Community Market Day Today
August 16, 2008
A Community Market Day will be held this morning at Century’s Roadside Park on North Century Boulevard.
The Community Market Day will begin at 8 this morning Local residents are encouraged to sell their items, including arts and crafts and produce.
At a recent Community Market Day, vendors sold a variety of items, including fresh produce, arts, crafts, snow cones and more. There was also local entertainment.
Another Community Market Day will be held on Saturday, August 30, according to the Century Blue Ribbon Committee, which organized the event. The group plans to continue the market days every other Saturday at least through August.
Pictured: Some of the fresh produce available at a recent Century’s Community Market Day. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Over 1,600 Choose Early Voting; 17,500 Absentee Ballots Issued
August 16, 2008
Escambia County Supervisor of Elections David H. Stafford reminded voters Friday that early voting will continue through the weekend, and into next week. As of the
close of business Friday, more than 1,638 voters had voted early and more than 17,500 absentee ballots had been issued for the August 26th Primary Election.
Early voting is offered in four locations in the county; the closest to North Escambia is in Cantonment. Early voters can cast paper ballots using the county’s new optical scanners, and can choose any of the four sites.
The sites for early voting are:
- Supervisor of Elections Main Office, 213 Palafox Place, 2nd Floor
- Supervisor of Elections Annex, 292 Muscogee Road, Cantonment
- Southwest Branch Library, 12248 Gulf Beach Highway
- Tyron Branch Library, 5740 North 9th Avenue
Early voting began Monday will continue Saturday, August 16th from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.; Sunday, August 17th from 11:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.; and Monday, August 18th through Saturday, August 23rd from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m..
Another option for voters is to cast an absentee ballot, which can be obtained by contacting the Supervisor of Elections by mail, phone (850-595-3900), e-mail absentee@escambiavotes.com), fax (850-595-3914), or by using the online form at www.EscambiaVotes.com. Requests must include the voter’s date of birth and the address where the ballot should be mailed. Requests must be received no later than Wednesday, August 20th. Voted ballots must be received in the Elections Office no later than 7:00 p.m. on Election Day.
The third option for voting in Escambia County is the old fashioned way…at the polls on Election Day. Polls will be open August 26 from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.
In 34 of 90 precincts there are no non-partisan or universal primary contests on the ballot. As a result of Florida’s closed primary system, only registered Democrats and Republicans in those precincts are eligible to vote in this primary. Voters in these precincts who are not eligible to vote in this election are being notified by mail. All voters, regardless of party affiliation, may vote in the General Election on November 4th.
Parents, Staff Learn About Next School Year At Carver/Century; School Needs 65 More Kids
August 15, 2008
About 40 people attended a meeting Thursday night at Carver/Century K-8 School to learn more about the upcoming school year that begins Monday, and to learn about what the principal believes is needed to keep the school open another year. The closure of the school for the 2009-2010 school year is on Monday’s agenda for the Escambia County School Board.
The night’s meeting began by celebrating the fact that the school has improved from a status grade of “F” to a “B”.
“I want to say thank you to the parents; you have an active roll in making this possible,” Principal Jeff Garthwaite said. “We have shown the world that this is not an “F” school. We have proven that. We have ruffled some feathers here and there.”
But to avoid closure, the school needs another 65 or so students…fast. School begins Monday, with about 235 students currently enrolled. Garthwaite said that number would need to be at about 300 for the school to remain open.
“There’s a rich cultural heritage in being a Century Blackcat,” he said. “We need to bring people back to this school from communities like Bratt, Byrneville and McDavid. We need those students back to continue Blackcat pride.”
He asked the parents, faculty and community members at the meeting to tell their friends, family members and neighbors to return their children to Carver/Century.
“It’s going to be an exciting year at Carver/Century,” Garthwaite said.
Budget cutbacks have led to the elimination of 12 positions at the school. The assistant principal, four teachers, front office staff, food service workers and a custodian are all gone this year.
Without the 65 or so additional students, those cuts wont’ be the end; the school will close, Garthwaite said.
“We are down to the wire. It’s is time to have a really heart wrenching discussion about what is wrong and how we can fix it. We need the students that have left this school to come back, and we need them to come back now.”
Pictured above: Carver/Century staffer Judy Bakers listens to Principal Jeff Garthwaite at a Thursday night meeting at the school. NorthEscambia.com photo.
Century Woman Arrested In Connection With Shots Fired Into Trailer With Kids Inside
August 15, 2008
A Century woman has been arrested in connection with a July 25 incident where multiple shots where fired into a trailer occupied by three adults and three children.
Terri Lynn Stabler, 27, was arrested and charged with being an accessory after the fact of the shooting, a second degree felony.
Joshua Jackson Grimes , 25, of Flomaton was arrested in connection with the incident. Grimes (pictured left) faces a long list of charges, including six counts of aggravated assault, two counts of battery, one count of shooting deadly missiles into a dwelling, one count of criminal mischief and one count of resisting an officer without violence. His total bond was set at $422,000. He is scheduled to face a judge today after entering a plea of not guilty on all charges.
The incident occurred in the northeast corner of Wawbeek Road north of Highway 168, just a few feet south of the Alabama state line. It all began about 6:00 July 25 when Grimes got into a verbal altercation with the resident of the trailer, according to Sgt. Steve Smith of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department.. Deputies say he then left before returning armed with a shotgun about 6:40.
Grimes drove up to the trailer, firing several shots into the trailer busting out windows (pictured left, click to enlarge). He also shot out the windows of two vehicles according to deputies. Three children and the adults inside the trailer at the time of the shooting were not injured.
Pictured top: Terri Leann Stabler being taken into custody after ignoring the deputy’s orders on July 25. She was late released that evening, but has since been arrested on a warrant issued in connection with the incident. Pictured below: An Escambia County Deputy orders Stabler to not approach the cruiser containing Grimes. Pictured bottom: Satterwhite being taken into custody after ignoring the deputy’s orders. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Local Man On A Crusade To Prevent More Deaths At Highway 29 And Byrneville, Bluff Springs Roads
August 15, 2008
A Byrneville man lost his granddaughter on Thanksgiving day 2005 at the intersection of Byrneville Road, Bluff Springs Road and Highway 29. It’s a tragedy that he says could have been prevented with a traffic signal, and he is on a mission to save other lives from being lost at the North Escambia intersection.
Callista LeEtta White died November 27, 2003, at the intersection. She was returning to Pensacola after spending time on Thanksgiving with her family. It was raining, and she approached Highway 29 too fast, apparently not realizing that she was near the intersection. She missed the stop sign and hydroplaned into the path of of a tractor trailer truck on Highway 29 about 7:35 p.m. The 2003 Northview High School graduate died a short time later at West Florida Hospital.
“I’m not doing this for Callista,” Leroy White (pictured left) of Byrneville told NorthEscambia.com “I am doing it for the ones that are still around, the ones that are still driving on these roads.”
White wants to see a caution light installed at the intersection, and he wants to see that speed limit on Highway 29 in the area lowered from 65 to 55 m.p.h. That, White believes, will help prevent more accidents at the intersection, accidents like the one that killed his granddaughter on Thanksgiving Day.
“If they can have a red light up here on Highway 4 in Byrneville, why can’t they have at least a caution light over there on 29?” White asked, referring to a traffic signal at Highway 4 at Byrneville Road.
White apparently is not alone in wanting something done about the Highway 29 and Byrneville/Bluff Springs intersection. He said 450 signatures requesting improvements at the intersection were gathered on a petition that he presented to the Florida Department of Transportation.
“I believe that if there had been a caution light at the intersection, it would have saved my granddaughter,” White said.
The most recent fatality at the intersection was on June 23 when Carolyn Hightower, 60, of Pensacola died as a result of injuries she sustained in a two vehicle accident there. Her husband, Richard Hightower, 63, was seriously injured in the crash. The Florida Highway Patrol said that Floyd D. Calloway, 65, pulled into the intersection from Bluff Springs into the path of the Hightower’s SUV.
“I just don’t want to see it happen to another family,” White said.
Pictured above: Approaching the Highway 29 intersection on Byrneville Road. Pictured below: The accident at the intersection that claimed the life of a Pensacola woman on June 23. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
School District Paid $52,000 In Power Bills On Building Leased By New Life Church
August 15, 2008
The Escambia County School District has paid over $52,000 in power bills on the old Century High School building since it was leased to the New Life Baptist Church. That is in addition to thousands paid for water, sewer and gas used in the building.
NorthEscambia.com first broke the story that New Life had never paid utility bills since moving into the building. The school district paid over $60,000 in water, gas and sewer bills for the old Century High building occupied for New Life, as we first reported last week.
In an exclusive interview with NorthEscambia.com, Rev. Irvin Stallworth of New Life Baptist acknowledged that his church had never paid a power bill for the building either.
According to Gulf Power bills, a total of $52,338.07 has been paid by the school district since New Life moved into the building in 2004. New Life pays $1 per year for their lease on the building.
The power bills do not include the former high school’s gym or the stadium; those are on a different meter.
Stallworth refused to make further comment on the issue Thursday night.
On August 7, Stallworth said “The taxpayers have a right to know where their money is going. We are willing to do what we need to do to make restitution for what we owe.”
He blamed the confusion on the fact that his church was moving into the building at the same time the school district was moving out of the building…the same time Hurricane Ivan hit the Gulf Coast. He said his church immediately went into a reaction mode after Ivan, working to provide aid and relief for the community. As that relief effort was beginning to wind down, Hurricane Dennis then hit the area, sending the church back into a reactionary mode.
“With all the things that were going on post-Dennis,” Stallworth said, “we did not realize that we were not receiving any bills.”
He said he realized that the church was to be paying the utility bills per the lease, which had signed, but the trustee responsible for paying the bills did not know that fact.
To read more on last week’s interview with Stallworth, click here.
To read more about the water, gas and sewer bills on the New Life building, click here.
Moran Admits He Wrote Charter Application, Just Trying To Help
August 14, 2008
Century businessman Jack Moran admits that he is the one that wrote the controversial charter school application that has dominated the local news this week.
The application was filed at the eleventh hour by Rev. Irvin Stallworth with Escambia County School Board for a charter school in Century as a last ditch effort prior to the closing of the current Carver/Century K-8 School. Members of the Century Blue Ribbon Committee speculated at their Monday night meeting that Moran was the author of the 81 page document submitted by the Century Blue Ribbon Committee on Education and the Century Community Development Partnership.
“Yes, I wrote the application,” Moran told NorthEscambia.com. The document was a huge effort over a 30-45 day period, but he said he thought the document he wrote was just a preliminary application. It was, in fact, the final draft application for the Charter Magnet School at Century, according to Vickie Mathis, director of the Department of Alternative Education that administers the charter school program in Escambia County. The document contains many incomplete sections, including the proposed budget for the school and letters of support from the community.
Moran said he sat down with Carver/Century K-8 School Principal Jeff Garthwaite some months ago and offered his “expertise” to help with the school’s budget and look for ways to improve the school. Moran said that as a retired corporate reorganization specialist, he offered to help Garthwaite reorganize and restructure the school. Moran said he made the same offer to Escambia School Superintendent Jim Paul. Neither man accepted his offer, Moran said.
“I was really interested in helping the school,” Moran said. “I knew I had the skills.”
Moran said he was approached by Stallworth and asked to help with the charter application “as a board member of the Century Community Development Partnership”. Moran is not listed as a board member of the organization in corporate documents filed with the Florida Secretary of State’s Division of Corporations.
When asked about that, Moran said “I just know that I am the treasurer”.
Moran said he was told by Stallworth that he polled the board members of CCDP to determine if they supported filing for the school charter under CCDP until a new nonprofit entity could be formed. Board members contacted by NorthEscambia.com said that they were never polled and had no knowledge of the charter application until after the story was first reported by NorthEscambia.com. Read that story by clicking here.
“It would have been the kiss of death for the town to be without the school for a year,” Moran said, referring to the fact that if the charter application had not been filed by August 1 the charter school could not have been obtained by the 2009-2010 school year.
At a meeting of the Century Blue Ribbon Committee earlier this week, Principal Jeff Garthwaite, who is also a member of the Blue Ribbon Committee, blasted the document written by Moran.
“That charter will not fly as it is written,” Garthwaite (pictured left at a Blue Ribbon Committee meeting) said. Previously in his career, Garthwaite actually worked in the school district’s Department of Alternative Education, the department that reviews charter applications. “There are so many missing pieces to that document. There are some serious gaps. There are several issues that are left very vague. If our name is attached to it, you don’t want junk going forward. You want a quality document.”
Moran had harsh words Wednesday for Garthwaite, saying that he did not know that Garthwaite had school charter experience.
“If he (Garthwaite) knew what it took, and he did not step forward and offer to help,” Moran said, “that sucker ain’t got no reason to be teaching children.”
“Jeff Garthwaite did not step forward and ask or tell me and my wife what we could do after I visited his office,” Moran said.
We have left messages and made multiple attempts to reach Stallworth since Sunday, but as of early Thursday morning he had not returned our phone calls.
To see the Century Community Development Partnership, Inc. annual statement as file with the Florida Secretary of State, click here. This document lists the legal board members of the CCDP.
Community Development Board Members Not Contacted About Charter Application
August 14, 2008
More information has emerged about a school charter application filed by the Century Community Development Partnership (CCDP) in the name of the group and the Century Blue Ribbon Committee on Education.
