Century Council Discusses Transportation Wish List With State
June 14, 2016
When Highway 29, the main artery through your town, is closed due to an overturned truck and downed power lines, it makes it a bit easier to explain transportation needs to the state.
“Right now, Highway 29 is shut down because another big truck has wrecked in that curve,” Mayor Freddie McCall said. “That curve needs to be fixed.”
Tuesday evening, the Century Town Council met with Virgie Bowen of the Florida Department of Transportation to discuss the department’s Five-Year Plan — a tentative work plan for fiscal years 2017-2021. As the meeting was going on, the clean up was continuing on Highway 29 near Jackson street after a log truck overturned in a curve and hit a power pole. [Click here for more on the accident.]
“The elevation is wrong in the outside lane,” McCall told Bowen about the curve. Several trucks have overturned in the curve over the past several years, including a peanut truck a few years ago that damaged a city sewage system lift station. The station was rebuilt mostly underground to lessen or prevent future damage.
Bowen also heard a request that the state consider a parking or signage for tourists that stop for photos with the “Welcome to Florida” sign on Highway 29 at the state line. Sometimes, McCall said, tourists will stop in the travel lanes of Highway 29, turn on their emergency flashers and get out for a photo.
Bowen discussed a FDOT Transportation Alternative Program that would fund projects such as sidewalks on roadways that are not state highways. The council discussed the possible need for a sidewalk along West Highway 4, a county road within the town limits, from Highway 29 past Industrial Boulevard to a local dialysis center. A community center, nursing home, church, numerous residences and a large apartment complex are along the roadway, leading to a large number of pedestrians.
Members of the Century Town Council additionally complained about speeders on Highway 29 through the town. They acknowledged that they often see the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office actively enforcing speed limits, and they questioned in a portable radar-speed sign might be available that would display a driver’s speed compared to the legal speed limit.
The council’s requests will be compiled by Bowen, and she will return for a June 20 meeting with the council.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
State Fire Marshal Investigating Bluff Springs Travel Trailer Fire
June 14, 2016
The Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of a fire that destroyed a travel trailer Monday night.
The unoccupied trailer in the Bluff Springs Campground in the 900 block of Bluff Springs Road was fully involved when the first fire units arrived on scene. It was a total loss.
There were no injuries reported.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Three Inmates Stabbed At Holman Prison
June 14, 2016
Three inmates were stabbed this past weekend at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections.
A correctional officer found an inmate that had been stabbed about 10:20 Saturday night. That inmate was transported to an area hospital. About 3:30 a.m. Sunday, two other inmates were stabbed. One inmate was treated in the infirmary at the prison, the other was transported to a Mobile hospital for treatment.
Further details have not been released by the Alabama DOC.
Woman Sentenced For ‘Brutal’ Murder Of Stepfather
June 14, 2016
A young woman accused of the 2014 murder of her stepfather near Munson has been sentenced.
Taylor Lynn Crongeyer was sentenced Monday to three years in prison to be followed by one year of community control and two years probation. She will get credit for 18 months that she has already served in jail.
She pleaded guilty last month to a lesser charge of second degree manslaughter, claiming that she was physically abused. Prosecutors said she shot 40-year Aubrey Dewayne Cooley who was found dead December 26, 2014, with a gunshot wound to his head at his Dale Hall Road home. He was tied to the trailer hitch of a pickup truck with a rope around his ankles.
When deputies arrived on scene, Crongeyer, who was 18 at the time, exited the residence with a large amount of blood on her clothing, according to an arrest report. When deputies walked through the residence, they found blood spots on the floor, a bedroom mattress and outside on the front and back porch areas. They also found a rifle on the floor at the foot of a bed in the master bedroom.
A spokesman for the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office called incident a “brutal homicide”, arresting Crongeyer just hours after the shooting.
FWC Law Enforcement Report
June 14, 2016
The Florida FWC Division of Law Enforcement reported the following activity during the weekly period ending June 9 in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
Throughout the week, Officer Lewis made 14 arrests in Blackwater River State Forest for possession of not more than 20 grams of cannabis, possession of drug paraphernalia and a felony warrant. Officer Lewis also issued various citations and warnings for forestry violations including operating vehicles off the established roads, possessing alcoholic beverages where prohibited, and possessing glass containers in or around waterways.
Officer Hutchinson assisted Lieutenant Berryman after a fleeing driver of a stolen vehicle attempted to elude capture by speeding on the interstate before fleeing on foot. He was spotted hiding in a nearby hotel and taken into custody. A search of the car revealed crack cocaine and various drug paraphernalia. The man stated that he swallowed a bag of heroin and was taken to a local hospital for medical attention. He spent the next several days talking to various officers that maintained a watch over him. He admitted to taking the vehicle from a friend to go and buy heroin. He stated that he was shooting up during the pursuit and admitted to being heavily intoxicated and under the influence of drugs. After being medically cleared, the man was transported to jail where he was booked for possession of cocaine, fleeing and eluding, and grand theft. Additional charges of DUI and reckless driving are pending.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY
(No report was submitted this week from Escambia County.)
This report represents some events the FWC handled over the past week; however, it does not include all actions taken by the Division of Law Enforcement. Information provided by FWC.
Learn How To Do Business With ECUA At Workshop
June 14, 2016
This Wednesday, the Florida Procurement Technical AssistanceCenter (PTAC), will offer a free workshop entitled, “How to do Business with the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority” (ECUA). The event will be held at the University of West Florida, Innovation Institute, 321 N. DeVilliers Street, Suite 308, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
The informational meeting will educate attendees about the potential of doing business with the Authority, while increasing participation in obtaining future contracts. Participants will learn about the bidding process, qualification requirements, future business opportunities, and how the ECUA hiring process is conducted.
The featured speakers will include; Bill Johnson, ECUA director of engineering, Tony Howard, ECUA senior purchasing agent, and Chiquita Payne, ECUA human resource generalist.
The workshop is free; however, pre-registration is recommended. For additional information contact Laura Subel, PTAC procurement specialist, lsubel@uwf.edu (850) 474-2549 or register at clientsfloridasbdc.org/center.
Leaders After Massacre: ‘Tears Are Not Enough”
June 14, 2016
Walking through a Chicago airport on Sunday, it wasn’t merely the horrific massacre of 49 clubgoers at a gay bar in Orlando earlier that morning that reduced Christian Ulvert to tears.
It was how he heard a couple of fellow travelers characterizing the event.
“They said it was such a tragic event, but at least it wasn’t a school where children were, it was a club where gays hung out,” Ulvert, a gay Democratic political consultant told The News Service of Florida in a telephone interview Monday. “That was a very painful moment. It was very hard to hold back the tears.”
The shooting deaths of 49 people, many of them Hispanic, at Pulse, a popular gay nightclub in downtown Orlando, has sparked outrage, grief and a global outpouring of support for the LGBT community.
Federal authorities say gunman Omar Mateen, 29, acted alone, but, in the words of President Barack Obama, was “radicalized” by Islamic terrorists via the internet.
In the short time since the event, much of the analysis has focused on Mateen’s links with terrorists.
But while reeling from the worst mass shooting in the nation’s history, many LGBT people throughout Florida, and the nation, feel they’re being ignored.
“I think it’s pretty much gone viral that our political leaders not only in Florida but throughout the country need to say the words that this was an attack on our gay community,” said Ulvert, a Miami resident who has been married to his husband, Carlos Andrade, for three years. “You have to say those words.”
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Sunday, Obama called the tragedy that brutalized Orlando “an act of terror and an act of hate” that was “especially heartbreaking for all of our friends … who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.”
In his remarks to the media, Gov. Rick Scott has talked about terrorism and expressed sorrow for the victims and their families. But he has avoided references to the gay or LGBT component of the attack.
“This is clearly an attack on the LGBTQ community. It was clearly an attack on Latinos as well. A supermajority of the victims that have been named so far are young Latino men, most of them LGBTQ,” said Carlos Guillermo Smith, governmental affairs director for Equality Florida, a gay-rights advocacy group.
“We have to remember that it is an attack on our community, which we have to call out for what it is — an anti-gay, anti-Latino, disgusting act of terror and hate,” Smith, a Democrat running for the state House in Orlando, said in a telephone interview.
The timing of Sunday’s attack — during LGBT Pride month — was especially heart-wrenching.
On a June night in 1969, habitues of the Stonewall Inn — an integral component in New York City’s gay community — fought back during a police raid, in an event widely believed to have given birth to the gay liberation movement.
Since then, gay nightclubs like Pulse, the scene of Sunday’s bloodbath, have been considered safe havens for LGBT patrons.
