Driver Hits Boat On Highway 29
February 15, 2018
A driver hit a boat and trailer Wednesday afternoon on Highway 29 at West Roberts Road Wednesday afternoon. There were no injuries in the crash. NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
Gulf Power Seeks To Pass Savings Along To Customers
February 15, 2018
Wednesday, Gulf Power filed a request with the Florida Public Service Commission seeking approval to pass along approximately $103 million in tax savings to its 460,000 customers. If approved by the FPSC, the average Gulf Power customer using 1,112 kilowatt-hours per month can expect to see a $14 drop on their monthly electricity bill for 2018 — the largest decrease in company history. More than $30 million in savings for customers will continue into 2019 and beyond if approved by the FPSC.
The tax savings are the result of federal tax reductions under the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was signed into law on Dec. 22, 2017, and became effective on Jan. 1, 2018. The decrease in the Corporate Tax Rate from 35 percent to 21 percent reduces the amount of federal income tax Gulf Power will have to pay and allows the energy provider to pass that savings along to customers.
“This is very good news for customers,” said Stan Connally, Gulf Power chairman, president and CEO. “Reduced tax costs create an opportunity for Gulf Power customers to benefit from decreases in their energy prices. We are glad this allows us to quickly lower rates for our customers — in fact, this is the seventh time in 10 years we’ve decreased prices. If the Florida Public Service Commission approves this agreement, customers should see the savings beginning in their April bills.”
Gulf Power worked together to reach a settlement with the Office of Public Council, the Florida Industrial Power Users Group and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy to agree on how to deliver these savings to customers as soon as possible. J.R. Kelly, the Public Counsel, and Jon Moyle, counsel for the Florida Industrial Power Users Group, both applauded Gulf Power for acting quickly to provide customers with rate relief resulting from the federal tax reform legislation. Kelly and Moyle said that it’s important for Gulf Power’s customers and their clients to see real rate relief sooner rather than later, and they believe that this agreement, if approved by the Commission, will achieve that goal.
This decrease comes on the heels of record power consumption by Gulf Power customers due to prolonged extremely cold temperatures in January. The energy provider is working aggressively to make sure customers start receiving the savings as soon as possible.
“This price reduction will provide relief for many who had higher bills due to January’s frigid temps,” said Connally. “With 21 days in the 30s and below, our customers used a lot electricity — in fact on Jan. 18, customers set a record new high energy peak, surpassing the last high by 100 megawatts.”
While Gulf Power will pass along the tax savings to customers across Northwest Florida, the company will continue to invest in the energy grid to maintain the safe, reliable and affordable service customers have come to expect.
“We’re excited to pass along these savings to our customers, while continuing to make smart investments in our energy grid to continue the high reliability our customers have come to expect,” said Connally
Northview FFA Horse Judging Team Advances To State Competition
February 15, 2018
The Northview High School FFA Horse Judging Team placed tenth recently in the state preliminary competition in Tampa, allowing them to advance to state competition in Gainesville in April.
Members of the NHS FFA Horse Judging Team are Autumn Williams, Brooke Doolittle, Destiny Cleckler, Olivia Porter, and Lacie Carter. The team was coached by Courtney Solari and Stephanie Solari.
The NHS Livestock Judging Team also took part in the state preliminaries. Team members are Cody Kite, Cole Hassebrock, Raeleigh Woodfin, Wesley Hardin and Clint Gunter.
Pictured: The Northview High School FFA Horse Judging Team. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Senate Panel Backs School Mental Health Initiative
February 15, 2018
Shortly before a mass shooting at a Broward County high school, a Senate committee on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill that could dedicate more funding to Florida schools for mental health services.
The bill (SB 1434) would create a special category for mental health in the annual funding formula for Florida’s 67 school districts. The Senate has already approved an $87.3 billion budget for 2018-19 that includes $40 million for school mental health services.
Since she took over the chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Pre-K-12 Education, Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, a Naples Republican, has made mental health issues one of her top priorities in the education budget.
Passidomo’s closing argument on her bill became tragically prophetic when the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland began roughly a half-hour after her committee adjourned.
“When you think about it, the people who commit those atrocious acts that are in the paper every day were not born that way. Something happened to them likely when they were young,” Passidomo said.
Under the bill, prior to receiving the money, the school districts, as well as charter schools, would develop mental health plans that would be submitted for review to the state.
“We have the opportunity to capture them early on to identify those students that have issues and get them into treatment so that they don’t become the monsters that do these atrocious attacks,” she said.
The mental health plans will have to include a partnership with at least one community program or agency to provide “prevention, diagnosis and treatment services for students.” The services would be aimed at reducing social, emotional or behavioral problems in at-risk students and could deal with issues such as bullying, trauma and violence.
Once the programs are in place, school districts would be required to submit an annual report to the state Department of Education on the effectiveness of the plans, beginning next year.
“It should be a program that everybody can look to, so that the students who are in the classrooms can be taught,” Passidomo said. “And the students who have some problems can get the help they need and they can get back to the classroom.”
Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, who heads the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, said school leaders fully support the mental health initiative.
“The number one concern for school superintendents in Florida for the last three years has been mental health,” Montford said. “If you stop and think about it, no matter what problems we face in society, they all show up in the public schools.”
Montford said creating what is known as a “categorical,” which will restrict the use of the money to mental health services, in the school-funding formula is important because dealing with the mental health challenges will be an ongoing effort by the state and the school districts.
“What better way for us to address it than to make sure it is funded every year,” Montford said. “This is critically important and it deserves to be a categorical.”
In the context of a statewide school system that has nearly 3 million students and an overall budget of more than $21 billion, Montford and Passidomo described the $40 million initiative as a start.
“It’s a good beginning,” Montford said. “This will allow us to start those programs and find out which ones are really working.”
The mental health provision is just one element in the Senate bill that includes a host of education policies, including revisions to the “schools of hope” program, which is a priority for House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes.
The House has already passed a major education bill (HB 7055), which includes a voucher-like program that would let bullied students transfer to private schools.
Passidomo said all of those measures will be part of the end-of-session negotiations between the Senate and House over the next three weeks.
The mental health initiative is also part of the Senate budget and implementing legislation. Even if the Senate proposal approved Wednesday does not pass, the $40 million proposal could still be enacted on a one-year basis through the new state budget.
by Lloyd Dunkelberger, The News Service of Florida
Pictured: Inside Wednesday’s school shooting in Florida. Images Aidan Manoff/Twitter.
FDOT To Hold Meeting On New Nine Mile Multilane Project Design
February 15, 2018
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) will hold a public hearing concerning proposed access management modifications on the Nine Mile Road multilane reconstruction project under currently design
The hearing will be held Tuesday, Februrary 20 from 5:30 until 6:30 p.m. at Smyrna Baptist Church, 7000 Pensacola Boulevard, Pensacola. The hearing will begin with an informal open house at 5:30 p.m., followed by a formal presentation and public comment period at 6 p.m.
Nine Mile Road from Highway 90 Beulah Road multilane and reconstruction project is currently under design. As part of this project there are proposed operational improvements at Allegheny Avenue and the Beulah Fire Station that have changed from what was recommended during the Project Development and Environment (PD&E) study completed in 2014.
The public hearing is being held to present the updated improvements at the two locations and provide an opportunity for interested persons to provide input. Construction for this project is not currently funded in the FDOT Five Year Work Program.
Maps, drawings, and other information will be on display. FDOT representatives will be available to discuss proposed improvements, answer questions, and receive comments.
Florida House Approves Push For Year-Round Daylight Saving Time
February 15, 2018
The Florida House on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a proposal aimed at observing daylight-saving time year-round in the state. House members voted 103-11 to support the measure filed by Rep. Jeanette Nunez, R-Miami, and Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, R-Fort Myers.
Fitzenhagen said moving to daylight-saving time could help the tourism industry, as people would be able to stay out later in the sunlight. A similar bill also is moving through the Senate. If approved by the Legislature, the proposal to shift to year-round daylight-saving time would depend on congressional approval.
Representiaves from Escambia and Santa Rosa County were split in their votes on the plan — District 1 Rep. Clay Ingram (who represents the North Escambia area), and District 3 Rep. Jayer Williamson voted in favor of the proposal, while District 2 Rep. Frank White voted no.
The House proposal does not include switching the Panhandle to Eastern Time, and that idea has been dropped from the Senate plan after much public outcry.
Daylight-saving time will start March 11 this year and end Nov. 4.
by The News Service of Florida with contribution from NorthEscambia.com
Driver Runs Through Molino Pipeline Construction Zone
February 15, 2018
A medical condition may have been to blame for an accident Wednesday night in Molino.
A driver, according to witnesses, traveled southbound in the northbound lanes of Highway 29 near Highway 95A before running off the road into a pipeline construction zone. The driver ran into the ditch, barely missing construction equipment and stopping just short of a large hole.
The driver was transported by ambulance to a Pensacola hospital by Escambia County EMS. The incident is being investigated by the Florida Highway Patrol.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
Driver Injured In Cantonment Crash That Cut Power For Hundreds
February 14, 2018
An early morning wreck sent one person to the hospital and cut power to about 750 homes and businesses in Cantonment.
The driver of a Dodge Ram pickup lost control, ran off the roadway and slammed into a utility pole about 3:50 a.m.
The adult male was trapped in his vehicle and extricated by firefighters before being transported as a trauma alert by Escambia County EMS to Sacred Heart Hospital.
A utility pole was snapped during the crash. Gulf Power crews restored power just after 9 a.m.
The accident is under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol. The Cantonment and Ensley stations of Escambia Fire Rescue and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office also responded.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
Bratt Couple’s ‘Doomsday Romance’ Was Born On Top Secret Plane, Knowing One Might Not Survive
February 14, 2018
On Valentine’s Day, a Bratt couple celebrated a “Doomsday romance” born in one of the most secure places on earth, where only one member of the couple might survive as one of the last living people on the planet.
Gary and Kayleen Amerson were married in 1991 after meeting in the Air Force and being assigned to the Boeing E-4 Advanced Airborne Command Post, project name “Nightwatch” but more commonly called the Doomsday Planes. If the United States were ever in a nuclear war, the planes would provide a mobile command post for the president, secretary of defense and the nation’s top military leaders. The planes also follow the president as he travels abroad.
The year was 1988, the last year of the Cold War.
Gary was wrapping up a tour at Grissom AFB in Indiana and was anticipating getting out and returning to Bratt to work with his dad. A distracted driver totaled his car and he bought a new SUV, thinking he had a year to pay it off before leaving the Air Force. A military “roll back” (which gave airmen a choice of another four years or an immediate discharge) forced his hand, and he had to re-enlist for another tour. He volunteered to go overseas or to the coast, but was given an unwanted second Midwest assignment to Offutt AFB outside Omaha, NE.
Kayleen was in Iowa, attending her second college taking her third change in major and, on a whim, visited the recruiter, signing on to “any job that flies”. She requested an overseas assignment and instead was assigned to the nearest possible base to her home — at Offutt AFB, NE.
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Both arrived at Offutt in summer of 1989, assigned to the 1850th Airborne Communications Squadron to serve as airborne communications systems operators aboard the E-4B “Doomsday Planes”.
They lived two doors apart in an exclusive flyers’ dorm that allowed for crews to rest around the clock, since flyers didn’t keep regular hours.
Kayleen and Gary flew the same training flights. As 20-somethings, they fell between the old married guys that had been around forever and the new young airmen that were too young to drink.
Kayleen took to hanging out with Gary because the younger airmen were afraid of him and wouldn’t continually ask him to buy them beer, so they would leave her alone if she was with him. By the time they were each assigned to mission teams that fall, they were best friends. They were engaged that spring and married the following year.
“So both of us were in careers we hadn’t planned, assigned to a place neither wanted to go, and landed right where we were meant to be,” Kayleen said.
“One random afternoon I was hanging out in Gary’s room,” she added. “Gary finally got around to asking me if I wanted to go out … like on a date. I agreed, and then not knowing what else to say, left and went back to my own room.
“A few minutes later there was a knock at the door and there stood Gary, saying tentatively ‘I’m here to talk to my old best friend, not my future date.’ I said ok, slightly confused, and he continued in a new, more excited voice, ‘I’ve got a really hot date and I need you to take me shopping for some new clothes!’”
“The mission kept up a 24/7 hot alert, meaning one airplane was always on, keeping in constant communications with other national command centers. The crew of 60 plus, including flight crew, battle staff and communicators, slept in shifts in the ‘alert facility’ right next to the jet and could be airborne in moments in the event of a national emergency.” she said.
Each crew came on duty on Thursday mornings and would stay with the plane until the following Thursday. Gary and Kayleen were on opposite teams after they began to date and after their marriage, so they worked opposite duty shifts with six days together in between. Their eventual honey moon in June 1991 was the longest period of time they had ever spent together.
They spent hours on the phone when the other was away.
“We learned to live in sound bites. We had to fit everything into a weekend that a normal couple would handle in a month. We had been talking about eventually getting married for a while, which for us was probably weeks. I knew when he got the rings but he hadn’t asked me yet,” she said. “It was a night before he was scheduled to leave and I was doing my darndest to get him to propose before he left because I absolutely did not want to wait another two weeks before our next conversation. I kept trying to maneuver us into what I considered romantic settings to set him up to propose but it turns out he already had a plan, and all my maneuvering kept getting me further and further from the target.”
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Many, many nights, the one not on alert would bring dinner and after the office cleared out for the night create a picnic in the crew lounge. They knew that the one on alert could be called at any time and have to dash out without so much as a goodbye kiss.
“We spent more time together in that building than at home for the first years of our marriage,” she said.
“We watched the first invasion of Iraq sitting on the floor in the lounge listening to Wolf Blitzer on CNN. We watched the Branch Dividian saga unfold and Ruby Ridge shortly thereafter. One of us was on alert when the first reports came in of the relatively unsuccessful car bomb attempt at the World Trade Center when no one knew the name bin Laden. Gary was in Japan following President George H.W. Bush when the president choked at a state dinner, and those of us back home wondered if we’d be scrambling a backup jet to get to a successor. We watched all the big events of the world through the lens of always anticipating a presidential catastrophe or bolt out of the blue.”
They also knew that in the event of an all-out nuclear war, their marriage would die. Literally.
“Gary and I were on separate teams, so only one of us would survive,” Kayleen said.
“Once, I was on shift on the plane and we had an alert for an inbound missile that would impact the United States,” she said. “We ran through the protocol, called the Pentagon, they reacted and we launched. The whole time I’m thinking ‘yeah me, I get to survive because Gary is at home’.” It turned out to be a false alarm.
“We understood each other’s stress, so it was a natural outlet,” Gary remarked.
The Amersons spent their first years of marriage at Offutt when they were reassigned to Andrews Air Force Base. Gary to the 99th Airlift Squadron, Kayleen to the 1st Airlift Squadron — same mission, different planes to fly the nation’s top leaders — the vice president, secretary of state, secretary of defense, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the First Lady.
“There our relationship was largely passing glances and radio calls from different continents,” Kayleen said of their time at Andrews AFB.
Major holidays, like Christmas and Valentine’s, stand out in Kayleen’s memory because they would often be apart. “I would plan ahead and hide things in the house, like 12 different notes for the 12 days of Christmas.”
Kayleen quit flying in 1997 to start a family and work at NSA. They spent 1999-2000 at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, went back to Offutt in Nebraska in 2003 and Scott Air Force Base in Illinois until retirement at the end of the decade. Kayleen had the only deployment, to Qater in 2005-2006.
And now they are back in Bratt.
“We used our wedding money in 1991, still at Offutt, to buy the land we currently live on. Bratt was always the plan.”
Both currently commute together for three hours a day, working as cybersecurity consultants supporting the U.S. Navy.
“We have always worked together or in similar, connected jobs,” he said. “There were no secrets between us; we knew the same things. If one of us had been a civilian, there would be things I could not tell her about work.”
“God meant for us to be together. Gary is the only person in the world I am able to stand to be around all the time. We just fit,” she said.
“It’s like the Garth Brooks song Unanswered Prayers,” he said. “God decided that we were meant to be together.”
“It is true that the whole idea of mutually assured destruction was a very real fact for us on a daily basis. So you just create the best forever that you can for however long as you get. We got lucky and got the forever after,” Kayleen said.
Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Southeast Alabama Wreck Claims The Life Of Cantonment Man
February 14, 2018
A wreck in Southeast Alabama Tuesday claimed the life of a Cantonment man.
Alabama State Troopers said a 1996 GMC Sonoma driven by Corey Smith of Cantonment collided with a 2007 GMC Yukon driven by a 17-year old in Ashford, Ala., east of Dothan near the Georgia state line.
The teen driver of Yukon escaped without injury before it burst into flames and was consumed by fire.
Smith was transported to Southwest Alabama Medical Center in Dothan where he later passed away from his injuries.
The accident remains under investigation by Alabama State Troopers.
Pictured: A crash east of Dothan near the Alabama/Georgia state line claimed the life of a Cantonment man Tuesday. Photos courtesy Rickey Stokes for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