The Town of Century’s Blue Ribbon Committee has already said this week that they never saw the application that was filed in their name. Click here to read that story.
And now NorthEscambia.com has learned that members of the CCDP never saw or even knew about the application either prior to it being filed by CCDP leader Irvin Stallworth. Stallworth is also the chairman of the town’s Blue Ribbon Committee.
“I had no knowledge of the charter application” Sue Straughn told NorthEscambia.com. Straughn sits on the board of directors for the Century Community Development Partnership, and she is a prominent Pensacola television newscaster. “I know that it did not ever come before the (CCDP) board. They only thing we every discussed was housing for Century.”
“I knew nothing of the application as well. No one polled me,” said CCDP board member Pat Crawford from the University of West Florida. “We discussed housing. We never discussed schools.”
La-Vonne Haven, executive director of the Gulf Wind Council of Camp Fire U.S.A. and CCDP board member echoed Straughn’s comments. “I wasn’t aware of the charter application until after it was filed,” she said. “I was told that I was missed when Rev. Stallworth polled all of the board members to see if the application should be filed.”
CCDP board members Hosea Pittman told NorthEscambia.com that he had been out of state for an extended period due to a family illness. “They may have attempted to call me, but I have been out of state. They did not reach me about the application.”
The other member of the Century Community Development Partnership is school board member and superintendent candidate Claudia Brown-Curry. NorthEscambia.com attempted to reach Brown-Curry, but were unable to speak to her. She did return our phone calls Wednesday night following a political rally, and she did leave a message on our voice mail. But no one was in our office to speak to Brown-Curry when she returned our call after 9:00 Wednesday night.
We have left messages and made multiple attempts to reach Stallworth since Sunday, but as of early Thursday morning he had not returned our phone calls.
Community Participation Lacking In Effort To Save School
August 14, 2008
Community participation has been less than stellar at events designed to show support for the area and Carver/Century K-8 School.
And that has left some on a town committee wondering what to do next, just days away from the recommendation to close the school by Escambia County School Superintendent Jim Paul. The school closure is officially on the August 19 school board agenda.
Principal Jeff Garthwaite told the Century Blue Ribbon Committee that the closure seems to be imminent. Garthwaite, who is also a member of the Blue Ribbon Committee, said about the only thing that would save the school at this point would be the enrollment of many more students.
So far, six more students are enrolled this year, he said. There are almost 240 total students enrolled for the school year that begins Monday. That number, he said, needs to be at about 300 to save the school.
“For whatever reason they left, there is now good reason for them to come back to our school,” he said of the dozens of students that transferred away from Carver/Century under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. He said that the school had improved, moving it school grade from an “F” to a “B”, it has more technology than most any other school in the county, and has newer, more modern facilities than any other school in North Escambia.
“I think people are running away from this, not to things,” Garthwaite said of the schools “F” grade last year. “The problem is not just Century, but the others in this district, like part of Bratt, McDavid, Byrneville and Bluff Springs.”
“We are down to the point that if we get the students, the school is there. If we don’t get the students, we won’t have the school, he said.
Blue Ribbon Committee members agreed that community apathy has been a big hurdle to overcome for the committee. At a recent rally to support the school, only two people showed up. At the last Community Market Day sponsored by the Blue Ribbon Committee, Mayor Freddie McCall said that he, one committee member and one vendor were the only ones there.
“Why can’t we get more people concerned,” asked Rev. Willie Carter. “We need to get more people involved.” Carter noted that no one on the town’s Blue Ribbon Committee has children in Carver/Century, and that parents frequently don’t attend school functions.
Another meeting to show support for the school will be held tonight, 6:30 at the school.
School District Pays Water Bill On Building Town Of Century Owns
August 14, 2008
The Escambia County School District has discovered that it has been paying utility bills to the Town of Century on a building the school system does not own.
The school district has been paying a minimum $22 a month water and sewage bill for a former school maintenance building at 410 Pond Street. But the school district transferred ownership of the building to the Town of Century back in 2004.
The discovery came as part of the school district’s investigation into district paid utility bills at the old Century High School, which is leased to New Life Baptist Church for $1 per year, according to Ronnie Arnold, district spokesman. He said the Pond Street payment was simply a mistake.
Century Mayor Freddie McCall said the town had begun the process of returning the payments to the school district.
Related stories:
School District Has Paid Thousands In Utility Bills For Church; Seeks Answers
Pastor Says New Life Has Never Paid Utility Bill Since Moving Into Old High School
Pictured above: The former school district building at 410 Pond Street in Century. NorthEscambia.com photo.