“These types of places, they’re the gathering spots for gay people. It is where we can be ourselves. We can go have a good time and be away from the critical eye of society and be out and open and free. The clubs have always been a really important part of our culture,” said Susan Gage, a gay activist who lives in Tallahassee.
Gays in Florida — and the nation — have racked up victories in the courtroom in recent years. Same-sex marriage has been legal in Florida for more than a year, and gay couples are now permitted to legally adopt children.
But the reaction to Sunday’s attack, for many, is seen as a step backward, especially after reports that Mateen’s father said his son was enraged after witnessing two men kissing in Miami.
“Our work to change hearts and minds needs to continue in a more aggressive way because that’s the only we overcome the hate,” said Ulvert, who described news of Sunday’s historic massacre as being like “a punch in the gut.”
Jim Brenner, who was one of the plaintiffs in a successful challenge to Florida’s prohibition on same-sex marriage, is focused on pushing for a ban on assault weapons, but he is also concerned that the hate-crime component of the Orlando mass murder is being downplayed.
“Tears are not enough anymore. We have got to stand up and make it known that we are going to make this stop. If we have to march through hell itself, we are going to make this stop. We’re not a bunch of wimps that are going to go like lambs to the slaughter. This is not going to happen anymore,” Brenner, a Tallahassee resident, said.
Many gay leaders also view Sunday’s tragedy as an opportunity to strengthen the community.
“That’s the thing that this whole episode is never going to take away from the gay community. We pull together and then we become even more of a juggernaut,” said Gage. “We’ve been hurt. We are crying. We are in pain. But we’re not backing down.”
Gage is a longtime member of Mickey Faust, a community theater group she said has been a “haven” for LGBT locals in the Tallahassee area. The troupe’s Friday show will go on, Gage said.
Ulvert favored a sort of “turn the other cheek” approach, despite hateful comments he said he viewed on social media accusing gays of being punished for their lifestyle.
“Our community has to be resilient and not show hate with hate, instead stick to what we’ve been doing, which is love will conquer,” he said. “It’s challenging, though, when you do go online and you see people commenting. I’ve stopped looking.”
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Putnam: Orlando Gunman Cleared Background Checks
June 14, 2016
The gunman who carried out a massacre early Sunday in an Orlando nightclub passed all of the legally required background checks for his weapons, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam told reporters Monday.
Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old St. Lucie County resident, had a clean criminal record, passed a mental-health screening to get a security guard job, lawfully purchased guns from a licensed dealer and abided by the state’s three-day waiting period to complete the purchase of guns, Putnam said.
“He held a ‘D’ license, as well as a ‘G’ license, which means that he is a security guard and a security guard who is permitted to carry a firearm,” Putnam said of Mateen, who was killed by local law enforcement after the attack at the Pulse gay nightclub.
“All of the information related to his application to receive those licenses was in order,” Putnam continued. “He was fingerprinted. He successfully completed the application, had a criminal background check. There is nothing in that record that would have disqualified this individual, who was a U.S. citizen, who had a clean criminal record, who underwent a background check and mental-health screening.”
Mateen’s licenses were valid through 2017.
Putnam runs the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which oversees weapons permits in Florida. The department hasn’t released Mateen’s application paperwork.
Putnam addressed the media after a meeting at the state Emergency Operations Center.
Gov. Rick Scott has labeled the mass murder at the nightclub — at least 49 victims were killed and 53 others wounded — as a “terror attack.” Putnam called it a “man-made disaster, rooted in hate, rooted in terrorist ideologies.”
Mateen, who federal officials say purchased two guns, including an assault rifle, within the past week, worked for G4S, a global security company with offices in Jupiter. He had been with the company since 2007, the same year Mateen applied for his first weapons permit.
News reports said Mateen, U.S.-born to immigrants from Afghanistan, had come to the attention of federal authorities in 2013 and 2014, but no case was ever produced. During the shooting early Sunday, he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist group, authorities said.
Putnam said his agency is working with the FBI, along with state and federal law enforcement to “coordinate the appropriate timing of the release of those records.”
Putnam objected to a characterization that the FBI was blocking the release of the records.
“There is information in those records that is relevant to the ongoing investigation,” Putnam said.
Asked about the need for legislation that would impose restrictions on assault rifles or gun rights, Putnam instead discussed the ability of people hiding “an ideology so dark, that they’re capable of using the freedoms and liberties that this country awards all our citizens for the darkest possible motives.”
Putnam said his agency is working with Volunteer Florida to create a central type of organization to assist people who want to donate to charities in the wake of the shooting.
