Sewage Leak Reported At Century Woods Apartments
November 7, 2016
The Town of Century has cleaned up a sewer leaking into an apartment complex driveway.
A lift station stopped pumping and filled sewer lines, which caused about 25 gallons of sewage to leak from a manhole onto the driveway pavement of the Century Woods Apartments on West Highway 4. The leak was reported by apartment management about 9 a.m. The lift station alarm was working property but due to the time of the day, no one reported the alarm. The “tenants were at work,” according to a public notice.
The lift station was repaired and the area was disinfected. “There is no potential risk to the public health, safety or welfare,” the town said.
Shots Fired At Escambia Deputies In Cantonment; Sheriff Issues Warning For Suspect
November 7, 2016
There was a massive manhunt today in Cantonment after shots were fired at Escambia County deputies. There were no deputies hit or injured.
The deputies were working to serve a felony warrant in the 900 block of Booker Street area when someone in a silver Dodge Charger or a black Chevrolet Impala drove by and shot at them, according to Amber Southard, spokesperson for the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
“We have reason to believe that someone attempted to ambush our deputies in Cantonment,” Escambia County Deputy Sheriff David Morgan said.
Deputies were attempting to serve warrants on Jeffrey Jermaine Purifoy (pictured left) for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without the intent to kill and aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony at the time the shots were fired.
“Mr. Purifoy, I am looking for you. I request that you turn yourself in. This is Escambia County, FL. Unlike other places in the United States of America, when shot at, we shoot back. Or especially when we have cowards who attempt to ambush our officers. You entered into a very deadly game young man,” Morgan said. I recommend that you turn yourself in.”
Morgan requested that the citizens of Cantonment provide any information on Purifoy’s whereabouts. “Do it now, before someone gets hurt,” Morgan said.
Anyone with information on Purifoy’s whereabouts should call (850) 436-9620 or 911.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
Century Awarded $1.3 Million In Housing, Tornado Recovery Grants
November 7, 2016
The Town of Century has been awarded $1.3 million in state grants for tornado recovery and other housing assistance.
“I’m excited about this,” Century Mayor Freddie McCall said. “This is going hand and hand with what we need right now for long term recovery.”
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity made $600,483 in emergency funding available for recovery efforts following the February 15 EF-3 tornado. The application process for Century was basically a formality…the state announced that Century is the only local government eligible to apply for the funds.
Century was also awarded $700,000 small cities Community Development Block Grant for housing rehabilitation and replacement that can be used for tornado recovery but it not limited to such.
“I am going to keep my eye on these grants and work to make sure they benefit our people in Century as much as possible,” McCall said.
Pictured: Century Mayor Freddie McCall. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Utilities Continue Pouring Money Into Support Of Solar Amendment
November 7, 2016
Four major electric utilities have surpassed the $20 million mark in combined contributions to support a proposed constitutional amendment on solar energy.
Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy last week dropped nearly $3 million into the “Consumers for Smart Solar” initiative — Amendment 1 on the ballot — that has been opposed by most major environmental groups in the state.
The latest money came as ads from Consumers for Smart Solar proclaim that Amendment 1 is “solar done right.” But backers of the initiative also have been grappling with a controversy stemming from the release of a tape in which a policy director for a Tallahassee-based think tank claimed to outline the utility industry’s efforts to deceive voters.
The latest contributions, $2 million on Oct. 24 from FPL and $999,998 last Tuesday from Duke, brought to nearly $20.2 million the amount the state’s four largest private utilities have spent on the amendment.
FPL has directed $8.055 million to the amendment. Duke Energy is at $6.7 million. Tampa Electric Co. has provided $3.2 million, and Pensacola-based Gulf Power is at $2.2 million.
Overall the Tallahassee-based Consumers for Smart Solar has received $25.78 million, of which $21.1 million has been spent. The group also has received $341,100 in-kind contributions.
By comparison, the state’s most expensive constitutional amendment campaign, the 2004 trial lawyer-backed Floridians for Patient Protection effort that pushed ballot initiatives opposed by the Florida Medical Association, spent $28.65 million.
Sarah Bascom, a spokeswoman for Consumers for Smart Solar, pointed to high advertising costs during this year’s elections.
“Due to the presidential election, Florida has remained a battleground state throughout the 2016 election cycle, making media costs more than we originally anticipated,” Bascom said in a statement on Monday.
FPL President Eric Silagy has said the Juno Beach-based company is backing the solar-energy amendment to guarantee consumer protections that now could be usurped by local and state government rule changes.
“I know it’s a popular story line to say this is just the utilities that are trying to protect a monopoly, but we don’t have a monopoly on rooftop solar, ground-mounted solar or anything else,” Silagy said when asked about the amendment earlier this month during a Florida Chamber of Commerce event in Orlando.
A company spokesman on Monday referred to prior comments in an editorial by Silagy.
The Consumers for Smart Solar amendment would enshrine in the Florida Constitution existing rules regarding the use of solar energy by private property owners. The proposal also includes a more-contentious provision, which states that people who haven’t installed solar on their property “are not required to subsidize the costs of backup power and electric grid access to those who do.”
Proponents say the second provision provides consumer protections for people who don’t install solar panels. Opponents, such as the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, say it could result in “discriminatory charges” against rooftop solar users and limit the desire of people to go solar.
Critics of the amendment upped their efforts this month after the Miami Herald reported on an audio tape in which James Madison Institute Vice President of Policy Sal Nuzzo described how to use a “little bit of political jiu-jitsu” by promoting solar to win support for desired changes in policy.
Nuzzo’s comments came while speaking Oct. 2 at the “Energy/Environment Leadership Summit” in Nashville, Tenn.
“It should now be clear to all that Amendment 1 is a manipulatively designed tool for the utility industry to continue to dominate the energy market in Florida,” Tory Perfetti, chairman of Floridians for Solar Choice, an opposition group, said in a release Monday. “There is no other reason to dedicate roughly $25 million in an attempt to pass this anti-consumer, anti-solar, anti-free market amendment.”
The James Madison Institute asserted that Nuzzo misspoke. Consumers for Smart Solar said the James Madison Institute wasn’t involved in planning or drafting the proposal.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
I-10/Highway 29 Interchange Project Reaches Milestone
November 7, 2016
Crews reached a milestone last week on the I-10/Highway 29 interchange improvement project by setting the six beams needed for the new, wider I-10 eastbound bridge. Widening the bridge will eliminate the left-hand merge from Highway 29 north to I-10 eastbound and create a through travel lane. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Governor Drops Congratulatory Note To Northview High
November 7, 2016
Northview High School received a short, handwritten congratulatory message from Gov. Rick Scott last week.
The “Gayle, Thanks for your hard work, Gov. Rick Scott” was written on a school data sheet showing the school’s improving rank in the state. Among Title I schools in Florida, Northview is now ranked number 31of 1,759 Florida schools scoring satisfactory or higher in math, and 75 of 1,780 schools that improved English Language Arts scores.
Of all schools in the state, Northview was 99 of 3,196 schools that improved in English Language Arts, and number 5 of 453 high schools.
Northview High School received a short, handwritten congratulatory message from Gov. Rick Scott last week.
The “Great Job! Gov. Rick Scott” was written on a school data sheet showing the school’s improving rank in the state. Among Title I schools in Florida, Northview is now ranked number 22 of 1,648 schools school satisfactory or higher in math, 40 of 1,649 schools scoring satisfactory or higher in science, and 74 of 1,628 schools improving math performance during the last couple of school years.
Escambia County 4-H Recognizes Members At Annual Awards Banquet
November 7, 2016
Escambia County 4-H held its annual award and recognition banquet breakfast Saturday at the 4-H Langley Bell Center in Cantonment. The award and recognition program is an important component of the 4-H experience, used to enhance the personal growth and prepare the 4-H member for success in life.
Award winners on the county level are eligible for state and national trips and college scholarships.
Several categories of awards were presented including record books, where the selection process requires a portfolio of the member’s achievements throughout his or her 4-H years.
Members and clubs were also able to apply or be nominated for awards recognizing achievement in and commitment to 4-H. The annual award program encourages 4-H youth to examine their efforts put into 4-H each year and to be recognized for all they accomplish in their support of 4-H programming.
For additional photos, click here.
The following Escambia County 4-H members were recognized:
Seniors (14-18 years old)
Evan Bush
- 3rd Overall Record Book
- Extension Director Leadership Award
- Langley Bell Award
- 4-H’er of the Year
Danielle Tinker
- Emerald Standards of Excellence Award
- 2nd Overall Record Book
- 4-H’er of the Year
- Langley Bell Award
Michelle Tinker
- Silver Standards of Excellence Awards
- 1st Overall Record Book
- Margie Gindl Award
- Helping Hands Award
Taylor Nelson
- Silver Standards of Excellence Award
- Cecil Guidy Award
Dillon Conti
- Silver Standards of Excellence Award
Intermediates (11-13 years old)
Chelsi Lashley
- 1st Overall Record Book
Kaley Lashley
- 2nd Overall Record Book
Rashidi Joseph
- Intermediate Leadership Award
Jessica Conti
- Silver Standards of Excellence Award
- 3rd Overall Record Book
Juniors (8-10 years old)
Shelby Lashley
- 2nd Overall Record Book
- Beasley Award
Brayton Workman
- 1st Overall Record Book
Cloverbuds (5-7 years old)
Nathan Jacobs
- Clover Standards of Excellence Award
Club Awards
- Barrineau Park – Emerald Standards of Excellence Award
- Barrineau Park – Secretary Book Club Record Book Award, Kaley Lashley
- Cool Clovers – Historian Scrapbook Club Record Book Award, Brayton Workman
Florida Presidential Fight A ‘1 Percent Election’
November 7, 2016
There might not be a national television commentator writing “Florida Florida Florida” on a whiteboard, as Tim Russert infamously did on the night of the 2000 presidential election, but both parties will be eagerly watching the Sunshine State on Tuesday as the polls close.
