsequently convicted in Bay County for another sexual battery that he had committed 10 days prior to killing Susan Morris.
Boil Water Notice Issued For Cottage Hill Area Homes, Businesses And School
February 22, 2018
An unknown number of Cottage Hill Water Works customers lost water service Thursday afternoon, including Jim Allen Elementary School and several businesses.
The utility said a contractor installing a natural gas pipeline hit one of the utility’s water mains. Customers in the area including Highway 95A from Highway 29 to at least Neal Road, including Jim Allen Elementary and Porky’s Pizza; Neal Road, an area on Highway 29, Ridge Way Drive, Rose Petal Lane, Pine Top Lane, Forehand Lane and other nearby areas were impacted.
A boil water notice has been issued (see below, click to enlarge). According to Cottage Hill Water Works, customers that only experienced low pressure and no complete water loss will not need to follow the boil water notice.
State Says OK To Town’s Plan To Close Showalter Park Overnight
February 22, 2018
Century Mayor Henry Hawkins wants to close Showalter Park between sunset and sunrise due to multiple problems, and concerns that a fine print on a grant might prevent that have been elimated.
“Somebody in their infinite wisdom went out there and took a crap on a slide,” he said.
Hawkins said the park has been the target of vandals, and an area around an adjacent cemetery has become a “lover’s lane” during the night hours.
Town Planner Debbie Nickles expressed concern that a state grant used in the park stipulated continued public access, and it might be a problem to close the park overnight. Thursday afternoon, Nickles said she checked with the state, and the park can be closed as long as hours are posted , and it is open from at least sunrise to sunset.
“It’s costing us money to fix stupid,” the mayor said, adding the vandalism incidents have happened despite frequent patrols by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. He said deputies ride through the park about every hour at night, unless they are on other calls for service.
Showalter park includes the town’s splash pad, a playground, ball fields and more amenities.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Update: Pavement Down In Muscogee Road Project
February 22, 2018
The roadway was paved this week in a widening and drainage improvement project on Muscogee Road from Highway 297A to the Perdido River.
Muscogee Road was closed from Beulah Road to Carlisle Road in late September for the installation of a water main, reconstruction of a portion of the roadway, and construction of 5-foot shoulders. Traffic has been detoured via Highway 29 and Barrineau Park Road to Highway 112 in Alabama.
The roadway is not yet open, but it is expected to reopen soon.
There are still three phases to come in the overall project:
Perdido River to Beulah
- 90% Design under review
- Easements needed from Water Management District; request pending design completion
- Design Completion pending construction funding
Carlisle to 97
- 60% Design
- Letters were mailed to residents requesting participation in property donations for right-of-way
- Staff is following up with residents for participation
97 to Nowak
- 60% Design
- Letters were mailed to residents requesting participation in property donations for right-of-way
- Staff is following up with residents for participation
Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Billy Graham: Local Residents Remember Evangelist’s Final Crusade
February 22, 2018
Everything stopped when Rev. Billy Graham came on TV.
Bro. Tim Hawsey, youth pastor at the First Baptist Church of Bratt, remembers watching countless Billy Graham crusades on television over the years, and when everybody around would stop and watch as he preached the Word of God.
“You stopped what you were doing and gather around the TV to hear the Word,” Hawsey said.
The son of a farmer from North Carolina, Graham accepted God as a teen and set about to spread the Gospel, becoming pastor and spiritual adviser to presidents for 70 years while speaking for over 50 years to the hearts of hundreds of millions of people across the world. An altar call was followed by entire stadiums of people joining the song “Just As I Am” as countless people dedicated their lives to Jesus Christ.
But for Hawsey and a group of about 45 from the First Baptist Church of Bratt, watching on television was nothing like hearing America’s pastor in person as they attended his final crusade in June 2005 in New York City.
“There were so many people in that crowd,” Hawsey said Wednesday. “We were back a ways, but you could see him real well on these big screens.”
