UF: Floridian’s Consumer Confidence Falls Slightly
October 29, 2014
Consumer confidence among Floridians dropped a point in October to 82, the first decline in the index since May, according to a monthly University of Florida survey.
“This decline is not likely indicative of a trend,” said Chris McCarty, director of UF’s Survey Research Center in the Bureau of Economic and Business Research, which conducts the survey. “Given that the stock market has improved late in the month and the decline was only a point, we don’t view the drop as significant.”
Of the five components used in the survey — three declined, one increased, and one stayed the same. Survey-takers’ overall perception whether their personal finances are better now than a year ago fell four points to 71, while their expectations of being better off financially one year from now fell one point to 82.
The survey shows that confidence in the national economy over the coming year fell one point to 78, but it rose a point to 82 when respondents were asked to consider U.S. economic conditions over the next five years.
Finally, respondents’ perception as to whether it is a good time to buy big-ticket item, such as a washing machine, stayed the same at 96.
Afternoon Fire Damages Nine Mile Road Business
October 28, 2014
Fire damaged a Nine Mile Road business this afternoon. The fire was reported about 3:30 p.m. at “A Quality Tree Service” in the 2000 block of West Nine Mile Road, near New Market Street. Firefighters believe the fire may have been sparked by a water heater. There were no injuries reported. Reader submitted photos by Jon White, click to enlarge.
Overturned Camper Closes Quintette Road
October 28, 2014
An overturned camper closed Quintette Road for a while this morning. The driver of a pickup apparently lost control and slammed into a tree, with their camper overturning across the highway. A short time after the 10:45 a.m. accident, traffic was allowed to pass the wreckage on the shoulder. There were no injuries reported. The accident is under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol. NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Price, click to enlarge.
Two Shot In Escambia County
October 28, 2014
Two people were shot off Massachusetts Avenue in Escambia Count last night.
Just after 10 p.m., the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded to the 1200 block of Rio Grande Circle. They found two males with apparent gunshot wounds — one in a yard and the other inside a vehicle. Both were transported to the hospital as trauma alerts.
The investigation is continuing and further details have not been released.
Critical Need For Blood Donations
October 28, 2014
There is a currently a critical need for O Negative, B Negative and A Negative blood types, according to Betty Roberts of OneBlood.
Donors are encouraged to visit the blood centers at 1999 East Nine Mile Road and 2209 North 9th Avenue, or a an upcoming Bloodmobile stop.
North Escambia area Bloodmobile Drives are scheduled as follows:
- Thursday, October 30 — Ascend Materials, 7 a.m. – 3 p.m.
- Sunday, November 2 — Hillcrest Baptist Church, 8 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.
- Saturday, November 8 — Walnut Hill VFD Fish Fry, 10 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
In Depth: Six Months After Escambia County’s Flood
October 28, 2014
It’s been six months since the devastating April floods in Escambia County, and the effects are “staggering”, according to the county.
One resident lost her life when she drowned along Highway 29 near Burger King in Cantonment. Hundreds were displaced from their homes and entire neighborhoods were torn apart by the rising waters. As of the end of September, 466 Escambia County residents are still displaced from their homes as a result of the devastating floods. In all, the floods caused an estimated $90 million in damage to the county’s infrastructure and facilities.
The science tells the story. The National Weather Service estimates show that more than 25 inches of rain fell in 24 hours – the highest amount of rainfall recorded since 1879. The heaviest rains soaking the urbanized areas of the county, south of Well Line Road. An astounding six inches of rain was recorded in a single hour at the airport in the southeast area of the City of Pensacola between 9 and 10 p.m.
Today, Escambia County is hard at work repairing roads and bridges so that they are better and stronger than they were before the storm. Almost 80 percent of the 2,318 infrastructure damage sites identified after April’s flood have already been addressed or repaired. An additional 17 percent of the damage sites are currently under design or repair.
County official credit the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) with allowing Escambia County to move quickly to return streets, parks and facilities to near-normal conditions without having to wait for federal assistance. The county commission was able to authorize a $10 million interest-free loan from the LOST III Fund to the Disaster Recovery Fund to kick-start recovery efforts.
From past experience, county leaders said they knew that a substantial portion of the recovery costs would come due prior to receipt of any reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) or State Department of Emergency Management (DEM). In preparation for these necessary expenses, the Board approved the interfund loan this past July to help in covering the large costs associated with ongoing recovery. To finance the recovery, the cash will be transferred from the LOST III Fund when needed and repaid when FEMA and State DEM reimbursements are made.
