Teens: Enjoy Free Pizza And Books At The Molino Library
February 15, 2016
A “Pizza and Books” program will be held Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Molino Branch Library.
Teens 13-17 are invited to “geek-out” on both at this book club designed to focus on their favorite reads. The library will provide the free pizza, and the teens will pick the books.
The Molino Branch Library is located at 6450-A Highway 95A in the Molino Community Complex.
NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
FDOT: Weekly Traffic Alerts
February 15, 2016
Drivers will encounter traffic disruptions on the following state roads in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties this week 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, including sidewalk work in Century (pictured top).
- Interstate 10 (I-10) over Eleven Mile Creek Bridge- East and westbound traffic will be shifted to the inside lanes at the first of next week as crew begin construction on the outside lanes. Message boards are on site to alert drivers of upcoming change in traffic pattern.
- I-10 Widening, Escambia County – Drivers will experience the following impacts on I-10 east and westbound, near Exit 17 (Scenic Highway) in Escambia County, from 7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17 through Friday, Feb. 19:
- The right lane of I-10 will be closed.
- Traffic in the left lane will be slowed by Florida Highway Patrol.
- Traffic on the Scenic Highway on-ramp to I-10 eastbound will experience intermittent delays.
- The closures and pacing operations will allow crews to place the concrete deck for the new Scenic Highway overpass.
- S.R. 289 (9th Avenue), Escambia County – Crews continue paving operations between the intersection of Bayou Boulevard and Creighton Road. 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. 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. The repair work will take about two months to complete.
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
- US 98, Santa Rosa County- Alternating lane closures from the Gulf Breeze Zoo to the Okaloosa County line 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday, Feb. 15 through Friday, Feb. 19 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 through the end of February. Crews will also mill and pave crossovers and side streets through the end of February.
- 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. 14 through Thursday, Feb. 18 as crews perform construction activities.
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.
Pictured top: Sidewalk work, including some lane closures, are continuing in Century. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Improvements Continue At Showalter Park In Century
February 14, 2016
The Town of Century is continuing to make improvement at Showalter Park.
Last year, the town opened a new playground funded with a $50,000 grant from the Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program. The labor to demolish the previous playground and install the new equipment was provided by the town and state inmate labor, saving grant dollars and allowing for the purchase of more equipment.
Century received a $50,000 grant, also from the Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program, to install a splash pad at Showalter Park. It is expected that the new splash pad will be open by this summer
Now, during this winter season, the town is using inmate labor to construct a restroom facility at the park.
Pictured above and below: Restroom facilities under construction at Showalter Park in Century. Pictured below: The new playground equipment at the park. Picture bottom: An artist rendering of the new splash pad planned for the park. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
One Week: Search Continues For Missing Teen
February 14, 2016
Authorities are continuing their search for a missing teen from Brewton, now about a week since she was last seen.
Brooke Lee Bridges is a 16-year old white female with blue hair that was last seen at her family home in Brewton about 11 p.m. on Sunday, February 7.
The FBI Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team from Quantico, Virginia, has become involved in the search, canvassing the neighborhood and follow up on leads as they come in. Agencies from across the area have been involved in the search, including Escambia Search and Rescue.
Authorities have also searched a lake for any possible clues.
The search has reached to the air. Escambia County Sheriff Grover Smith was uninjured Friday when the department’s small plane crashed during an aerial search Friday afternoon.
Bridges was last seen wearing a t-shirt and black sweatpants at her family home in Brewton around 11 p.m. on Sunday. She has brown eyes, is 5′3″ and weighs 100 pounds.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call the Brewton Police Department at (251) 867-3212 or 911.
FWC Law Enforcement Report
February 14, 2016
The Florida FWC Division of Law Enforcement reported the following activity during the weekly period ending February 11 in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY
No report submitted.
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
While Officers Miller and Land were patrolling Eglin WMA, they located multiple tree stands placed in close proximity to several illegal food plots. The following morning, the officers returned to the area and located two hunters exiting the woods. One of the hunters claimed to be stalk hunting even though he was wearing a harness used for hunting from a tree stand. The second hunter stated that he had been hunting from a nearby ladder stand. The hunters took the officers back to the area where they had been hunting; the same area that had the illegal food plots. After questioning, the two hunters admitted to placing bait within the management area and planting the food plots. Both hunters were issued a notice to appear for placing/hunting over bait on a management area and their Eglin Permits were seized by Range Patrol.
Officers teamed up with other FWC staff to work the Blackwater Hutton Unit Mobility Impaired Hunts over the last two weekends. As they have for the last several years, the officers helped to provide the hunters and guests with a full meal each day, assistance with cleaning their game, and assistance tracking and recovering game. Several members and groups within the community stepped up to donate money, food, and time to help make this a successful hunt. Several hunters bagged deer and all of the hunters enjoyed their hunt. Many thanks to all of the staff that volunteered their time and efforts towards making this hunt one of the best in the state!
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.
Atmore Man Arrested With $1K In Counterfeit Cash
February 14, 2016
An Atmore man was arrested this weekend with about $1,000 in fake cash.
Robert Edward Lowery, 34, was arrested by Atmore Police and charged with possession of a forged instrument. He was booked into the Escambia County Detention Center in Brewton.
Lowery was discovered with about $1,000 in fake $20 bills at a Kangaroo convenience store on Highway 31 in Atmore after police were tipped off by a store clerk. Police said the $20 bills all had the same serial number and were not cut to a uniform size.
Anyone that believes they may have received any of the counterfeit cash or that may information on the case is asked to call the Atmore Police Department at (251) 368-9141 or their local law enforcement agency.
High School All-Star Soccer Team Rosters Announced
February 14, 2016
The Pensacola Sports Association has announced the tentative rosters for the 9th Annual Subway High School All-Star Soccer game to be held Thursday, February 18 at Ashton Brosnaham Park beginning at 5:00 p.m.
The roster for the West Girls Team:
Catholic
Gabrielle Dosev – Keeper
Cassidy Wood – Back
Audrey Presnell – Midfield
Chapman Maraman – Forward
Escambia
Jada Johnson – Midfield
Lea Richards – Midfield
Ally Richards – Midfield
Mia Simmons–Moering – Midfield
Pensacola
Michaela Chelico – Keeper
Kaitlyn Ham – Back
Jacquelline Sagubal – Midfield
Abby Scott – Forward
Pine Forest
Courtney Brown – Back
Noelle Paulsen – Back
Addison Deal – Midfield
Tate
Kaley Boringer – Keeper
Sabrina Franklin – Back
Washington
Haley Roberts – Back
Bailey DePriest – Midfield
West Florida
Victoria Santos – Back
Samantha Karp – Midfield
Monica Duckworth – Forward
The roster for the East Girls Team:
Choctaw
Carly Dick – Back
Crestview
Allison Ammons – Midfield
Fort Walton Beach
Brianna Wallace – Back
Gulf Breeze
Megan Hawkins – Back
Kiersten Edlund – Midfield
Sam Holloway – Midfield
Destini Ferraro – Forward
Amber Hamilton – Forward
Milton
Sabrina Bonilla – Midfield
Navarre
Julianna DeSalle – Keeper
Kaylynn Ennis – Back
Kelsey Haden – Midfield
Maraiah McKinney – Midfield
Kayla Folse – Forward
Niceville
Julie Duchock – Back
Izabella Coulter – Back
Brooke Gaskell – Back
Kelsie Walker – Midfield
Kyree Taylor – Forward
Pace
Alexis Lawson – Forward
Rocky Bayou
Samantha Anderson – Back
Abigail Alldredge – Back
The Roster for the West Boys Team
Catholic
Eric Materson – Back
Eric Buer – Midfield
Andrew Keegan – Midfield
Billy Harris – Forward
Seth Straw – Forward
Escambia
Jalen Johnson – Keeper
Carvin Wayne – Back
Charles Richardson – Midfield
Ian Hendrick – Midfield
Chris Gibson – Midfield
Emilio Maldonado – Forward
Pensacola
David Heym – Back
Andy Chiang – Back
Alex Debari – Midfield
Michael Heym – Midfield
Pine Forest
Teabryan Davis – Back
Tate
Justin Shelton – Back
Jared Stacey – Midfield
Washington
Noal Ricketson – Keeper
Jake Goodspeed – Back
Evan Wimberly – Back
West Florida Tech
Tyler Sellitto – Forward
The Roster for the East Boys Team
Choctaw
Liam Power – Back
Tyler Smith – Midfield
Austin Custelin – Forward
Andy Wentz – Forward
Crestview
Kyle Jagielski – Keeper
Danny Born – Forward
Fort Walton Beach
MJ Goodman – Back
Bobby Howell – Back
DJ Mailman – Midfield
Luis Oseguera – Midfield
Gulf Breeze
TJ Brubaker – Keeper
Milton
James Carlson – Midfield
Navarre
Logan Townsand – Back
Bailey Bridges – Midfield
Nate Shroeder – Midfield
Jonah Cruz – Forward
Niceville
Stephen Herrera – Back
Austin Thompson – Midfield
Pace
Christian Johannemann – Back
Michael Batterton – Midfield
Rocky Bayou
Donovan McArthur – Back
Chris Lawson – Back
The coaching staff for the West Girls Team:
-Head Coach, Peter Stephens of West Florida Tech High School
-Assistant Coach, Ellie Henriquez of Escambia High School
The coaching staff for the East Girls Team:
-Head Coach, Ryan Davenport of Gulf Breeze High School
The coaching staff for the West Boys Team:
-Head Coach, Greg Garrett of Pensacola High School
-Assistant Coach, Del Greatwood of Catholic High School
The coaching staff for the East Boys Team:
-Head Coach, Chris McDaniel of Choctaw High School
-Assistant Coach, Jamie Cortes of Fort Walton Beach High School
Church To Host ‘True Beauty’ Young Women’s Conference
February 14, 2016
Ray’s Chapel Baptist Church will host “True Beauty”, a young women’s retreat, this Friday night.
The keynote speaker will be Beth Harris, and small group leaders that will lead participants in a study based upon the “True Beauty” by Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Whitacre. Young women high school through college/career are welcome to attend.
Tickets are $20 with a t-shirt, or $10 without a t-shirt. The event will be held 5-10 p.m. at Ray’s Chapel Baptist Church at 170 West Bogia Road in McDavid. Dinner is included.
For more information, call (850) 375-4652 or visit Facebook.com/TrueBeautyYoungWomensRetreat/
Appeals Court Weighs 24 Hour Abortion Wait
February 14, 2016
An appeals court last week heard arguments in a battle about a Florida law that would require 24-hour waiting periods before women could have abortions.
Gov. Rick Scott signed the measure (HB 633) in June. But in a pair of rulings in late June and early July, Leon County circuit judges blocked the law from taking effect amid a constitutional challenge.
Charles Francis, who served then as chief circuit judge but has since retired, ruled the law likely violated the Florida Constitution’s strong privacy protections.
“In simple terms, the question presented to this court is whether plaintiffs have sufficiently shown that the requirements of HB 633 impose a ’significant burden,’ as opposed to insignificant burden, on a woman’s right to an abortion,” Francis wrote in a June 30 ruling.
Francis found that the plaintiffs — Gainesville Woman Care LLC and Medical Students for Choice — had met a four-part test for a temporary injunction. He said they’d shown the likelihood of success on the merits of their case, and that “irreparable harm will result if the law is not enjoined, that they lack an adequate remedy at law, and that the relief requested will serve the public interest.”
However, a three-judge panel at the 1st District Court of Appeal expressed skepticism about that ruling.
“The trial judge said in the order, ‘I don’t have evidence on this point, but I’m going to grant the injunction anyway,’ ” Judge Brad Thomas said.
Denise M. Harle, who represented the Florida Attorney General’s Office in the appeal, said an injunction is an “extraordinary remedy, as this court knows.”
“Your argument is, not only is the trial court’s order flawed as a matter of law, it’s flawed procedurally, right?” Thomas asked her.
“Our argument is that the trial court’s injunction must be reversed, because there are no specific fact-findings supporting any of the four elements,” Harle said.
Julia Kaye, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberty Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project who represented the plaintiffs, cited a landmark 1989 Florida Supreme Court case, known as “In re TW,” that abortion-rights advocates say provides a powerful legal shield for women seeking abortions.
“Where the government is affirmatively preventing a woman from exercising her constitutional right to abortion for at least 24 hours, that is a significant restriction as a matter of law on its face,” Kaye said.
It is unclear how long it will take for the appeals court to rule.
Rep. Jennifer Sullivan, a Mount Dora Republican who sponsored the waiting-period bill during last year’s legislative session, attended the arguments. Meeting with reporters afterward, she said six other states had used the same language as her bill, and of those, just one had been challenged — and had been upheld.
“If you look at the other states that have a reflection period, there is no undue burden,” Sullivan said. “There is no proof that there is a burden. So I think that’s what the judges will find, and I think that you saw that in the questions that they were trying to draw out and get to the point of the challenge.”
The ACLU’s Kaye disagreed.
“This law will put up roadblocks for all women seeking abortion care in Florida,” she said. “It will be particularly burdensome for low-income women, many of whom will have to miss work, miss school, pay for additional child care and travel arrangements just to access health care.”
Kaye’s co-counsel, Richard Johnson of Tallahassee, said there was no way to prove how many women would lose access to legal abortions under the law.
“Nobody knows,” he said. “You’d have no way of knowing that a woman who didn’t come back to your clinic didn’t go to some other place.”
For instance, he said, a woman from Live Oak might not return the next day for an abortion in Tallahassee, but instead might travel to Atlanta, where clinics don’t have to wait 24 hours.
Johnson also criticized the questioning, calling it “as bad as it gets. … Judge Thomas, I felt, was making a political speech rather than trying to achieve an understanding of the legal issues.”
Kaye, meanwhile, pointed to another abortion-related bill that passed the House Health & Human Services Committee on and is ready to go to the House floor.
The measure (HB 1411), by Rep. Colleen Burton, R-Lakeland, would place additional regulations on abortion, address the definitions of pregnancy trimesters and ban public funding for groups affiliated with abortion clinics.
Kaye said the bill had much in common with the 2015 law in that it would further reduce the ability of abortion providers to survive financially.
“The (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Provider) laws and the mandatory delay law are part of a coordinated national strategy being executed state by state to chip away at the right to an abortion,” she said.
But Burton said her bill is focused on women’s health and safety.
“Is it really about that? Absolutely it is, and to this day continues to be the forefront,” she said. “The most important issue, as far as we’re concerned, is the health and safety of patients walking into a clinic anywhere across the state of Florida to get a legal abortion.”
by Margie Menzel, The News Service of Florida
ECUA, Escambia County Break Ground On Recycling Facility
February 13, 2016
In a few short months, recycling in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties will be back to normal. The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority and Escambia County held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday at the future site of the Interim Materials Recycling Facility (IMRF) at the Escambia County Perdido Landfill.
The facility will provide a solution to the recycling woes experienced by ECUA over the past few years.
ECUA board members and Escambia County commissioners were present for the ceremony, highlighting this inter-governmental partnership. Escambia County and ECUA are working together toward the achievement of the Florida’s 75 percent recycling initiative, and the manifestation of a long-term recycling solution for the county through this cooperative venture is an extremely positive step toward meeting this goal.
Escambia County Commissioner Steven Barry and ECUA Board Member Larry Walker, who both represent the county’s northern District 5, expressed their excitement over the combined efforts on the facility.
“I think this is another example of two of your elected bodies working together in a manner that is absolutely the best way when you are talking about public money, or ratepayer money,” Barry said. “I hope the citizens will view it as the benefit it is to see their dollars working together.”
“I’m excited about this cooperation between Escambia County and ECUA,” Walker said. “It is what I and the ECUA board wanted for years. It is a thrill to see it happening. It is nice to be standing here on county commission property at an ECUA facility. This is great.”
The new IMRF will include a 50,000 square-foot fabric building that will house the material sorting equipment. The IMRF is projected to handle 165 tons of recyclable materials per day, with an estimated annual capacity of 40,000 tons.
After the flooding, closure and bankruptcy of West Florida Recycling in Pensacola, ECUA entered into a two year agreement with the Infinitus Energy Park (IREP) in Montgomery. Even with transportation costs, ECUA was making a net profit of a few dollars per ton off the deal.
After the center abruptly closed in October 2015, ECUA began transporting recyclable materials to Tarpon Paper Co. in Loxley, AL. ECUA stopped transporting recyclables to Tarpon in December when they implemented a $12.50 per-ton tipping fee.
Until the IMRF is completed, all recyclables collected in Escambia County are being dumped in the Perdido Landfill, and the Santa Rosa County Landfill is receiving materials collected in that county.
The ECUA Board has awarded the following contracts for the IMRF project: Brown Construction for approximately $1.49 million to complete site work; $1.4 million to Big Top Inc. for the fabric building; and $5.5 million to Bulk Handling Systems for the recyclables processing equipment.
The IMRF is scheduled to be fully operational this summer.
Pictured top: The official groundbreaking for a new recycling facility at the Perdido Landfill Friday afternoon. Pictured inset: Escambia County Administrator Jack Brown. Pictured below: ECUA board members and Escambia County commissioners discuss the joint facility. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
