Holiday Cooking Can Be Bad For ECUA Sewers And Home Plumbing
November 26, 2014
The Thanksgiving holiday means special times with family, friends, lots of delicious food and the potential for sanitary sewage overflows (SSOs). No matter how the meal is prepared, it will certainly generate fats, oils and grease, or FOG, Which can be damaging to the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority sewer system and your household plumbing.
Keep your plumbing and the sewer system free from blockages and overflows by properly disposing of FOG this holiday season. Many homeowners may be surprised to learn that pouring the fatty remains of culinary delights down the kitchen drain can result in costly and unpleasant SSOs. Besides the mess, untreated sewage can cause health hazards and threaten the environment. Overflows can also require expensive cleanup.
Cooks should avoid depositing other oil-based foods down the drain and garbage disposal. No-nos include fatty substances such as lards or shortening, butter or margarine, food scraps, dairy products, batter and icing, salad dressings and sauces. For more information on ways to keep your kitchen clean and green, visit www.ecua.fl.gov.
Conscientious cooks should:
- Throw food scraps in the trash
- Use a paper towel to wipe away residue from serving dishes and plates
- Rinse these items over a sink strainer to catch and dispose of any remaining food particles
Any grease left-over from holiday cooking should be poured into a heat-safe can, place it in the freezer to cool and harden, and toss the can out with regular garbage. If you’re planning to deep-fry a turkey, put the used fryer oil back in its original container or use an ECUA Cooking Oil Disposal Container. Drop it off at an ECUA Disposal Station to be recycled into biodiesel fuel. ECUA has several conveniently placed stations throughout the community:
Clean & Green
3303 North Davis Highway
Baskerville Donovan Engineering
449 West Main Street
ECUA at Ellyson Industrial Park
9255 Sturdevant Street
ECUA Sanitation Department
3050 Godwin Lane
ECUA Bayou Marcus Water Reclamation Facility
3050 Fayal Drive
Pensacola Beach on Via de Luna Drive
Between Pensacola Beach Elementary School and Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church
NAS Pensacola (Military and Base Personnel ONLY)
Andrew Jackson Court
Fort Santa Maria de Galve Hase Road
Slemmer Avenue
Murray Street and Billingsley Street
Corry Field Housing at NAS Corry Station
Escambia County Sheriff’s Sub Station Serving Perdido Key & Grand Lagoon
12950 Gulf Beach Highway
For additional information visit the ECUA website www.ecua.fl.gov or call ECUA Customer Service (850) 476-0480.
Tate Grad Hodge Signs Wih University Of New Orleans
November 26, 2014
2013 Tate High School graduate Riley Hodge has signed with the University of New Orleans Privateers baseball team for the 2016 season.
Hodge currently plays with Jefferson Davis community College of Brewton. At Tate, Hodge had a 0.94 ERA with 83 strikeouts in 52.1 innings his senior year and was selected to play in the North Florida All-Star Game. In the summer of 2014 he went 3-0 with a 1.83 ERA for West Palm Beach of the South Florida Collegiate League.
Turkey Time Cooking Tips
November 26, 2014
It’s Thanksgiving, time for family and friends to gather and give thanks. And time for cooks to ponder the correct way to prepare their turkey.
Today, we are taking a look at the proper way to cook your turkey with tips from Dorothy Lee, Family and Consumer Sciences Agent for the Escambia County Extension Office.
Clean
Begin every meal preparation with clean hands, and wash hands frequently to prevent any cross contamination. As a rule, hands that have come in contact with raw meat or poultry should be washed for twenty seconds in hot, soapy water.
Separate
Raw meat and poultry products may contain harmful bacteria, so make certain that the juices from those products do not come in contact with food that will be eaten without cooking, like the salad. Also, never place cooked food on an unwashed plate that previously held raw meat or poultry.
Cook
Use of food thermometer should be a standard operating procedure in your kitchen and, when used correctly, will ensure that your turkey is cooked to perfection. To be safe, the temperature of a whole turkey should reach 180°F between the breast and the innermost part of the thigh.
If you stuff your turkey, the center of the stuffing must reach 165°F. If the stuffing has not reached 165°F, then continue cooking the turkey until it does. Let the turkey stand twenty minutes after removal from the oven before carving.