The April floods impacted nearly all aspects of our community, from individuals and families to businesses, the economy, parks, public buildings and infrastructure. In turn, the recovery process has required an extraordinary effort from the whole community. The county is working to shape these efforts into a cohesive long-term strategy for recovery that:
- Incorporates immediate needs and the long-term vision of the community.
- Incorporates “lessons learned” to reduce potential impacts from future disasters.
- Uses available technical and financial resources to reach the desired outcomes.
The flood extracted a great toll on infrastructure throughout the area. Transportation,utilities and public facilities were all significantly impacted. In total, the damage assessment area covers approximately 175 square miles (not including 23 square miles located in the City of Pensacola). For a disaster of this size, scope and complexity, recovery requires a multi-faceted approach. To this end, the county:
- Focused initial efforts on restoring basic services through infrastructure repair, both temporary and permanent.
- Worked to establish multiple points of contact with representatives from FEMA to assist residents in obtaining immediate financial assistance.
- Joined with the City of Pensacola to establish a storm water task force to create a multi-disciplinary approach to storm water recovery that includes engagement from technical experts and representatives from all constituencies to identify and institute mitigation and resiliency initiatives.
- Is working with the owners of Forest Creek Apartments and FEMA to potentially relocate the apartment complex due to repetitive flooding. The property would then be absorbed into the adjacent Jones Creek watershed.
- Conducted more than $60,000 in emergency pumping projects to remove storm water from several neighborhoods that continued to hold flood waters for up to two weeks post-event due to their topography. Neighborhoods receiving this type of assistance included:
- Ponderosa Drive and Surrey Drive near Nine Mile Road
- Gulf Beach Highway near Nassau Street
- 73rd Street at Fabiano Street
- Investigated and identified more than 2,300 sites where infrastructure was damaged.
- Permanently or temporarily addressed or repaired 1,837 of the damaged sites and currently working on another 402 sites. More than $6.6 million has been encumbered to fund project contracts, with $2.8 million expended. Among these projects are:
- Blue Springs Drive/Crescent Lake Repairs: Substantial storm water run-off washed out segments of Blue Springs Drive and private property over a 2,000-foot pathway between East Shore Drive and Clearwater Avenue. Roadway washouts exceeded 10 feet in depth and cut off access to approximately 30 homes. Escambia County Public Works, working jointly with contractors and local utility crews, were able to provide temporary access as quickly as two weeks after the storm. Within five weeks, temporary roadway and utility repairs were complete. More than $400,000 has been spent on emergency repairs and construction of $560,000 in permanent repairs is underway.
- Johnson Avenue Repairs: The east end of Johnson Avenue near Olive Road was washed out at a major culvert crossing, leaving a 20-foot deep gap in the roadway. Design and construction of temporary repairs was completed within 12 weeks post-event at a cost of $500,000, providing access to the nearly 5,000 vehicles that use this portion of the road each day.
- Galvin Avenue Repairs: An overwhelmed storm water system at Galvin Avenue in the Springdale Forest area washed out, cutting off access to 28 properties and destroying one home. More than $45,000 in temporary roadway and utility repairs were completed within three weeks of the flood, providing property owners with access to their homes. Construction of permanent repairs will commence shortly.
- County Storm Water Pond Repair: Repair work to the more than 110 retention pond locations with reported damage began the day after the flood, with 50 sites repaired by county crews at a cost of more than $475,000. An additional 30 sites are currently under contract for approximately $600,000 in engineering design and repair work.
Pictured top: This photo was taken by the occupants of a vehicle in the Highway 29 flood waters looking back toward Burger King, near the time one woman drowned in the flood waters. Pictured top inset: Rain fell so rapidly that it flooded the I-10 bridge over Escambia Bay. Pictured below: Possessions lined Bristol Park Road after the floodwater receded. NorthEscambia.com and reader submitted photos, click to enlarge.
Charges Dropped Against Cantonment Burglary Suspect
October 28, 2014
Charges have been dropped against Flomaton man arrested after his girlfriend posted a “selfie” Facebook photo that the victims believed to show stolen goods in the background.
All charges in the case were dropped against Colby Wayne Satterwhite, 22, according to the State Attorney’s Office. at the request of the victims.
Residents of a home in the 300 block of Jacks Branch Road reported that their home had been burglarized sometime during a two day period in which they were gone. They returned home to find a exterior door pushed open, and missing items including $200 in cash, a large collection of collectable coins, a camera, a Mossberg shotgun in a tan case and ammunition. The total estimated value of missing items was $15,060.
Acting on a tip, the burglary victims checked the Facebook page of Satterwhite’s girlfriend and spotted what they believed to be her shotgun case in the background of one of the girlfriend’s “selfie” photographs.
But now, the State Attorney’s Office said, the victims no longer believe Satterwhite was involved in the crime. They have instead raised allegations against another individual who has not been charged.
Register Now: Major Leaguer Caleb Gindl To Hold Baseball Clinic
October 28, 2014
Northview Baseball and Major Leaguer Caleb Gindl of the Milwaukee Brewers will present a fall baseball clinic for ages 9-17. Participants will receive professional instruction and on the field experience while supporting the Northview Chiefs baseball program.
The clinic will be held Saturday, November 8 from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Northview baseball complex. The cost is $40 per participant. Pre-register by November 1 for a free clinic t-shirt.
For more information or to register, call the Northview Diamond Club at (850) 554-8594.
Pictured: The Milwaukee Brewer’s Caleb Gindl hits during a baseball clinic last year at Northview High School in Bratt. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Argument Over A Dollar Lands Man Behind Bars
October 28, 2014
A dispute over a dollar payment that involved fake coins for cigarettes ended with an Escambia County man behind bars.
John Henry Hardy, 73, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault, one count of aggravated battery, and one count possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.The incident occurred around 8:30 a.m. at Attucks Court. Pensacola Police Lt. Chuck Mallett said two women, both aged 24, got into an argument this morning with Hardy after one of them bought a couple of cigarettes from him Sunday night and paid for them with fake coins.
This morning, Hardy saw the 24-year-old woman who had paid him with the fake money at a store, argued with her and then returned to his apartment where he retrieved a shotgun. As the two 24-year-old women walked past his apartment, he confronted them again and one of the women gave him a real dollar in payment.
Mallett said the women then realized Hardy had a shotgun and fled the scene. He fired one time, and a pellet grazed a 19-year-old bystander on the arm. She drove herself to a hospital for treatment.
Hardy left the area in his car but turned himself in around 11 a.m. at police headquarters. He was booked into the Escambia County Jail with bond set at $15,000.
Scott, Crist Duel Over Past And Future Of Economy
October 28, 2014
Long before the flare-up over Charlie Crist’s fan earlier this month, Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s campaign had been dogged by an earlier debate moment — one from four years ago, when he was asked to elaborate on his promise to create 700,000 jobs in seven years.
The moderator at the debate used the first question for Scott to point out that economists already expected Florida to add more than 700,000 jobs over the next seven years. After the usual opening greetings, Scott made it clear what his promise meant.
“So, our plan is seven steps to 700,000 jobs,” Scott said. “And that plan is on top of what normal growth would be.”
The moderator, Antonio Mora, pushed Scott a bit. Economists expected the state to add about a million jobs, so another 700,000 jobs would mean that Florida would have an additional 1.7 million openings over the next seven years, Mora noted, in a state where 1 million people were unemployed at the time.
Scott didn’t correct Mora. “We’re going to grow the state,” he responded, then began ticking off the virtues of doing business in Florida.
Even before this year’s campaign, when Scott’s biggest talking-point is his record of job creation, the exchange with Mora was repeatedly walked back after the governor settled into office. In a statement issued in October 2011, Scott said his promise was “the creation of 700,000 jobs over seven years regardless of what the economy might otherwise gain or lose” — a slight change in phrasing that altered the meaning of the promise.
That is largely the definition his campaign is sticking by now — while adding in a dig at Crist, the former governor and Scott’s Democratic opponent, who oversaw a job market hammered by the economic downturn.
“Normal growth under Charlie Crist, when Governor Scott was running, was negative. … The fact is, over the last 3.5 years, we have created over 640,000 private sector jobs. Normal growth under Charlie Crist was losing 832,000 jobs, so under that scenario, if Charlie hadn’t run away from his job as governor, we could have lost 2 million jobs,” spokeswoman Jackie Schutz said recently in an email.
Scott’s focus on private sector jobs also omits a drop of about 29,000 government jobs from January 2011 to August 2014, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The economy might not be the dominant issue in this election that it was in 2010, when the state’s unemployment rate ballooned into double-digits and Scott ran almost exclusively on a promise of more jobs. Nowhere is that more clear than in Scott’s “Florida 2020 Plan,” released Monday, which packages the promises the governor has made over the last several months into what his campaign describers as a vision.
That plan includes pledges on education funding, early learning and the environment in addition to economic items like $1 billion in tax reductions and investment in Florida’s infrastructure. In something that would have been almost unthinkable four years ago, Scott’s statement announcing the vision includes increasing employment as just one of the things the plan would promote.
“I get to travel the state every day and talk to people all over Florida about what they want — they want to move our state forward,” Scott said. “The Florida 2020 plan is just that — a clear vision to move Florida forward, to continue building our state to be the best place in the country to find a great job, start a family, and give our kids a world-class education.”
But the economy is still an issue, and the achievements Florida has seen under the 7-7-7 plan — or at least the parts of it that Scott has been able to push through the Legislature — are still likely to be on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots, either during the current early-voting period or on Nov. 4.
Crist’s campaign, of course, tries to hold Scott to the higher numbers of 1.7 million jobs — and argues that, by that metric, Scott is on pace to fall short of his goal.
“Rick Scott didn’t just move the goalpost to cheat Floridians, he pretended it was never there,” Kevin Cate, a spokesman for Crist, said in an email.
In fact, the number of jobs in Florida is right around what a University of Central Florida center projected for Florida four years ago, if not a tick below. The July 2010 forecast called for the state to have 7.9 million non-farm jobs in 2014. According to the latest numbers from the state Department of Economic Opportunity, Florida had about 7.8 million non-farm jobs in September.
In reality, said Sean Snaith — the director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Competitiveness who is a high-profile forecaster and an economist frequently cited by the Scott campaign — it’s very difficult to tease out the effects of any governor’s policies on the state’s recovery.
“The outcomes we observe in Florida’s economy are a combination of factors that mix together sort of like the ingredients in (an) omelet,” he said.
Whether that matters to voters or not is another matter. In a poll in late August by the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida, the school’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research, the Tampa Bay Times and Bay News 9, 71 percent of the people polled said they believe the governor has a “great deal of control” over the economy.
Further complicating the question of whether Scott is on track to add as many jobs as he promised is that many of the promises he made as part of the 7-7-7 plan are incomplete or seemingly dead. Scott said he would try to get a biennial budget through the Legislature instead of an annual spending plan, but lawmakers never went along and Schutz suggested it wouldn’t be a priority in a second term.
“Governor Scott did propose a biennial budget during his first year, but the Legislature did not go along with it,” she said.
Another goal of Scott’s appears far from reality. The governor had promised to phase out the corporate income tax over seven years, something that was estimated to be a $1.8 billion hit to the state budget, by reducing the rate. Instead, lawmakers have whittled away at the tax, increasing the exemption and costing the state tens of millions of dollars at a time.
“The governor is committed to phasing (out) the corporate income tax and has made it a priority every year to get it reduced,” Schutz said. “And we have made great progress — more than 70% do not have to pay it now.”
In the meantime, Crist has focused on his “Fair Shot Florida” plan, which Cate said “promises to refocus the state on growing the middle class. That includes lowering the cost of living, raising the minimum wage, and investing in local small businesses.”
Crist has focused on increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour — something polls show is politically popular — but his plans also include a list of other ideas, from funding for business incubators to recreating an Office of Small Business Advocacy to expanding eligibility for the state’s Medicaid program.
“People like Rick Scott are fine — it’s the middle class that is hurting because of low-wages and the high cost of living,” Cate said.
But Crist has his own record to deal with. When he was governor, the state shed hundreds of thousands of jobs and saw unemployment jump from 3.5 percent in January 2007 to a high of 11.4 percent in 2010; it declined slightly and was at 11.1 percent in December 2010, Crist’s last full month in office.
Crist has downplayed that, most recently at the third and final debate between himself and Scott. In response to a question from CNN anchor Jake Tapper, Crist said he doesn’t believe he was to blame for those job losses.
“And what Rick Scott doesn’t get is the fact that, even though he talks about creating more than 600,000 jobs, I was not responsible for the global economic meltdown any more than Rick was responsible for the national economic recovery,” Crist said.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida