Northview Seeks Players For Summer Softball
May 30, 2014
Young women that are interested in playing summer ball or softball at Northview High School should meet at the Northview softball field Monday morning at 8:00 for tryouts.
Northview High Names 2014 Honors Graduates, Two Valedictorians
May 30, 2014
Northview High School named their honors graduates during Thursday night’s 2014 Senior Awards Night.
The school announced Friday that the Class of 2014 will have two valedictorians for the Class of 2014 — Kasie Lee Braun and Victoria Anne Wright. A total of 34 students were named honors graduates with a final GPA of 3.5 or above.
Northview Class of 2014 Summa Cum Laude graduates (4.0 GPA and above) are:
1. Kasie Lee Braun, Victoria Anne Wright (Valedictorians)
3. Courtney Yvonne Solari
4. Anna Elizabeth Donald
5. Jessica Nicole Lowery
6. Courtney Alexandra Weaver
7. Dale Wayne Brown
8. Talana Michelle Heathcock
9. Tamara Maria Green
10. Karissa Lea Strickland
11. Marina Nikol Gray
12. Danielle Nichole Steadham
13. Rachel Ann Presley
14. Audrey Leigh Byrd
15. Anna Elizabeth Fischer
16. Lana Leigh Clayton
17. Zacarra Kelline Davis
Northview Class of 2014 Magna Cum Laude graduates (3.85 or higher) are:
18. Jeremy Logan Stacey
19. Samantha Suzanne Barrow
20. Hilery Danielle Scott
21. Madison Brooke Arrington
22. Morgan Nicole Digmon
23. Katelynne Nicole Calloway
24. Mashama Ashaki-Kai Codrington
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Northview Class of 2014 Cum Laude (3.5 and above) graduates are:
25. Justin Elliot King
26. Chelsea Brooke Ward
27. Chloe Vanessa Leonard
28. Mariah Laine Albritton
29. Tony Anthony McAroy, Jr.
30. Tiffani Nichole Pritchett
31. Lily Ann Townson
32. Alexandria Nicole Martin
33. Lauryn Elizabeth Walker
34. Kira Nerys Cartwright
The Northview High School Class of 2014 will graduate at 4 p.m. Saturday in the school gymnasium.
Pictured top: Northview Class of 2014 Summa Cum Laude graduates. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Tate High Names The Top Of The Class Of 2014
May 30, 2014
Tate High School named their honors graduates during Thursday night’s 2014 Senior Awards Night.
Noah James Heintz was named the Class of 2014 valedictorian, while Eion Michael Blanchard is salutatorian. There were 41 students (listed below) named to the Top Ten Percent of the class.
Heintz is graduating with a 5.15 GPA. He is National Honor Society president, an AP Scholar with Distinction, Mu Alpha Theta vice president, Tri-M vice president, and a member of the Academic team. Heintz the recipient of the Presidential Scholarship valued over $20,000 to the University of Florida and will major in nuclear engineering.
Blanchard is graduating with a 5.125 GPA. He is a National Merit Finalist, National AP Scholar,Mu Alpha Theta president, National Honor Society vice president, and a member of the Academic Team. Blanchard will attend the University of Florida to major in mathematics.
Both Heintz and Blanchard will be in Chicago this weekend for a national Academic Team competition.
Olive Baptist Church will host Tate’s Baccalaureate Service at 3:30pm on Sunday. Tate High School’s Class of 2014 will graduate on Monday at 11 a.m. at the Pensacola Bay Center. Graduates must arrive by 10:30.
Members of the Tate High School Top Ten Percent are:
- Noah James Heintz
- Eion Michael Blanchard
- Britton Shayne Dunn
- Timothy Blake Edgar
- Paul Alan Shelton
- David Graham Gardner
- Ryan Lambert Colburn
- Alyshia Daeshaun Hull
- Elizabeth Mara Blalock
- Brooke Elizabeth Schang
- Justin David Ritchie
- Sarah Ann Birdsong
- Sheilamae Nebria Jensen
- Anna Maria Del Gallo
- Paige McKenzie Ammons
- Jordan James Prince
- Shelby Paige Williams
- Alexa Taryn Atchley
- Sarah Elisabeth Lee
- Kayla Marie Smith
- Emily Meghan Robinson
- Jesse Marion Steele
- Niccole Leanne Auld
- Jon William Walker II
- Gordon Kelliher Pierce
- Matthew Steven Esser
- Kevin Charles Olshaw
- Kelsey Alyse Carter
- Walker James Wilkins
- Will A. Reeves
- Jennifer Haley Krostag
- Sarah Yasir Al-Qahtani
- Charles Taylor Brown
- Katelynn Grace Stillwell
- Bridget Rene’ Dall
- Trinity Ceanora Johnson
- Jack Randal Gonzalez
- Bethaney Rayalan Hall
- Sabrina Leigh Culbertson
- Stephen Owen Pederson
- Haley Faye Malone
Escambia Farm Bureau Reps Meet With Congressman On Legislative Priorities
May 30, 2014
Members of the Florida Farm Bureau, including two representatives of the Escambia County Farm Bureau, met with Congressman Jeff Miller in his Washington office last week. The group was there to discuss the legislative priorities of the Florida Farm Bureau.
Among the group were Jacob and Carla Gilmore from the Escambia County Farm Bureau.
“Among the most pressing issues facing our nation’s farmers and agricultural sector are the constant attempts by EPA and other federal regulators to expand their regulatory regime under the Clean Water Act,” Miller said. “I am staunchly opposed to this government overreach, and I recently joined more than 200 of my colleagues in sending a letter to EPA calling on them to withdraw their most recent proposed rule on this issue.”
Pictured top: Congressman Jeff Miller (center) with Florida Farm Bureau members including Carla Gilmore (far left) and Jacob Gilmore (right) from the Escambia County Farm Bureau. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Citizens Property Insurance Braced For Hurricane Season
May 30, 2014
Citizens Property Insurance enters the 2014 hurricane season believing its finances are on solid ground.
Of course, after a major storm makes landfall, all projections would start to shift like the state’s well-known sand.
As the six-month hurricane season starts Sunday, Citizens has a $7.3 billion surplus. Also, the state-backed insurer has completed a $1.5 billion, multi-year reinsurance bond deal, and the state’s backup catastrophe fund is at $13 billion.
Those figures should allow Citizens to withstand a 1-in-70-year storm event without having to use an “assessment” process to collect money from all vehicle- and property-insurance policyholders in Florida to cover additional hurricane costs.
An assessment of $2.3 billion would be expected from the impact of a 1-in-100-year storm event.
“We’re the best prepared for a hurricane since we were created in 2002,” Citizens spokesman Michael Peltier said Thursday.
Advocates for consumers and the insurance industry tend to agree.
“I think Citizens has been very conscientious to make sure they have an infrastructure, that they have the ability to put adjusters out in the field after a (catastrophic) event,” said Jay Neal, director of the advocacy group Florida Association for Insurance Reform. “The (backup Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund ), according to our numbers, is capable of taking a first hit, and a second hit, and really not having to go to the bond market for more than one or two years to be able to pay the freight.”
Sam Miller, executive vice president of the Florida Insurance Council, said the numbers for Citizens could be better if fraudulent water-loss claims were reduced in South Florida and the size of the state-backed insurer was further trimmed.
“Citizens is not nearly as big as it was,” Miller said. “But there is still a lot of exposure in Citizens that doesn’t need to be there.”
The fiscal improvement comes after Citizens shifted nearly a quarter of its policies into the private market during the past 12 months. Also, Citizens has enjoyed the luxury of not having a hurricane directly crash across Florida’s shorelines the past eight years.
The state was smacked by eight storms in 2004 and 2005, which depleted Citizens and the Hurricane Catastrophe Fund and drove some private firms from the market, which helped swell the number of policies in Citizens.
Reducing the number of policies, and thus the potential risk of assessments to all Florida policyholders, has been a priority for Citizens and state leaders in recent years.
They have started to achieve that goal by allowing private companies to acquire thousands of policies through bundled take-outs, and in rolling out a “clearinghouse” earlier this year that gives private firms the first look at new policies.
Through the clearinghouse, if coverage by a private firm is found within 15 percent of Citizens’ premium, a policy would go to the private carrier.
As of May 23, Citizens had 929,627 policies, with more than a third concentrated in six counties — Miami-Dade, Pinellas, Broward, Hillsborough, Palm Beach and Pasco.
The number is down from 1.26 million on May 31, 2013. A year earlier, the state-backed insurer topped 1.43 million policies.
To further keep the numbers down, the clearinghouse will be expanded Aug. 1 to include policies up for renewal.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Northwest Escambia Closes Out Season With A Bang (With Photo Gallery)
May 30, 2014
The Northwest Escambia league at Bradberry Park in Walnut Hill closed out their season with a bang Thursday night. Each player received a trophy prior to a fireworks show.
For a photo gallery, click here.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Wahoos And Braves Washed Out Thursday Night
May 30, 2014
For the third straight night, the Blue Wahoos and Mississippi Braves had to deal with rain at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss., and the rain finally won. The Blue Wahoos and Braves were postponed and the two teams will make up the game as part of a doubleheader on Friday.
The game will consist of two seven inning games with roughly a half-hour break between the two games.
The Blue Wahoos will send RHP Michael Lorenzen (2-3, 1.99) to the mound in game one followed by RHP Mikey O’Brien (2-2, 4.58) in game two. The Braves will counter with RHP Jason Hursh (3-4, 4.18) followed by RHP Aaron Northcraft (4-2, 2.70).
Pensacola will return home after the games and open a five-game series with the Jacksonville Suns on Saturday night at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.
by Tommy Thrall
Gas Leak At Escambia Jail
May 29, 2014
According to a new release from Escambia County, about 8:00 Thursday morning a person preparing food in the kitchen of the Escambia County Main Jail, 2935 North L Street, detected a natural gas odor. The kitchen was immediately evacuated.
Pensacola Energy was called in and confirmed there was a natural gas leak in the kitchen of the main jail. Natural gas service to the kitchen was turned off. The kitchen remained off-limits to general jail staff and other personnel as natural gas experts began to address the problem.
Contractors working on behalf of Escambia County were brought in this morning to begin the process of replacing a natural gas line valve that feeds into the kitchen of the main jail.
There is no timetable on the repair of the valve of the natural gas line. However, food preparation services are not expected to be interrupted as staff will be able to utilize other methods of meal production until full natural gas service can be restored.
Escambia County Facilities and Corrections staff followed protocol to make sure those working in and residing in the main jail were not in danger at any point following the discovery of an odor in the kitchen this morning.
ECUA Now Hauling Recyclables To Montgomery For A Profit
May 29, 2014
Since the flooding, closure and bankruptcy of West Florida Recycling in Pensacola, ECUA has been hauling recyclables out of state…the past few weeks to the Infinitus Renewable Energy Park in Montgomery, Ala.
“We believe that the Infinitus Renewable Energy Park (IREP) is the best facility in the region to meet the ECUA’s recycling objectives,” ECUA Public Information Officer Nathalie Bowers said in a recent email.
Thursday the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority board voted to make the Montgomery trip more permanent for ECUA’s recyclables and sign off on a two year contract with Infinitus.
Infinitus has propose a two year agreement with ECUA, with two optional one-year extensions, to accept ECUA’s recyclables for processing in Montgomery. ECUA will pay a processing fee of $28.10 per ton and receive a rebate of $38.10 per ton — for a net income of $10 per ton for single stream recyclables. After transportation costs, ECUA will still net a profit of a few dollars per ton for recyclables.
If ECUA were to drop the recycling program and haul everything to the landfill, it would cost $550,000 in tipping fees. However, transporting the recyclables to Montgomery is expected to net about $120,000 in revenue.
Bratt Elementary Presents Fifth Grade Awards
May 29, 2014
Bratt Elementary School recently presented awards to fifth grade students as follows:
Honor Roll
A’s and B’s all year
- Franki Daw
- Madison Peterson
- Libby Pugh
- Madelin Sheedy
- Devon Spencer
- Cody Thomas
- Kayla Campbell
- Mary Paige Nassar
- Abigail Nelson
- Kaylee Sawyer
- Jacob Findley
- Shelby Godwin
- Tyler Ray
- William Lane Wilson
- Makayla Garrett
- Jaylon North
- Kenna Redmond
- Maggie Amerson
- Conner Byrne
- Michael Merchant
Academic Achievement Award
A’s all year
- Sophia Cotita
- Amber Gilman
- Autumn Williams
- Hannah Hughes
- April Johnson
- Taviana Parker
- Savannah Doremus
Progress Award
Students who have made the most improvement during the year
- Taylor Lashley
- Karelis Morales
- Leila Turberville
- Jeremy Ward
- Destiney Bradley
- Cheyenne Philyaw
- Stone Presley
- Andrianna Cooper
Outstanding Attendance
Students whose absenteeism, tardiness, and/or early checkouts equal no more than five days.
- Franki Daw
- Libby Pugh
- Cody Thomas
- Kayla Campbell
- Jacob Conley
- Leila Turberville
- Savannah Doremus
- Jaylon North
- Tyler Chase Cloud
- Maggie Amerson
- Taliyah Rivera
Perfect Attendance
Students who have no absences, tardies, or early checkouts
- Shane Hardin
Outstanding Citizenship Award
Students who best exemplify qualities of good citizenship, work habits, interaction with peers and teachers.
- Amber Gilman
- Libby Pugh
- April Johnson
- Kaylee Sawyer
- Makayla Garrett
- Savannah Doremus
- Kenna Redmond
- William Lane Wilson
- Destiney Bradley
- David Lamb
- Shelby Godwin
- Johnathan Lambert
- Maggie Amerson
- Summer Waters
A.R. Awards
- Hannah Hughes
- April Johnson
- Savannah Doremus
- Tyler Cloud
- Lane Wilson
Art Awards
- Madison Peterson
- Jessi Spicer
- Kaylee Sawyer
- Jacob Conley
- David Lamb
- Kyiah Bailey
- Maggie Amerson
- Andrianna Cooper
Music Awards
- Franki Dawe
- Libby Pugh
- J.D. Ward
- Hannah Hughes
- Savannah Doremus
- David Lamb
- Maggie Amerson
- Summer Waters
P.E. Awards
- Joshuwa Merchant
- Karelis Morales
- Libby Pugh
- Maggie Amerson
- Andrianna Cooper
- Summer Waters
- April Johnson
- Taviana Parker
- Peggy Sunday
- Makayla Garrett
- Jaylon North
- Lane Wilson