Chill
This is another important step because food-borne bacteria can grow while food sits unrefrigerated. Refrigerate or freeze perishable leftovers within two hours of cooking. To prepare your leftovers, remove any remaining stuffing from the cavity and cut turkey into small pieces. Slice the breast meat. Wings and legs may be left whole. Refrigerate stuffing and turkey separately in shallow containers.
Use or freeze leftover turkey and stuffing within three to four days, gravy within one to two days. Reheat thoroughly to a temperature of 165°F, or until hot and steaming.
For more information, call the Escambia County Extension office, (850) 475-5230.
Fatal Shooting Under Investigation In Escambia County
November 25, 2014
A fatal shooting is under investigation in Escambia County.
A woman told deputies that she came home to her residence on Galvin Avenue Tuesday afternoon and found her boyfriend with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced deceased on the scene by first responders.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office has said narcotics were found in the home, but no other details have been released.
ECSO: Molino Man Points Shotgun At Man, Kids Outside Dollar Store
November 25, 2014
A Molino man is accused of pointing a shotgun at a family, including three children ages 7-12, and threatening to kill them outside the Family Dollar Store in Cantonment.
Forest McCoy Hope, age 65 of Crabtree Church Road, was charged with four felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one felony county of committing a felony with a weapon.
A 12-year old boy was inside the Family Dollar on Highway 29 Sunday night when he told his father that Hope cursed at him. The man, his children and the store clerk went outside the business. A short time later, Hope drove by the front of the store in a SUV, pulled a shotgun out, pointed in the direction of the man and his children and said “I’ll blow your head off!”, according to an Escambia County Sheriff’s Office report. Hope then drove off toward the parking lot exit but managed to drive his vehicle into a ditch.
The man his children told deputies that they feared for their lives during the incident. The store clerk told deputies that she also feared for her safety, but she did not want to press additional charges because it is the holiday season.
When deputies arrived, they found the SUV in the ditch with Hope in the driver’s seat. The deputies reported that Hope had a shotgun between the center console and passenger seat.
Hope told deputies that he did not argue with anyone outside the store, but he did point his walking cane in their direction. Hope had no response when deputies told him that the store clerk had accurately described the shotgun in his vehicle, the report states. During he investigation, Hope became irritated and poked a deputy in the chest, telling him “you better do your job”, the arrest report states.
Hope was taken into custody at the scene. He was released from the Escambia County Jail Monday afternoon on a $35,000 bond.
Pictured top: Deputies conduct an investigation Sunday night in the parking lot of the Family Dollar Store on Highway 29 in Cantonment. NorthEscambia.com photo by Kristi Price, click to enlarge.
Execution Set For Escambia County Murderer
November 25, 2014
Gov. Rick Scott on Monday signed a death warrant for an Escambia County man found guilty of committing first-degree murder and sexual battery during a home-invasion robbery in 1993 in Escambia County.
Scott signed the warrant for Johnny Shane Kormondy, 42, to die by lethal injection on January 15. The execution will be the 21st since Scott took office in January 2011, equaling the number overseen by former Gov. Jeb Bush, which is the most for any Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Kormondy was found guilty in 1994 in the death of Gary McAdams, a local banker who was shot in the back of the head during a home-invasion robber in the Thousand Oaks subdivision off Chemstrand Road. McAdams and his wife, who was repeatedly raped during the attack, had returned home from a Woodham High School school reunion when confronted at the front door by Kormondy and his two accomplices.
According to a release from the governor’s office accompanying the death warrant, Kormondy was the leader of the attack, recruiting the accomplices, providing transportation and casing the McAdams’ neighborhood. Kormondy’s accomplices, Curtis Buffkin and James Hazen, received life sentences. Law enforcement was able to close the case when a person to whom Kormondy confessed went to police seeking a $50,000 reward for information. Kormondy also threatened to kill witnesses who testified at his trial, including Mrs. McAdams, if he were ever released.
The robbers reportedly left the house with $20.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.
Pictured below: The death warrant for Johnny Shane Kormondy signed Monday by Gov. Rick Scott.
From The Farm To The City: A Thanksgiving Bounty For The Needy (With Gallery)
November 25, 2014
About 200 students from schools in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties worked in fields near Jay Monday to harvest turnips and bag sweet potatoes that will feed hundreds of needy families later this week for Thanksgiving.
The event at the University of Florida’s West Florida Research and Education Center was part of Farm-City Week, bringing the bounty of the farm to the needy of the city.
