Natural Gas Leak Reported At Ernest Ward Middle; Nothing Found
December 3, 2015
Firefighters responded to a reported gas leak at Ernest Ward Middle School Thursday morning, but no leak was found.
The smell of gas between the cafeteria and gym was reported about 8:30 a.m., prior to students arriving on campus for the school day.
The Walnut Hill Station of Escambia Fire Rescue and school maintenance personnel were unable to find a leak and determined the temporary smell likely originated with a vent on the gas meter working worked as designed. The school’s natural gas provider, Pensacola Energy, also dispatched a technician to check the meter.
Three confirmed natural gas leaks did occur this week at other Escambia County Schools — one at West Florida High School and two at Brown Barge Middle School — leading to school evacuations.
Firefighters and school personnel evaluate a reported natural gas smell Thursday morning at Ernest Ward Middle School. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Passenger Rail Service Could Return To Pensacola, Atmore
December 3, 2015
Leaders from four states are pushing for the return of passenger rail service along a New Orleans to Orlando route….including stops in Pensacola and Atmore.
Amtrak’s Sunset Limited passenger train, which included service from New Orleans through Pensacola to Jacksonville, came to an end along the Gulf Coast due to damage from Hurricane Katrina. The new rail service would breathe life back into abandoned train stations in Pensacola and Atmore.
The Atmore train station has appeared in promotional materials for the city and the town’s chamber of commerce, appeared on t-shirts and been the background for many a photograph. It’s a quaint little building, with a single room, a covered area with two benches and a long passenger ramp. To a passerby on Highway 31, it still appears as it did in in the day when the sounds of “All Aboard” echoed above the sounds of the diesel engines of the Sunset Limited and the Gulf Breeze.
But a closer look reveals the stresses of time on the building. The door to the single small room is missing. It’s nothing more than an empty room holding empty brochure racks. Outside, the ramp sits empty most of the time, occasionally playing host to a mom or dad that stops by to show his children the passing freight trains as they rumble by quickly. The passenger ramp shows great age, with many boards cracked or turned upwards on their ends. Walking the ramp’s edge without tripping can prove a challenge.
Friday morning, Atmore Mayor Jim Staff is scheduled to address the quarterly meeting the Southern Rail Commission at the Battle House Renaissance Hotel in Mobile and explain what the return of the service would mean to his town and the surrounding area.
Staff is one of 22 Gulf Coast mayors, including Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward, that have provided letters of support calling for Congress to restore local passenger rail service. The project is also supported by several regional transportation organizations, including the West Florida Regional Planning Council, the Florida-Alabama Transportation Planning Organization, the NW Florida Regional Transportation Planning Organization and the South Alabama Regional Planning Commission.
According to the Southern Rail Commission, the return of Gulf Coast passenger rail service:
- Would provide improved accessibility for the more than 2 million residents in the proposed service area between New Orleans and Orlando that includes a growing senior population
- Would boost Gulf Coast economy by connecting the growing population centers and tourist destinations, and supporting diverse jobs, health care, higher education, beaches, casinos and multiple military bases
- Provides critical evacuation route for Gulf Coast cities
- Provides alternate mode of transportation for more than 5 million people annually visiting the beaches of southern Alabama, alone, with similar numbers visiting the beaches of northwest Florida and southern Mississippi
- Would support growing tourism industry which has increased revenue per available room by 27 percent in the Florida Panhandle, 20 percent along the Alabama Gulf Coast, 10 percent throughout the Mississippi Gulf Coast and 51 percent in Orleans Parish
- Would serve the workforce of growing industries such as oil and gas, petrochemical, aerospace, shipping and the military
- Would attract additional sales tax revenue from casino patrons, visitors and tourists
- Will serve communities with very high poverty rates with limited access to transportation alternatives
Pictured: The empty train station in Atmore, NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Broxson Offers Support For Fracking Bill As It Gains House Favor
December 3, 2015
House Republicans continued moving forward Wednesday with a bill that would create a new regulatory structure for oil and natural-gas drilling in Florida, with most of the attention focused on the controversial practice known as “fracking.” In a 9-3 party-line vote, the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee approved the measure.
The bill, which passed another House subcommittee last month, has drawn opposition from environmentalists and some local governments. Cities and counties are concerned about part of the bill that would give regulatory authority about oil and gas drilling to the state, effectively taking power away from local governments.
Rodrigues told the House panel Wednesday that sponsors have been negotiating with the Florida Association of Counties and the Florida League of Cities about the issue, which is known as state “preemption” of local authority. As they did during the meeting last month, environmentalists and other opponents argued, in part, that fracking could pose dangers to Florida’s water and create health risks.
“Passing this bill would effectively lay out a welcome mat for the fracking industry,” said Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, a Miami Democrat who voted against the bill.
But Rep. Doug Broxson, R-Gulf Breeze, said oil and gas drilling have long taken place in Northwest Florida’s Santa Rosa County and that the bill’s critics are not from there. “The good people of Santa Rosa County are very proud to say that we’ve done our part in adding back to this country domestic production that has saved the lives of men and women who have had to go across the ocean to protect our quality of life,” Broxson said. “And I’m proud to say that we’ve done our part and hopefully Florida will do its part in the future to keep our economy strong.”
The bill needs to clear the House State Affairs Committee before it could go to the full House during the 2016 legislative session, which starts Jan. 12. A Senate version has not been heard in committees.
by The News Service of Florida
Escambia Commissioner Barry To Host Town Hall Meeting In Cantonment
December 3, 2015
Escambia County District 5 Commissioner Steven Barry will host a town hall meeting on Monday, December 7 at 5:30 p.m. at the Escambia County Extension Office at 3740 Stefani Road in Cantonment.
Residents are invited and encouraged to attend the open forum event.
Escambia Man Indicted For Gas Station Double Murder
December 3, 2015
An Escambia County Grand Jury hast indicted Terry Maurice Newkirk for two counts of first degree premeditated murder in the death of Antrone Moore and Antonio Bullard, both 26.
On November 10, 2015, the victims were found shot to death inside a Dodge SUV at the Raceway Station located at the intersection of Pace Boulevard and Palafox Street. Newkirk admitted to investigators that he was the black male seen by witnesses getting inside the SUV at the Raceway gas station on Palafox and Mason Lane. Investigators said the shooting occurred during a drug transaction at the gas pumps.
Newkirk will be arraigned on December 10, 2015.
Parker Named West Florida Volleyball MVP, Wall Of Fame Member
December 3, 2015
Brianna Parker of Walnut Hill has been named as West Florida High School’s Most Valuable varsity volleyball player, and she has been named to the school’s Volleyball Wall of Fame. Parker was ace leader for the Jaguars with 46, kill leader with 121 (35.2%), and block leader with 92. She was also named to the 9th Annual Subway High School All-Star Volleyball team. Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Lawmakers Looks To Divert Mentally Ill From Criminal Justice System
December 3, 2015
.A House panel on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill aimed at keeping Floridians with mental illnesses out of the criminal-justice system.
The House Children, Families & Seniors Subcommittee supported the measure (HB 439), filed by Rep. Charles McBurney, R-Jacksonville, that would create a statewide framework for counties to offer treatment-based mental health courts.
Many counties have mental-health courts, but they have varying eligibility and program requirements.
The bill would also establish a pilot program in Duval, Broward and Miami-Dade counties to serve offenders who have mental illnesses and are at risk of being sent to state forensic hospitals or placed behind bars.
And it would widen the pool of veterans and service members who are eligible for veterans’ courts by including those with general discharges.
“It’s a no-brainer,” Barney Bishop of the Florida Smart Justice Alliance told the committee.
McBurney proposed a similar measure in the 2015 session. It passed the House 113-1, but died in the Senate Appropriations Committee after the House adjourned the session early.
“People with serious mental-health problems are causing great problems with our criminal justice system,” McBurney said Wednesday. “And it’s severely breaking down our criminal justice system.”
A legislative bill analysis said as many as 125,000 adults with mental illnesses or substance-use disorders “that require immediate treatment” are arrested and booked into Florida jails each year. Between 2002 and 2010, the number of Florida inmates with mental illnesses or substance-use disorders increased from 8,000 to 17,000. By 2020, the number is expected to reach 35,000.
And of the 150,000 juveniles referred to the state Department of Juvenile Justice each year, more than 70 percent have at least one mental health disorder.
“It’s not appropriate that our jails or prisons be our number-one mental health facility,” McBurney said after the vote.
Mark Fontaine, executive director of the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association, said the use of specialized courts such as those in McBurney’s bill has already proved successful.
“For years, the drug courts have been a very successful option,” he said. “And advancing the mental-health courts and the veterans courts is only a win for the state, it’s a win for the communities and it’s a win for the people that are struggling with their mental-health condition.”
The bill faces two more committees, as does its Senate companion (SB 604), filed by Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami. McBurney and Diaz de la Portilla chair their chambers’ judiciary committees.
House Children, Families & Seniors Chairwoman Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, pointed to the bill’s estimated cost — $4.5 million — and suggested that diverting people from jails would save the counties some money.
“Is there any of thought of having, perhaps, the counties, since they’re going to be saving some money, participating in the cost of the treatment?” she asked.
The bill “probably will have some impact on county jails,” McBurney agreed. “However, when running this by the (Florida) Supreme Court (mental health) task force … they felt that it (asking counties to share the costs) would greatly hamper in trying to build these programs. And so I’m deferring to their expertise, at least for the time being. But I’m certainly open to it.”
Chief Judge Mark Mahon of the 4th Judicial Circuit, a former lawmaker, said the measure would be “fiscally responsible” for both the state and the counties in the long run.
“But it’s also the humane and right thing to do, to get these people who have serious mental health issues out of the worst place in the world for treatment,” Mahon said.
by Margie Menzel, The News Service of Florida
Molino’s Gilmore Girls Featured On Magazine Cover
December 3, 2015
The cover of this month’s FloridAgriculture magazine from the Florida Farm Bureau Federation features two local children know as the Gilmore Girls. They are the daughters of Carla Gilmore and Jacob Gilmore, granddaughters of Ronnie and Debbie Debra Gilmore. The picture was taken by Abbie Seales Rolph at Gizmo Angus Farm in Molino. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Authorities Searching For Wanted Sexual Predator
December 3, 2015
The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a sexual predator on the run.
Roy Allen Stokes, 38, is wanted for two counts of sexual assault on a minor less than 18. He is described as a white male, 170 pounds, 5-feet 11-inches tall, with blond hair and blue eyes.
Stokes is a designated sexual predator due to a 1998 conviction for the sexual battery of a victim under 12.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts should contact Santa Rosa Crime Stoppers at (850) 437-STOP or call their local law enforcement agency.
Highway 29 Traffic Stop Leads To Recovery Of Gun, Marijuana
December 3, 2015
A traffic stop on Highway 29 led to the arrest of a man with drugs and a firearm, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies stopped 27-year old Treneipher Demetrius Kirkland for speeding. During the traffic stop, the deputy found a .45 caliber handgun and about 67 grams of marijuana in the vehicle. Kirkland was charged with felony possession of a firearm and possession of marijuana over 20 grams.
He was released from the Escambia County Jail on a $15,000 bond.