“The most amazing thing to me about the crowd was just the number of nationalities that were there and the languages that they spoke. They would gather around interpreters speaking their language,” Theresa Hanks of Bratt said.
Graham, age 86 at the time, used a walker to move across the stage and to the pulpit on that warm day.
“It was amazing. They had to help him up and across the stage, and it seemed like he was so fragile,” Hawsey said. “But when he grabbed ahold of that pulpit, it was like the Lord energized him again.”
Graham preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to some 215 million people who attended one of his more than 400 Crusades, simulcasts and evangelistic rallies in more than 185 countries and territories. He reached millions more through TV, video, film, the internet and 34 books.
In 2001, he comforted his country and the world when he spoke at the National Cathedral in Washington, following the September 11 terrorist attacks.
“The power of God truly moved through him,” Hawsey said.
Hanks agreed. “You would get goose bumps on some of the things he said.
Devon (Fuller) Miller was 16 when she joined the First Baptist Church of Bratt on the trip to see Graham’s final crusade.
“His sermon was very straightforward when you heard him preach,” Miller said. “He didn’t beat around the bush, it was straight from the word of God. “It was where anybody could understand. It was not fire and brimstone banging on the pulpit; and it was not about him either. It was all about Christ, not about this internationally famous man standing up there preaching.”
“That was the first time I truly saw the Holy Spirit at work in mass numbers of people at the same time,” said Marcella Wilson, an adult volunteer on the trip. “When Billy Graham gave the altar go people by the hundreds came down to altar to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. All ages of people and all kinds of different nationalities and skin colors were coming to the altar getting on their knees asking for forgiveness of their sins and to receive salvation … It was God being God.”
Raja Atalla and his wife Angie now live in Byrneville, but they were working as summer camp counselors in New Jersey in 2005. They attended the last day of Graham’s final crusade on June 26, 2005. He remembers the music that Sunday, traditional gospel songs heard often at Graham’s crusades — including “Amazing Grace,” “How Great Thou Art,” and “Because He Lives”.
“Finally Billy Graham took the pulpit and delivered a clear salvation message focusing on the ‘amazing love of God’ through Jesus. I recall seeing several go forward at the end of his message, though not as many as we expected at a Graham Crusade,” Atallah said.
“The GREAT Billy Graham is dead. There was nobody like him! He will be missed by Christians and all religions. A very special man,” President Donald Trump posted on Twitter Wednesday. And former president Barack Obama posted “Billy Graham was a humble servant who prayed for so many — and who, with wisdom and grace, gave hope and guidance to generations of Americans.”
“I have one message: that Jesus Christ came, he died on a cross, he rose again, and he asked us to repent of our sins and receive him by faith as Lord and Savior, and if we do, we have forgiveness of all of our sins,” said Graham at his final Crusade.
During the week of his 95th birthday in 2013, Graham delivered his final message via more than 480 television stations across the U.S. and Canada. More than 26,000 churches participated in this My Hope project, making it the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s largest evangelistic outreach ever in North America, as he proclaimed that America was “in great need of a spiritual awakening.”
But perhaps Billy Graham gets the last word on this death. In his autobiography “God’s Ambassador”, he wrote: “Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.”
Pictured top and lower inset: Billy Graham’s final crusade June, 26, 2005, outside New York City. Photos by Raja Atallah. Pictured top inset: A flyer advertising the crusade, courtesy Tim Hawsey. Pictured below: A group from the First Baptist Church of Bratt in June 2005 at the site of the Billy Graham crusade, courtesy First Baptist Church of Bratt. Submitted for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Atmore Man’s Car Goes Over Bridge Guardrail (With Photo Gallery)
February 22, 2018
An Atmore man crashed crashed his vehicle over a guardrail and into the water between the Highway 90 bridge spans in Santa Rosa County Wednesday.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, 47-year old Daniel Payton Taylor was headed east on Highway 90 when his 2005 Chevrolet Tahoe traveled on the grassy median about two miles west of Woodbine Road. The Tahoe then collided head-on with a guardrail that is intended to protect vehicles from entering the water between the two bridges.