The FFA students from Northview High School, Tate High School, Jay High School, Central School, King Middle School and Ernest Ward Middle School harvested about 1,200 bundle each of collard and turnip greens and sorted about a ton and half of donated sweet potatoes.
The greens were harvested in assembly line fashion — one student picking the greens, another bundling them with a rubber band and passed student to student to a waiting transport vehicle. Then teams of students worked to wash the greens.
Along the way, the students learned not only about teamwork, but also about the farming process.
The greens and sweet potatoes will be delivered Tuesday with the help of Tate High FFA students to about 600 families that were pre-qualified based upon need through the Waterfront Rescue Mission.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Jay Woman Seriously Injured In Crash Trying To Avoid Deer
November 25, 2014
A Jay woman was seriously injured in a traffic crash after she tried to avoid hitting a deer.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, 60-year old Catherine Steele Jones was northbound on Market Road near Highway 87, about five miles east of Jay, when she said a deer ran out in front of her 2013 Ford Edge. She ran off the roadway and struck a culvert, causing the vehicle to overturn.
Jones was transported to Baptist Hospital in Pensacola in serious condition following the 8:50 a.m. Monday crash. No charges were filed in the accident, according to FHP.
Tax Free Turkey? Florida TaxWatch Talks Thanksgiving Dinner
November 25, 2014
Floridians have another reason to be thankful this holiday season – Florida is not one of the 14 states in the nation that tax groceries, according to Florida TaxWatch, a statewide, non-profit, non-partisan research institute.
While most food that Florida residents prepare themselves for a Thanksgiving feast is exempt, some of the items on dinner tables may be subject to the state’s sales tax, ranging from six to 7.5 percent.
In Florida, groceries are generally exempt as long as they are not prepared in-store. For example, a raw turkey is tax exempt, but a prepared turkey is taxed. However, there are some nuances. Deli foods prepared off-site are not taxed as long as the grocer leaves them in their original sealed container. Bakery products are only taxed if items are sold for consumption at in-store dining facilities. Deli meats and cheeses are not taxed unless they are arranged and sold in party platters, and fruit and salad platters are exempt unless they are packaged with utensils.
“Understanding Florida’s tax laws can be very difficult for Florida shoppers, so Florida TaxWatch is helping taxpayers understand their tax obligations, and get a better sense of what they are buying this Thanksgiving,” said Dominic M. Calabro, President and CEO of Florida TaxWatch.
In nearby Alabama, tax on that Thanksgiving turkey can be as much as nine percent or more.
Florida Corrections Chief Mike Crews Stepping Down
November 25, 2014
Gov. Rick Scott’s corrections chief, Mike Crews, announced Monday he is retiring from the agency grappling with reports of abuse by prison guards, allegations of retaliation against whistleblowers and a multimillion-dollar deficit.
Crews, who ended months of speculation about his departure during a conference call with high-ranking staff Monday morning, is the first agency head to step down since Scott’s re-election Nov. 4 and is retiring after 30 years of employment with the state.
Crews told Scott in a resignation letter dated Monday that he decided to leave his Department of Corrections post “after much deliberation, discussion and prayer” with his family.
In a telephone interview with our Tallahassee news bureau, Crews acknowledged that he has “dealt with some significant issues over the last few years.” He also offered some advice for his temporary successor, Tim , a deputy secretary of the agency who will take over as interim secretary after Crews leaves Sunday.
“Stay the course on the things that we are doing and have implemented and that we’re doing right,” Crews said. “The most important thing is don’t ever stop caring about doing the right thing and caring about each other. When you have an agency as large as we are, you’re going to have challenges. You’re going to have things that are going to happen that you’re going to have to deal with, that’s a part of it. But there are some of the most incredible men and women that work for that department that do things that would astonish most people. And they do them during a time when it has been some of the most difficult times that our agency has ever had.”
Crews, 53, was the third Department of Corrections secretary appointed during Scott’s first term in office.
Crews launched a crusade to clean up the corrections agency this summer after reports of inmate deaths and abuse at the hands of prison guards. Crews, who began his career as a prison guard, fired dozens of prison workers, initiated new standards for conduct and asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, where he spent nearly three decades before becoming the corrections agency’s deputy secretary in 2012, to investigate more than unresolved 100 inmate deaths.
Black leaders are asking the U.S. Department of Justice to expand an investigation into wrongdoing at several Florida prisons.
And a group of corrections investigators who work for Scott’s inspector general filed a lawsuit against Crews, Scott and others earlier this year, alleging they were retaliated against for exposing the death of an inmate that opened a floodgate of questions about inmate abuse.
Scott’s first prison chief, Ed Buss, was forced to step down after less than a year on the job after being at odds with the governor’s office over contracts and a massive privatization attempt that the Legislature failed to endorse.
Buss was replaced by Ken Tucker, a longtime Florida Department of Law Enforcement official and one of Crews’ mentors. Tucker stepped down two years ago as part of a longtime plan to participate in the state’s retirement program.
In December 2012, Crews took over an agency with a $2 billion budget that was $120 million in debt and was tied up in a court battle over privatization of inmate health services. Crews initiated a variety of cost-cutting measures, including having inmates sew their own clothes, make their own laundry soap and wash dishes by hand. Crews said he hoped to whittle the deficit down to $15 million this year.
Crews urged the next secretary to advocate for raises for corrections workers, who have not received the same increases that have gone to other law enforcement employees such as Florida Highway Patrol officers.
“While those people deserve it, leaving out correctional officers and our probation officers out of that discussion, that’s a tragedy. For at least 12 hours a day, they’re inside a closed-in fence with the same people that committed the crimes that the officers who are stopping and making arrests and subjecting themselves to life-and-death situations. They’re in the same environment where they’re closed in with them for at least 12 hours a day, every day. To not recognize that and put them at the forefront of consideration, I think is a tragedy,” Crews said in an interview Monday.
But Crews’ major headaches came this summer after the Miami Herald reported that Darren Rainey, a mentally ill inmate at Dade Correctional Institution, died after guards allegedly forced him to shower in scalding hot water as punishment two years ago. Rainey’s death prompted Crews to fire the warden at the prison and clean house at other institutions where inmates have died under questionable circumstances.
The FBI is reportedly scrutinizing Suwannee Correctional Institution, where an inmate-led riot injured five prison guards in October. The April 2 death of inmate Shawn Gooden at the facility is one of more than 100 inmate deaths being investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
In the lawsuit filed by the group of investigators, the whistleblowers claim they started a probe into allegations of prison guard misconduct at Franklin Correctional Institution in 2013. That investigation revealed that an earlier probe into the 2010 death of inmate Randall Jordan-Aparo, who died in solitary confinement after being repeatedly gassed with noxious chemicals, “was false and misleading.” Several of the guards involved in Jordan-Aparo’s death have since been fired.
Crews has also wrestled with widespread gang activity aided by corrupt guards.
As an example, two former prison sergeants are awaiting trial after being accused of ordering an inmate to be killed last fall to protect the guards’ role as kingpins of an institution-wide gang operation at Taylor Correctional Institution in North Florida.
For more than a year, at least five guards allegedly helped the “Bloods,” “Folk” and “MPR” gangs by smuggling drugs, cell phones and cigarettes into the prison in exchange for thousands of dollars in payments, according to probable-cause affidavits.
Cell phones, which can sell for up to $600 inside prisons, are a problem in correctional systems throughout the country, Crews said last month.
“You have individuals who say, ‘If I bring in 10 of those, I’m probably sitting on $5,000 or $6,000.’ Some people can’t turn down that temptation,” he said. “Yeah, we have gangs in prisons just like are out on the street right now. It is a constant battle to make sure we keep monitoring those and try to minimize their effectiveness inside the institution, and outside the institution, honestly.”
Crews also struggled to change the culture of the prison system, which oversees more than 100,000 inmates, and which is the best — or only — job in many rural counties, especially in North Florida, where the institutions are located. In some areas, guards are third-generation employees of the corrections department whose family members and neighbors also work at the prisons. Crews tried to convince prison staff to report wrongdoing, but fears of retaliation and shunning are common in the system.
Crews assured workers that he would protect them if they expose abuse or corruption.
“There’s no doubt there are still people who work in this agency that are fearful of coming forward for doing the right thing. There’s no doubt in my mind about that. We didn’t get into the position that we’re in today overnight. We’re not going to get out of it overnight. This takes time. And when you’re trying to change a culture you have to do it from the top down and the bottom up,” he said in an October interview.
In September, Crews threatened to stop payments to Missouri-based Corizon, which won a five-year, $1.2 billion contract to provide health care to the majority of the state’s prisoners. Crews accused Corizon of failing to follow through after audits revealed shortcomings in multiple areas, including medical care, nursing and administration.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida