No Injuries In Highway 29 Semi, Car Wreck
March 24, 2017
There were no injuries in a two vehicle crash involving a semi-truck and car this morning south of Molino. The accident was reported about 6:10 a.m. on Highway 29 at Highway 196. The semi came to a stop slightly south of the accident scene at Victory Road. The accident is under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol. NorthEscambia.com reader photos, click to enlarge.
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Escambia County March 29 Committee Of The Whole Rescheduled
March 24, 2017
The Board of County Commissioners Committee of the Whole Workshop originally scheduled for Wednesday, March 29 at 9 a.m. has been rescheduled to Tuesday, April 25. The board will hold an Economic Development Summit beginning at 9 a.m., followed by discussions concerning the Brownsville Resource Center and Safe Neighborhoods.
The meeting will take place in the Ernie Lee Magaha Government Building, Board Chambers, at 221 Palafox Place.
All Commission meetings can be viewed live on MyEscambia.com/ectv, channel 98 for Bright House, Cox Cable and Mediacom (Pensacola Beach) subscribers and channel 99 for AT&T U-verse subscribers and are available on ECTV On Demand.
Century Man Charged With Assaulting Disabled Son’s Caretaker
March 24, 2017
A Century man has been charged with assaulting a caretaker working with his disabled son.
The victim, who was employed by an agency that cares for disabled persons, told deputies she was working as a caretaker inside a home on York Road when Marvin Anthony Haynie, father of the disabled person, entered the kitchen and held her against a freezer. She reported that Haynie then tried to kiss her and asked her to show him a private body area during the November 2016 incident.
Haynie was arrested this week for felony battery. He remained in the Escambia County Jail Friday morning with bond set at $7,500.
Tate Grad To Depart On Unique College ‘Dorm Tour’ Concert Series
March 24, 2017
From day one Tate High School graduate Paul Vinson has had big dreams and on Monday his biggest dream yet becomes a reality.
At 18-years old Vinson has planned, organized, and booked an entire concert tour over the course of 18 days, 13 shows, and 3,500 miles of driving. Vinson will go as far north as New York City and as far west as Hattiesburg, Miss.. But here’s the catch — all of the shows are free and in college dorm rooms.
Vinson has been writing and performing his music all over the greater Pensacola area at places like Gallery Night and other local establishments. After graduating from Tate High School in 2016, Vinson decided that the route of college wasn’t for him in his pursuit of a music career. And now he will be playing shows in college dorms all across the east coast and will be documenting the whole thing for his YouTube channel.
“I had this idea about a year ago now, I thought it was awesome, slightly ironic and I knew it had never been done before. That inspired me to go through with it and to document everything, but all of this dreaming doesn’t come without a cost,” he said. “I figure most of my friends in college are broke and to make this work I couldn’t charge for shows.”
In about a week, a GoFundMe drive raised Vinson’s goal of $1,500 to fund his tour — mostly for the gas for his Kia Soul.
Vinson’s “The Dorm Tour” starts Monday at Troy University and ends April 14 at Florida State University. Along the way, tour stops include concerts at Southern Miss, University of Florida, the University of Alabama, Mississippi State and more.
Vinson will be debuting all of the songs on his upcoming EP “Leaving Home” which releases early this summer and will also be daily vlogging the experience on YouTube.
Pictured top: Paul Vinson at his Dorm Tour promo show January 11 at the University of West Florida’s Martin Hall.
Divided Senate Backs Ending ‘Liquor Wall’
March 24, 2017
A heavily lobbied proposal to knock down a Depression-era ban on liquor being sold alongside groceries narrowly survived the Senate on Thursday, after a passionate debate that included some opponents warning the change could make alcohol more accessible to — or even “kill” — children.
The so-called “liquor wall” measure (SB 106), which must still get House approval, was approved in a 21-17 vote. Sponsor Anitere Flores, R-Miami, defend her bill at one point by saying, “this is not going to kill anybody. No one is going to die if this bill passes or not.”
The issue has led to repeated legislative battles in recent years, pitting Walmart and Target, which want to stock liquor on shelves near other goods, against Publix and ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, which have stand-alone liquor stores as part of their corporate blueprints.
Flores called the law requiring stand-alone liquor stores “antiquated.”
Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said the 1934 law doesn’t reflect “contemporary life” in which people can order home delivery of liquor through apps on their phones.
Walmart and Target lobbyists say the change is needed to meet customers’ demands and convenience.
In asking lawmakers to reject the proposal, Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, said “large corporate citizens want us to do it (approve the bill) for their own economic purposes.”
Latvala’s comment caused Sen. Tom Lee, R-Thonotosassa, to fire back — in a speech that ended with him dropping a live microphone on his desk — by saying, “We talk about who is pushing it, but we know who is pushing against it too, Sen. Latvala. We know who’s pushing against it real hard.”
Opponents argue the change will impact small liquor stores, eliminate jobs, result in a greater ability for minors to get liquor and lead to more impulse-buying of alcohol.
Sen. Daphne Campbell, D-Miami, argued that she couldn’t support “a bill that is going to kill my own youngsters.”
“How can I do this, to come here and vote for a bill where children or the high school students, going to the store when they have a break to eat lunch, and (they’re) going to buy alcohol,” Campbell said. And “while they’re driving back to school and they die or they get arrested for DUI.”
The proposal would stagger the repeal of the law over several years; prohibit new package stores from being licensed within 1,000 feet of schools; and require that small bottles, 6.8 ounces or less, be displayed only behind the counter.
Also, the measure would require checkout clerks under the age of 18 to be supervised by someone 18 or older when alcohol is being purchased and prohibit the state from issuing liquor licenses to gas stations that are not linked with locations providing more than 10,000 square-feet of retail space.
Sen. Frank Artiles, a Miami Republican who called the measure “the Walmart bill,” argued that it would hurt small businesses.
The proposal doesn’t “just stack the deck against small businesses; they ensure they don’t get a fair hand,” Artiles said. “If this bill becomes law, it will decimate the family-owned small businesses, and unfortunately a lot of Floridians will lose their jobs.”
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Pictured: A separate liquor store next to the Publix in University Town Center on West Nine Mile Road. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
House Signs Off On BP Settlement Bills For Escambia, Santa Rosa
March 24, 2017
Northwest Florida counties moved closer Thursday to getting money the state received last year from the multibillion-dollar BP settlement tied to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The House unanimously voted for a pair of measures that would create a trust fund from which the BP settlement money would be available to the non-profit organization Triumph Gulf Coast and set a framework for how the counties most impacted by the disaster can use dollars.
However, the House and Senate must still agree on those uses.
“I think it’s pretty close,” said Rep. Jay Trumbull, a Panama City Republican sponsoring the bills. “There are obviously some significant differences — the Senate version does have economic incentives. But we’ve done a lot of things that mirror the Senate’s version.”
Both chambers have proposed measures to allocate $300 million of the $400 million received last year to eight Gulf Coast counties — Bay, Escambia, Franklin, Gulf, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Wakulla and Walton — hit most severely by the disaster. The proposals would also send to those counties three-fourths of the remainder of the $2 billion the state is expected to receive for economic damages associated with the disaster, which dumped millions of gallons of oil less than 100 miles off the Florida coast.
However, the House proposals go further than a Senate measure (SB 364) by imposing additional guidelines on how the money can be used to market Northwest Florida and to support broad economic-development projects.
Those issues reflect ongoing, larger philosophical differences between the House and Senate on business-recruitment and tourism-marketing issues.
Sen. George Gainer, a Panama City Republican who is a co-sponsor of the Senate proposal, on Thursday said the differences were minor.
“I think we’re like-minded as far as taking care of North Florida,” Gainer said. “As long as we have that common denominator, I think we’re going to be fine.”
by The News Service of Florida
Century Council Members Get Tablets; Agendas Going Electronic
March 24, 2017
New Samsung tablets have been distributed to each of the five members of the Century Town Council.
The tablets will be used to electrfonically distribute council agendas and backup materials prior to meetings, according to Mayor Henry Hawkins. Previously, town staffers have physically delivered agenda packets to council members’ homes, usually on the Friday prior to a Monday meeting.
Hawkins said the tablets from AT&T cost “about $2″ due to reworking the town’s contract with the telecommunications company.
Council members were told that the tablets come with very limited amounts of data on the AT&T network. Instead of using cellular data, council members were told to use the tablets only on wi-fi networks.
Tate Aggies Win Sarasota Baseball Classic Title
March 24, 2017
A week after claiming the title in their Aggie Classic, the Tate Aggies won the Sarasota Baseball Classic championship Thursday night 3-2 over Trinity Christian.
Tate’s Kyler Hultgren was named the tournament’s best hitter, while Aggie Gabe Castro was named tournament MVP.
Castro earned the win Thursday night for the Tate Aggies. He pitched seven innings, allowing two runs, three hits, and striking out four.
Hunter NeSmith, Logan McGuffey, and Hultgren each drove in one run to lead Tate to the tournament win.
Trinity took a 2-0 lead in the top of the fifth inning, but Tate tied it at 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth before adding the winning run in the seventh.
One Injured In Overturned Dump Truck On Nine Mile
March 23, 2017
One person was injured when a dump truck overturned Thursday on Nine Mile Road near Beulah Road. The driver was transported by ambulance to an area hospital with minor injuries. Further details have not been released by the Florida Highway Patrol. NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
Century Earns $723K For Role In Financing $1.5 Billion In Projects
March 23, 2017
Over the past 18 years, the Town of Century has served an integral role in the tax-exempt financing of $1.5 billion worth of projects, including affordable housing projects, airport facilities, hotel and convention developments promoting tourism, health care projects, and K-12 educational buildings.
It’s a role that has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars for Century.
On the surface it might seem unlikely that Century, the poorest small city in the state, could play a part in the financing of dozens of multi-million projects including the Community Maritime Park in Pensacola, $439 million in hotel and convention centers for the Seminole Nation, airport cargo terminals, schools and apartment complexes.
The approvals were granted by Century and Gulf Breeze as members of the Capital Trust Agency, an independent public body for the purpose of financing or otherwise accomplishing development programs. Century entered into the Capital Trust Agency with Gulf Breeze in 1999 with Century essentially serving as the “second signature” for CTA, certifying that the projects meet a public purpose under IRS rules and regulations.
“Your responsibility is simply to look at these to decide if they do in fact look like a legitimate public purpose,” CTA Executive Director Ed Gray, III told the Century Town Council recently. “You are not deciding on the financial viability of them; you are not taking any liability. You are simply looking at them from the standpoint of a common sense approach that these look reasonable and therefore move forward.
The CTA is structured in such a way to indemnify Century from any financial risk, whether it be from a company that defaults on repayment or any other legal liabilities, according to Michael Stebbins, CTA attorney. The funds used for the bonds are from the CTA’s coffers, not from Century or Gulf Breeze.
Century has received $723,430.47 in fees since the inception of CTA.
“It’s a been a good relationship that should continue indefinitely,” Gray said.
Pictured: Capital Trust Agency Executive Director Ed Gray, III addresses the Century Town Council. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.