Impact with the guardrail sent the Tahoe into the air before entering the water, the FHP report said. The Tahoe came to rest fully submerged.
Taylor received minor injuries and was transported to West Florida Hospital.
For more a photo gallery, click here.
Photos by Florida Highway Patrol (top) and Jacob Gilmore/Matchett Towing for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Local Students Visit Tallahassee On Annual Youth Tour
February 22, 2018
Ten high school juniors from the Escambia River Electric Cooperative service area recently took part in the annual Tallahassee Youth Tour to learn more about their state legislature and electric cooperatives.
Participants included Gabby Chavers, Lane Hoffman and Logan Hoffman from Central High School; Emily Brown, Alyssa Chavis, Bryce Cook, Jared Damron, Maci Holt and McKayla Hoomes from Jay High School; and Lydia Smith from Northview High School.
While in Tallahassee, the students met with other high school juniors from electric cooperatives throughout the state. Approximately 120 students participated in this year’s Youth Tour event.
EREC delegates toured the Governor’s Mansion and visited the Florida State High Magnetic Field Laboratory Tour. Students participated in a mock session in the House of Representatives and an Educational Court Session in the Supreme Court.
Pictured top: 2018 EREC Youth Tour participants Logan Hoffman, Jared Damron, Lane Hoffman, Bryce Cook, Emily Brown, Alyssa Chavis, Gabby Chavers, Lydia Smith, McKayla Hoomes and Maci Holt.
Annual Walnut Hill Ruritan Farm Auction Is Saturday
February 22, 2018
The 44th Annual Walnut Hill Ruritan Club Farm Equipment Auction will be held this Saturday, February 24, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
The auction includes not only farm equipment, but also household items like tools and small equipment, lawn and garden items, antiques and more. Items can be received on Friday.
Settlement must be made the day of the sale; unknown buyers must have cash, cashier’s check, major credit card, or a letter of credit from their bank. Items must be removed within 24 hours.
Concessions will be available all day from the Ruritan Club.
The sale will be located at the Walnut Hill Community Center on Highway 97 just north of Ernest Ward Middle School.
For more information or consignments, call (850) 384-5761 or (850) 327-4292.
Pictured: Hundreds attended the 2017 Walnut Hill Ruritan Club farm equipment auction in Walnut Hill. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
School Shooting: Students Rally, Meet With State Leaders
February 22, 2018
A week after a mass shooting at a Broward County high school, survivors and gun-control advocates demanded Wednesday that state lawmakers enact tighter gun and school-safety laws as a rally drew one of the largest crowds at the Capitol since the 2000 election recount.
Several thousand people gathered outside the Old Capitol building and overflowed onto nearby Monroe Street, as students, activists and Democratic lawmakers expressed anger amid chants of “We want change,” “Not one more,” “Throw them out,” and “Never again.”
“This tragedy has taught us to be fearless, because we now know what it feels like to be afraid,” Rachel Catania, 15, a sophomore from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, told a roaring crowd. “How many more innocent people have to die before we make a change? Change is overdue. And we are the change. When leaders act like children and children act like leaders, you know something is about to change.”
People attending the event vented about a need to improve safety, with banners proclaiming, “It Happened at my school #NeverAgain,” “Listen to the students, they are the targets,” and “No fear in our schools.”
As a sign of interest in the issues, the Leon County school district allowed its students to attend the rally.
Two gun-related measures backed by Second Amendment advocates were put on hold Wednesday as students from Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and other schools pressured lawmakers for gun-control legislation.
The Senate postponed a vote on a bill (SB 1048) that would allow people with concealed-weapons licenses to carry guns at churches and other religious institutions that share property with schools. It also postponed a vote on a more-obscure bill (HB 55) that would allow people to use credit cards to make payments for background checks on firearm purchases.
Sen. Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican who is sponsoring the bill about guns at churches, said it was a good to “pause” as lawmakers come face to face with students grieving after the mass shooting last week that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Also, lawmakers await a proposed legislative package from Gov. Rick Scott in response to the shooting.
“Right now, we understand what this week is. It’s very enmeshed in what we do to make students safe,” Baxley said. “We understand that atmosphere, and that’s why some of these things just need to be put off.”
Students cried, pleaded and argued with lawmakers Wednesday in the state Capitol.
More than 100 survivors of one of the nation’s worst school shootings spent the day advocating for changes ranging from stricter gun laws to metal detectors, demanding that state lawmakers take swift action to prevent another tragedy like the one that left 17 people, including 14 schoolmates, dead.
The students met with a wide range of legislators and other officials, including Gov. Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Education Commissioner Pam Stewart, House Speaker Richard Corcoran and Senate President Joe Negron.
While the students’ main focus was on gun control, the teenagers — several of whom gave impassioned speeches at a midday press conference — also begged lawmakers to quickly pass measures to make schools safer in other ways.
“We will not be discouraged. We will not falter. We will not stop this movement. This is more than just us. This is everybody in America. This is for every single kid who fears for their life. This is more than Parkland. This is more than Florida. This is more than the United States. This is something serious. It is about human lives,” Alfonso Calderon, 16, said at the press conference.
Nearly all of the students attended a meeting with Corcoran inside the House chamber, where Madison Leal gave a tearful description of how “my high school turned into a horror scene” after Nikolas Cruz opened fire on faculty and students with an assault-style rifle on Feb. 14. Leal said she hid in a closet for hours, crying and texting, unaware of what was happening outside her classroom.
Republican House members Jeanette Nunez of Miami and Jim Boyd of Bradenton, along with Coconut Creek Democrat Kristin Jacobs and Sen. Lauren Book, a Plantation Democrat who helped organized the bus trip, joined Corcoran in promising the students that they would pass some legislation to protect students before the legislative session ends on March 9.
“This has overshadowed everything. This has become our priority. I cannot say it enough: We will not fail you,” Nunez pledged.
Many of the students questioned why state lawmakers would not support an outright ban on assault-style rifles like the one used by Cruz, who legally purchased the weapon, with no waiting period, last year.
One girl asked Corcoran “why such a destructive gun is available to the public.”
“It’s widely used in multiple different scenarios,” the speaker said, adding that “we’re having a conversation about it” and that he has six children.
“I don’t think there’s bipartisan support for it,” Corcoran said.
While students politely raised their hands to be called on during the meeting with Corcoran, the teenagers were more confrontational shortly afterward as they stood at the podium facing dozens of television cameras and members of the press from around the world.
“We are not here to be patted on the back,” 17-year-old senior Delaney Tarr said.
Tarr said she and her friends are angered by politicians who “dance around our questions,” reminding lawmakers that many of the students will soon be able to vote.
“We want change,” Tarr said. “They must do right by us or lose their jobs. … We’ve had enough of thoughts and prayers.”
The students had mixed reactions to their reception by lawmakers.
Leal said she disagreed with Corcoran about the ban on assault weapons, a demand that was the focus of a large rally outside the Capitol on Wednesday.
Ryan Deitsch, a senior at the high school, criticized legislators for “political doubletalk” on the gun issue.
“I can vote, and I know who I’m not voting for,” Deitsch said.
Scott on Tuesday said he intends to roll out a legislative package by Friday that would, among other things, require schools to hold active shooter drills, “significantly increase” funding for school safety and mental health, and make it harder for people with a history of mental-health problems, like Cruz, to have guns.
Scott also wants to make sure people under age 21 can’t purchase long guns or rifles and impose waiting periods for the purchases of rifles, similar to current restrictions for handguns.
The House, too, will release a proposal before the end of the week, Corcoran told reporters Wednesday afternoon.
by Jim Turner and Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