“It is fairly common in the aftermath of a tragic event like this for people to further prey on good-hearted people’s emotions and rip them off by creating a charity that has no intention of sending the money to the victims or victims’ families or anything related to the incident,” Putnam said.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Wahoos Double Up On The Montgomery Biscuits
June 14, 2016
Pensacola catcher Kyle Skipworth wanted to make up for his throwing error that allowed Montgomery to get the first run of the game and, boy, did he.
Skipworth blasted the ball over the center field wall for a two-run, walk-off homer that gave the Blue Wahoos a, 4-2, victory over the Biscuits in front of 3,932 fans Monday at Blue Wahoos Stadium. Pensacola’s four wins in its last five games have all come in the team’s last at bat.
It not only helped Pensacola clinch the five-game series, 3-1, over Montgomery with one game to go Tuesday but also helped them regain a one-game lead over Biloxi. The Shuckers lost, 9-2, Monday to the Birmingham Barons.
Pensacola, which is six-for-six in series wins at home, improved to 37-26. Meanwhile, Biloxi fell to 36-27.
Skipworth, who is coming off of surgery on his right ankle in December, has played seven games behind the plate for Pensacola and now has two homers and four RBIs.
“I don’t think there is any better feeling really,” said Skipworth of his walk-off bomb. “I hope by now you know how invested I am in what I do for the pitchers. I hate when (I give up a run) because it’s my fault. I needed to come through in a spot like that.”
Pensacola manager Pat Kelly said he admires the strength of the 6-foot-4, 230-pound Skipworth.
“He hit a ball over the scoreboard last year,” Kelly said. “He’s so strong when he hits those balls they go so long. You don’t see too many go out like that.”
Montgomery right fielder Cade Gotta put the Biscuits in front, 1-0, when he walked, moved to second on center fielder Braxton Lee’s single to left, stole third base on a double steal and scored on Skipworth’s misfire to second base.
Pensacola starting pitcher Rookie Davis made his third start since a groin injury sidelined him for three starts and worked five innings — his most since returning to the Blue Wahoos starting rotation.
Davis retired the last seven Montgomery batters he faced. Davis allowed two hits, walked four and struck out three, giving up one unearned run.
“He battled,” Kelly said. “We asked him if he was in discomfort or pain? He said, ‘I’m just in discomfort.’ He didn’t have his best stuff but he battled.”
Montgomery went ahead, 2-0, in the sixth inning when third baseman Patrick Leonard smashed a hit to center field, stole second and scored when catcher Mike Marjama followed with a single up the middle.
Pensacola shortstop Zach Vincej extended his hitting streak to nine games when he led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a double that bounced of the left field wall on one hop. However, he was stranded there. During his hitting streak, Vincej is batting 13-30 (.433), raising his average from .207 to .248.
Montgomery starter Jacob Faria had Pensacola batters under his spell for 6.2 innings, allowing no runs and just three hits, while striking out seven.
“There starter was really, really good today,” Skipworth said.
However, with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning Pensacola’s Skipworth singled to right center and then Blue Wahoos third baseman Alex Blandino launched a bomb over the left field wall to tie the game, 2-2.
Faria completed seven innings, giving up six hits, allowing two runs and striking out seven.
The Biscuits came right back to take a 3-2 lead when shortstop Willy Adames drew a leadoff walk in the top of the eighth and scored on a two-out single by Marjama. Marjama stole second and then tried to score on a slow chopper to third that Gotta beat out to first. But an alert Pensacola first baseman Kyle Parker threw home to get Marjama out at the plate by a mile.
In the ninth with one out, Brandon Dixon reached first when Montgomery’s Leonard couldn’t handle his sharp grounder and then Skipworth launched his game-winning dinger
Thunderstorm Winds Cause Damage In Flomaton; Giant Flag Destroyed
June 13, 2016
Strong winds in an afternoon thunderstorms cause minor damage in Flomaton Monday afternoon.
The wind bent an 86-foot high flagpole at Rowland Tires at Highway 31 and Highway 113, and the 25 x 40 foot flag was ripped into shreds.
“It’s unfortunate when a storm like this comes up so quick because you can’t just run out and take it down,” Christopher Rowland of Rowland Tires said. “Another pole and flag has already been ordered and we will have it flying again as soon as possible.”
Reader submitted photos also showed a trampoline tossed into a pole. There were scattered reports of power lines down, and yard furniture blown about.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
