FDOT: Weekly Traffic Alerts
February 29, 2016
Drivers will encounter traffic disruptions on the following state roads in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties as crews perform construction and maintenance activities.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY
U.S. 29, Escambia County – Intermittent and alternating lane closures within the town of Century and from Champion Drive north continue.
State Road (S.R.) 10A (Scenic Highway), Escambia County – East and westbound traffic reduced to one lane on Scenic Highway from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, Feb. 29 as crews remove debris from the roadway. Traffic flaggers will be on site to safely direct traffic through the work zone.
I-10 Widening, Escambia County – Alternating lane closures between Davis Highway (Exit 13) and Scenic Highway (Exit 17) from 7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. the week of Monday, Feb. 29. as crews perform paving and storm repairs. The speed limit on I-10 between Davis Highway and Scenic Highway is reduced to 60 mph.
S.R. 289 (9th Avenue), Escambia County – Crews continue paving operations between the intersection of Bayou Boulevard and Creighton Road. Paving operations will also begin Monday, Feb. 29 at Bayou Boulevard (S.R. 296) and Airport Boulevard (S.R. 750). Lane closures will be in effect from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. Motorists will also encounter intermittent and alternating daytime lane closures between Fairfield Drive and Cervantes Street as crews adjust manholes and valves.
U.S. 98 (Garden Street), Escambia County – The outside westbound lane will be closed between North Tarragona Street to North Jefferson Street 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Tuesday, March 1 and Wednesday, March 2 as ECUA performs underground utility work.
U.S. 98 (Garden Street), Escambia County – The outside westbound lane at Springs Street will be closed from 8 p.m. Thursday March 3 to 6 a.m. Friday, March 4 as ECUA performs underground utility work.
Interstate 10 (I-10) over Eleven Mile Creek Bridge, Escambia County – East and westbound traffic reduced to one lane at the bridge as crews perform construction activities.
U.S. 90 (Scenic Highway) at the intersection of Scenic Highway Circle, Escambia County – Emergency repair work continues. New stormwater pipe will be installed beneath Scenic Highway. Traffic flaggers will be on site to assist with traffic control as construction vehicles enter and exit the work area.
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
I-10 Widening, Santa Rosa County – Alternating lane closures between the Escambia Bay Bridge and S.R. 281 (Avalon Boulevard/Exit 22) from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 28 through Thursday, March 3 as crews perform construction activities. In addition, the southbound travel lanes on Avalon Boulevard near the I-10 interchange will be closed during this time. One lane of traffic will be open in each direction in the northbound lanes. The closures will allow crews to perform pile driving operations. The speed limit on I-10, between the Escambia Bay Bridge and Avalon Boulevard, is reduced to 60 mph.
U.S. 90 Milton, Santa Rosa County- Alternating lane closures near the Marquis Bayou Bridge from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27.and Sunday, Feb. 28 and from 9 p.m. Monday, Feb. 29 to 6 a.m. Tuesday, March 1 as crews place the final layer of asphalt on roadway.
U.S. 98, Santa Rosa County- Alternating lane closures from the Gulf Breeze Zoo to the Okaloosa County line 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. through the end of February as crews perform striping operations.
U.S. 98, Santa Rosa County- Alternating lane closures between Central Parkway and the Gulf Breeze Zoo from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Sunday through Thursday as crews mill and pave crossovers and side streets. This work is anticipated to take place through Thursday, March 10.
All activities are weather dependent and may be delayed or re-scheduled in the event of inclement weather. Motorists are reminded to use caution, especially at night, when traveling in a work zone and to watch for construction workers and equipment entering and exiting the roadway.
Jay, Northview Students Get Look At State Government
February 29, 2016
Escambia River Electric Cooperative Tallahassee Youth Tour delegates from Northview and Jay high school spend two days in Tallahassee getting an up close and personal look at government in action.
Attending from Jay high School were Rebecca Boutwell, Destiny Herring, Madelynn Holt, Meghan Mayo, Megan Mulford, Krissa Olivieri and Dylan Wayland. Attending from Northview High School were Zipporah Harris, Ziara Johnson, Daysha Kite and Brittanee Thomas.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Molino Teen Named Miss Emerald Coast 2016
February 29, 2016
Allison Woodfin of Molino was recently crowned Miss Emerald Coast 2016 in Niceville.
As Miss Emerald Coast, Woodfin will attend benefits Connecting Kids, and the ARC of the Emerald Coast, as well as Special Olympics events across the Emerald Coast. The pageant benefits Connecting Kids, which provides playground equipment for children with disabilities and works bridge the social gap between children with disabilities and their peers.
Woodfin is a senior at West Florida High School.
Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
House Floats Proposal To Hold Property Taxes Level
February 29, 2016
Lawmakers are considering a proposal that would use hundreds of millions of dollars in state money to hold local education property taxes steady, as House and Senate negotiators continued working toward an agreement on the budget.
The proposal, floated by the House, would wipe out an increase in the “required local effort” that local school districts contribute to the state’s funding formula for public schools. The increase would have been driven by rising property values, not a hike in the millage rate, but critics have argued that it still would have been a de facto tax increase.
The savings for taxpayers in the plan discussed Saturday would amount to more than $430 million, compared to the original budgets passed by the House and Senate
Sen. Don Gaetz, the Niceville Republican who chairs the Senate committee overseeing education spending, praised the plan that was offered by his House counterpart, Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami.
“What the chairman and I have been talking about publicly and privately over these weeks is finding some kind of alternative, so that the state could buy down a greater share of that increase, and so that at a time when we want our economy to continue to thrive and grow, that we don’t provide a broad-based property tax increase on the backs of the people of Florida,” Gaetz told reporters after a meeting with Fresen.
While the House proposal includes the largest per-student funding amount in state history — at $7,178.49 a head — it would provide less per student than the budgets approved by the House and Senate, as well as the spending plan recommended by Gov. Rick Scott.
The two sides were expected to meet again Saturday night, but Gaetz has been vocal on the issue of local property taxes, making it likely that the offer or something similar would be accepted.
Elsewhere in the Capitol, smaller deals were struck as both sides looked to finish work on a budget for the year that begins July 1. Lawmakers agreed on funding for smaller or non-controversial agencies like the Florida Lottery and the Office of Insurance Regulation.
A negotiating committee dealing with economic development and related issues finished work on the spending plans for the Department of Transportation and the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Lawmakers there were still slogging through work on dozens of parochial projects late Saturday evening.
And Sen. Jack Latvala, a Clearwater Republican heading up those negotiations for his chamber, also expressed disappointment with the decision by legislative leaders to refuse to fund an economic incentive program touted by Scott.
Scott had pushed for $250 million for a “Florida Enterprise Fund” that would overhaul state incentive funding and help him attract businesses to the state. Senate leaders had backed the request, then dropped it to reach a deal with the House on the broad outlines of a budget and move to the current stage of the negotiations.
“I cannot possibly anticipate that we’re not going to have some sort of economic development program to compete with the other states that are trying to get businesses to relocate,” Latvala said. “It didn’t have to be $250 million, but there’s a big difference between $250 million and zero.”
Rep. Clay Ingram, the Pensacola Republican working with Latvala, told reporters that the House wasn’t interested in reopening the issue.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Brush Fire Destroys Tractor, SUV
February 28, 2016
Firefighters battled a large brush fire off Highway 97 near Dogwood Park Sunday afternoon.
The fire off Parker Lane, near Hendricks Lane, consumed a large grassy area and moved into a wooded area. Firefighters from the Molino, McDavid, Walnut Hill and Cantonment stations of Escambia Fire Rescue and the Florida Division of Forestry battled the blaze with two bulldozers.
The fire destroyed a tractor and a SUV. There was no immediate word of a threat to any structures and no injuries reported.
Reader submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Our View: The Sounds Of Front Street
February 28, 2016
Early Saturday morning was sunny and remarkably quiet on Front Street in Century. For a few moments, it was closer to a normal morning than it had been in the past couple of weeks. It was so quiet that you could hear the birds chirping happily in the remaining trees.
As the storms came and brought a hellish roar many times that of massive freight train on February 15, Front Street was been anything but quiet. Winds estimated up to 152 mph toppled trees, picked up and moved houses, flattened homes and destroyed dreams…no, destroyed life as Front Street knew it.
It was one of the poorest streets in the poorest town in the state — an estimated annual household income as low as $7,000. But the outpouring of support, the sounds of progress, have been rich.
Since the tornado, it had been a cycle of sorts of sounds on Front Street. The sirens, the first responders going house to house looking for survivors the first night and the first morning after the EF-3. The Tuesday after the storm, the sounds of Front Street, ground zero, were not normal. Most residents were gone; the area was secured and locked down by the Sheriff’s Office. As the day progressed, there was the sound of more and more chainsaws and bucket trucks as a small army of utility workers labored to clear downed lines and restore power, TV and phone lines.
By Wednesday afternoon after the tornado, the busy laborious sounds were replaced by the noise of a steady stream of vehicles as the roadblocks were lifted. Neighbors checked on one another. And, under the sounds of the chainsaws, were the quiet sounds of the tears over what was no more.
Since the storm, the sounds of Front Street continued to be those of chainsaws, Bobcat loaders, and dump trucks. TV reporters, building inspectors, tarps hammered into place, and volunteers swarming. Those volunteers calling out, offering food, water, supplies and a helping hand.
Last Wednesday, the sounds paused for a moment, replaced by the hustle and bustle that surrounded the visit of the governor to Front Street. And the sounds of murmurs about how perhaps he should have visited a week earlier. As the dark SUV’s pulled away, the chainsaws roared again.
The sounds of tin and metal and wood and tree limbs being pushed to the roadside. The sounds of the grapple trucks picking up what remained of a home and dropping it into a dumpster. More chainsaws, more heavy equipment. More engines roaring. Those have been the sounds of Front Street.
But on Saturday morning, Front Street slept in a little late. Most of the debris piles were gone from the roadside, most of the temporary repairs were done.
But Front Street had a quiet call, a call for help with what comes next. How will it be restored? How will the homes be rebuilt? What happens to those still sleeping without walls, without a roof, without electricity and without running water? The sounds of the pages of Front Street’s 100-plus year history turning to the next major chapter.
Front Street has heard the sounds of cleanup, of volunteers and the first part of recovery. But for now, Front Street listens for the next sounds of recovery — the financial help from the government that so far has not arrived. Those sounds were first quiet on our cool Saturday morning visit. Then a mockingbird began to sing, followed by another a few houses down, followed by the repeated pulls needed to crank a tired old chainsaw.
It was the sounds of Front Street waking up to the new normal; the sounds of Front Street crying out for help from anyone that will listen.
Pictured top: A quiet Front Street in Century Saturday morning, February 26. Pictured below: Front Street during a post-tornado lockdown on Tuesday morning, February 16. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Farm Share Distributes 35K Pounds Of Food To Tornado Victims
February 28, 2016
Farm Share partnered with Sen. Greg Evers, Rep. Doug Broxson, Rep. Mike Hill, and Rep. Clay Ingram for a disaster relief food distribution Saturday for the victims of an EF-3 tornado in Pensacola. Over 35,000 pounds of food, plus clothing and supplies were distributed at the Hillcrest Baptitst Church Spanish Trail campus on Spanish Trail Road. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Manna, Rotary Clubs Team Up To Create 77,500 Meals For The Hungry
February 28, 2016
Over 950 members of the Combined Rotary Clubs of Pensacola (CROP) and their guests worked with Manna Food Pantries Saturday to help feed their neighbors in the Fifth Annual Rotary Against Hunger Project. They donated 162 lbs of food, $3,712, and made 25,000 meal packets.
“The Rotary Against Hunger project has become a critical part of our ability to meet the needs of the hungry throughout the year in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties,” said Manna Executive Director DeDe Flounlacker,. “This project provides much needed food during the Winter and early Spring when donations are always low, and need is always high. Last year, we provided assistance to 20,303 people, including 6,853 children. These are your neighbors and mine – folks who are the working poor, grandparents raising their grandchildren, moms and dads who do not have enough money to pay their bills and buy food for their families. Thanks to Rotary, thousands of people will be helped this year through this gift of nutritious food.”
Their hard work is enough to provide 77, 551 nutritious meals to those in need, according to Manna.
Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Crime Stats Hold Steady In Escambia County
February 28, 2016
Crimes stats in Escambia County were relatively stable from 2014 to 2015, according to data from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
Total indexed crimes reported increased 0.4 percent from 11,580 to 11,629 from 2014 to 2015. Indexed crimes include murders, sex offenses, robberies, assaults, burglaries, larceny and motor vehicle thefts.
The violent crime rate increased by 0.2 percent from 1761 to 1764 and property crimes increased 0.5 percent from 11,580 to 11,629. In 2015, the population in Escambia County also grew by 2,737 people, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The ECSO pointed out the clearance rate (up 7.5 percent), number of arrests (up 8.8 percent), and violent crime arrests (up 12.8 percent) also increased. There were 18 murders in 2014, with 20 reported in 2015 by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
There were slight increases in sex offenses (6.4 percent), robberies (4.2 percent), larcenies (3.5 percent). But there was a decrease in the number of aggravated assaults (-2.2 percent), burglaries (-7.0 percent) and motor vehicle thefts (-5.4 percent) from 2014 to 2015. Since 2009, violent crimes have dropped by 21.5 percent, according to the ECSO.
There was $13.6 million worth of property stolen in 2015, or which $5.7 million worth was recovered.
“The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is proud these numbers have maintained and takes any crime committed seriously. Those who choose to break laws in Escambia County will face the proper consequences,” the department said in a statement published on Facebook.
The stats are reported each year to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for an annual report.
ECUA Works To Clean Up Northpointe Subdivision
February 28, 2016
ECUA was out in force with over a dozen trucks in the Northpointe subdivision early Saturday cleaning up tornado debris at no charge to residents. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.