For real-estate mogul Donald Trump, the surprise Republican presidential nominee, Florida’s trove of 29 electoral votes is a necessary building block of virtually any scenario that ends with him winning the White House. For former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a victory in Florida carries with it the potential of a knockout blow, all but ensuring that Trump won’t be able to cobble together a winning collection of states.
Florida also stands at an intersection of many of the issues reshaping the American electorate, both in 2016 and beyond: Can Trump turn out the disaffected white voters who powered him to the GOP nomination in numbers large enough to win the general election as well? Will African-American voters remain energized after the historic glow of electing the nation’s first black president? Does the nation’s growing Latino population make hard-line immigration policies like those advocated by Trump politically untenable?
That has prompted both campaigns to invest heavily in the state, both in persuading voters and, more recently, turning them out to cast ballots. Trump, Clinton and President Barack Obama — one of Clinton’s most effective surrogates — have repeatedly bounced in and out of the state during the closing weeks of the election.
The result has been a race in which the two candidates are running virtually neck-and-neck in polling averages, and the prospect of a late night or even another dreaded recount looms.
“I really think we’re right where we always are, which is a 1 percent election,” said Susan MacManus, a political-science professor at the University of South Florida.
The messages of the campaigns and their allies in Florida have closely mirrored those nationwide. For Republicans: Clinton’s private email server and involvement in her family foundation show her to be an untrustworthy and out-of-touch member of the Washington, D.C., elite that Trump rails against.
“Our country is rigged, it’s crooked and it’s broken,” Trump said during a recent campaign swing through Tallahassee. ” … The criminal conduct of Hillary Clinton threatens the foundations of our democracy; it really does. But we’re going to turn it around. A new day begins for America and it starts on Nov. 8.”
Clinton, meanwhile, has mixed an appeal for unity with lacerating attacks on Trump’s temperament, fitness for offense and divisive comments.
“When I think about all of the people that Donald Trump has insulted in this campaign, literally, he has insulted a huge majority of the American people,” she said recently in Sanford, according to a transcript provided by the campaign. “I mean, think about it. He started with immigrants, moved on to Latinos, African Americans, Muslims, people with disabilities, prisoners of war, and then women.”
If the goal was to drive voters to the polls, it might be working. Nearly 4.9 million Floridians had voted early, either by mail or in person, by Thursday morning, according to state statistics. Again, the results so far appear to be on the edge: Democrats had returned almost 1.94 million ballots; Republicans almost 1.95 million. The rest of the votes came from Floridians registered with third parties or without a party affiliation.
Still, both parties have reason to worry about the makeup of those voters. On the Democratic side, some Clinton supporters were concerned that black voters didn’t appear to be showing up in large enough numbers early on — potentially eating into the demographic advantage that Democrats believe they enjoy in Florida presidential elections.
“The question, of course, is whether or not the African-American turnout is going to be comparable,” said Kevin Wagner, a political-science professor at Florida Atlantic University.
Another key part of the Obama coalition seems to be voting.
“What we are seeing is, Hispanics actually are turning out in surge proportions so far,” said Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist who oversaw Obama’s Florida campaign in 2008.
Meanwhile, at least one previously solid bloc of Republican voters doesn’t appear to be enthusiastic about Trump: Cuban-Americans who dominate Miami-Dade County politics. In the March presidential primary, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio defeated Trump in one of Florida’s 67 counties: Miami-Dade.
Rubio is likely trying to turn out those same voters again, this time in his battle to hold onto his Senate seat.
“That’s an area (Trump) needs to shore up because they’re high-turnout voters,” MacManus said.
Trump’s fortunes might depend more, though, on whether he can get white, working-class voters frustrated with the economy to the polls. Some of those voters have not traditionally participated in elections, or might not have backed Republicans as strongly in the past as they will Trump’s protectionist message.
“If Trump wins,” Schale said, “it’s going to be because he just drove Democratic support among whites into the ground.”
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
What’s On Your Ballot?
November 7, 2016
This graphic from the Escambia County Supervisor of Elections shows what races are on the ballot in Escambia County in tomorrow’s general election. To download a customized sample ballot, visit EscambiaVotes.com.
Out Of Control Backyard Fire Levels Storage Shed
November 6, 2016
A backyard burn barrel fire got out of control Saturday afternoon in Century and leveled a storage shed before firefighters arrived.
The first fire fighters on scene at the fire in the 800 block of East Highway 4 reported the shed was fully involved and on the ground when they arrived moments after the first call for help.
There were no injuries and no damage to a nearby home or business.
The Century and McDavid stations of Escambia Fire Rescue, Flomaton Fire Department, Atmore Fire Department and Jay Fire Department were all dispatched to the fire, along with Escambia County EMS.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
