Barry Molino Town Hall: Rural Development, Roads, More
February 13, 2019
About 100 people attended a town hall meeting Tuesday night with Escambia County District 5 Commissioner Steven Barry.
Discussion touched on numerous issues, including recent rural development changes.
Last week, the Escambia County Commission voted to remove a section of the county comprehensive plan that restricts the development of agricultural and forestry areas. “If I held property in agricultural areas, I would view what happened as a very good thing,” Barry said. Deleting the provision, he said, would allow the board to consider rezoning on a case-by-case basis.
“Addressing this at least will allow us to hear a future land use amendment.” He said it the change will allow applications for one dwelling per four acres instead of the previous one dwelling unit per 20 acres.
“I don’t think one per every four acres is very dense. I don’t think that is an inappropriate way to develop,” Barry added.
Escambia County residents also asked questions about roads, dirt road paving, code enforcement and more.
For additional photos, click here.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Photos: Go Inside Shakedown At Escambia (AL) Jail; Knives, Phones, Tattoo Gun Found
February 13, 2019
A shakedown at the Escambia County (AL) Detention Center in Brewton turned up a long list of contraband.
The Escambia County (AL) Sheriff’s Office and Brewton Police conducted the search. Officers located four homemade knives, 13 cellphones, six phone chargers, a quantity of tobacco, a bag of spice, four cigarette lighters, six books with hidden compartments and one tattoo gun, according to Sheriff Heath Jackson.
Jackson said the case is still under investigation, and numerous inmates will face additional charges.
For a photo gallery, click here.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Sunshine And 60s For A Couple Of Days
February 13, 2019
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 61. North wind 5 to 10 mph.
Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 38. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 67. East wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south in the afternoon.
Thursday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 54. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
Friday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 71. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Friday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 59. Southwest wind around 5 mph.
Saturday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 72. Southwest wind around 5 mph.
Saturday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 60. Southwest wind around 5 mph.
Sunday: A chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 72. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Sunday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 50.
Washington’s Birthday: A 40 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 62.
Monday Night: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Cloudy, with a low around 52.
Tuesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Cloudy, with a high near 70.
HS Basketball Playoffs: Win For Tate; Losses For Jay, Atmore
February 13, 2019
District 1-8A
The Tate Aggies advanced in district play Tuesday night with a win over the Navarre Raiders.
Top seed Tate beat Navarre 52-40 in the District 1-8A semifinals, and Niceville defeated Gulf Breeze 52-42. Love Bettis led the Aggies with 25 points.
The Aggies will face Niceville at 7 p.m. Friday in Niceville.
District 3-1A
In the District 3-1A semifinals Tuesday night, Chipley got past Jay 63-51, and Baker beat Freeport 44-39.
Baker will be at Chipley Friday at 7 p.m.
ALABAMA
In Alabama playoff action Tuesday, Clark County defeated Escambia County High School 54-47 in Atmore.
City Of Atmore Won’t Accept Ownership Of Former YMCA Property
February 13, 2019
The Atmore City Council has voted to reject ownership of the South Pensacola Avenue property recently occupied by the now defunct Atmore YMCA.
Mayor Jim Staff said it would take an estimated $3.4 million to bring the 93-year old building into good repair.
With a reversion clause in the property deed, Staff said the property would either go to the Atmore Lions Club or the Escambia County (AL) Board of Education.
The building was the location of the first public county high school in Alabama. Plans for the school began in the last 1800’s with the school completed in 1909. That building later burned.
The current 1926 building was acquired from the school board by the Atmore Lions Club in 1989 and later dedicated as the Atmore Lions Community Center in 1991. In 2004, the building was donated to the Atmore Area YMCA.
As we previously reported, the YMCA closed in late November 2018.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Four Northview Chiefs Named To 1-A All State Football Teams
February 13, 2019
FloridaHSFootball.com has named four Northview Chiefs to their 1A All-State football teams. They are:
Pictured top: Lance McLaughlin. Below, descending order: Seth Killam, Jaheem Durant. NorthEscambia.com photos.
Rep. Mike Hill Tees Up 2020 House Campaign
February 13, 2019
Rep. Mike Hill has opened an account this week to seek another term in Escambia County’s House District 1, according to the state Division of Elections website.
Hill received 60.8 percent of the vote in November as he defeated Democratic challenger Vikki Garrett for a seat left open by the departure of term-limited Clay Ingram.
Florida Lawmakers Give Green Light To Smokable Marijuana
February 13, 2019
Patients could soon be allowed to smoke medical marijuana, but they’d have to purchase pre-rolled joints with filters, under a measure approved by a key House panel Tuesday.
Committees in the House and Senate advanced legislation to nix Florida’s ban on smoking medical marijuana, following an ultimatum issued by Gov. Ron DeSantis shortly after the Republican took office last month.
DeSantis threatened to drop the state’s appeal of a court decision that found the smoking ban ran afoul of a constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana. The governor gave lawmakers until March 15 — 10 days after the annual legislative session begins — to address the issue.
“If that (court) decision were to stand, what we would be facing essentially would be the wild, wild west when it comes to using medical marijuana. We believe there should be guardrails around that. That’s why we’ve reconvened and put this bill together moving forward,” House Health and Human Services Chairman Ray Rodrigues told reporters after his committee signed off on a proposal to allow patients to smoke medical marijuana.
The House plan originally would have required doctors to get the approval of a “case review panel” before being able to order smokable marijuana for patients.
But on Tuesday, Rodrigues offered an amendment that stripped the “case review” from the proposal (PCB HHS 19-01), which would still require doctors to provide documentation supporting the smokable treatment. Instead of submitting the justification to a review panel, doctors would give documentation to the state Board of Medicine or the Board of Osteopathic Medicine.
The amendment also would require pre-rolled joints with filters. That was designed to address concerns about the negative health effects of smoking.
The amendment, which also would ban smoking for patients younger than 18, was approved by a voice vote.
The panel signed off on the amended measure with a 14-2 vote, after hearing from patients and other advocates who mainly supported the revamped bill and who urged lawmakers to get rid of the smoking prohibition.
John Goodson, a veteran who said he has post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq, told the committee he no longer needed prescription medications for high blood pressure, anxiety and depression after he began using medical marijuana.
Smoking marijuana allows patients to experience the benefit of what is known as the “entourage” effect, which is created by the combination of different compounds in cannabis, Goodson and other proponents of smoking medical marijuana said.
“I am a medical cannabis patient and I am under the influence of cannabis right now,” Goodson, who lives outside Tallahassee, said.
Concentrates or oral forms of medical marijuana “are not as helpful as the smokable cannabis,” Goodson said.
“I have PTSD from Iraq. It really shook my nerves to come up here, but it’s by far the most effective drug that I’ve had,” he said.
Lisa McCorkle, 35, said she was bedridden from the effects of prescription drugs until she began smoking marijuana nearly a decade ago.
“This saved my life,” she said, admitting that she purchases whole-flower marijuana on the black market.
Whole-flower marijuana is much more affordable for patients, who can also use the buds to create their own products, McCorkle said.
“We’re allowed to use our medicine as we want at home, right?” she asked.
Rep. Cary Pigman, an emergency room doctor who serves as the House committee’s vice-chairman, hesitated before answering.
“This is not the right venue to ask questions,” the Avon Park Republican said.
But, earlier, Rodrigues said patients can do whatever they want.
“Once the patient has the medicine in their own home, the privacy of their home, they’re free to do with it what they choose,” Rodrigues, R-Estero, said.
Later Tuesday, another key panel approved a Senate measure (SB 182) stripping the smoking ban from the state law.
Sen. Jeff Brandes, the bill’s sponsor, had originally planned to simply eliminate the prohibition. But the Senate Health Policy Committee last week amended his bill to require a second doctor opinion before patients could receive the smokable treatment, a change Brandes opposed.
On Tuesday, however, Brandes convinced the Senate Innovation, Industry and Technology Committee to do away with the second opinion, except for children who are not terminally ill. Those children would require the approval of a pediatrician.
Under Brandes’ amendment, residents in nursing homes, assisted living facilities and hospice facilities would be allowed to smoke medical marijuana, if the facilities allowed it.
The Senate proposal would allow medical marijuana dispensaries to sell whole-flower products in any form — not just pre-rolled joints — and would permit patients to use paraphernalia purchased at other retail outlets, such as smoke shops.
The different House and Senate measures, and the changes approved by the committees Tuesday, put lawmakers in a position to pass legislation that would likely be palatable to DeSantis by his March 15 deadline.
“We’ll ultimately find a place to land this,” Brandes told The News Service of Florida after the Senate committee meeting. “I think the March 15 deadline no longer seems out of reach.”
Patients and lawmakers have complained about delays in the Department of Health’s implementation of the 2016 amendment, which has spurred legal and administrative challenges.
A number of medical marijuana-related rules floated by health officials have languished for months and DeSantis has yet to appoint a surgeon general to head the agency.
But Rodrigues indicated health officials could act quickly to make smokable cannabis available to patients.
“Given how important this is to the governor, I cannot imagine that this will be delayed significantly from the Department of Health,” he told reporters after Tuesday’s meeting.
Rep. Clay Yarborough, a Jacksonville Republican who cast one of the two “no” votes on the House proposal, said he did not want to “restrict what folks are doing in their homes.”
“At the same time, if they go out and they are having effects on other people, or driving behind the wheel, or in their neighborhoods, or at the places of employment, that is a concern,” he said.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Woman, Two Children Critically Injured In 10 Mile Road Crash
February 12, 2019
FOR AN UPDATE TO THIS STORY, CLICK HERE.
A woman and two children were critically injured in a crash with a truck Tuesday afternoon in Cantonment
The Florida Highway Patrol said 38-year old Kelsey Burdeaux of Lillian, AL, pulled her Toyota Camry from a stop sign on 10 Mile Road into the path of a box truck driven by 36-year old Fredrick Powell of Mobile that was traveling north of Stefani Road.
Bourdeax and two children, ages 7 and 10, were transported to Sacred Heart Hospital in critical condition. Powell was not injured.
The crash remains under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
About 1,000 Lose Power In Cantonment, Cottage Hill, Quintette
February 12, 2019
Just over 1,000 Gulf Power customers lost power in Cantonment, Quintette and Cottage Hill areas Tuesday shortly before 11 a.m.
Escambia Fire Rescue responded to power lines down in the area of Highway 95A and Neal Road. Gulf Power was on scene and working on repairs.
Power was restore to all but 257 customers (see map below) by about 11:10 a.m.
