ECAT Reports Ridership Up
February 14, 2014
Escambia County Area Transit announced Thursday that ridership was up during the final quarter of last year. ECAT provided 403,612 rides in the fourth quarter of 2013, up four percent from the same period in 2012.
“I could not be more pleased with these numbers,” said Lisa Bacot, Executive Director of the Florida Transportation Association. “The fourth quarter numbers show us that providing public transportation is important. ECAT is meeting the needs of its community by giving residents personal mobility and connects people with their jobs and schools.”
In 2013, ECAT provided a total of 1,529,769 rides to residents and visitors alike, marking another year that ridership of the system has increased.
“ECAT provides a valuable and needed service for this area,” said Tonya Ellis, director of Marketing and Community Relations. “We work to provide our community with excellent, dependable service. I am looking forward to 2014 and all that it will bring for our passengers. We have several exciting changes coming this year that are designed to enhance our customers’ experience.”
Waffle House Robbery Suspect Arrested — At Waffle House
February 14, 2014
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office has nabbed a suspect in a couple of Wednesday robberies.
Thomas Aaron Byrd, age 18 of Eight Mile, AL, is charged with two counts of armed robbery and remains in the Escambia County Jail with bond set at $16,000.
The first reported robbery was at a Waffle House in the 6900 block of Pensacola Boulevard, the second in the 4600 block of Mobile Highway. The suspect in both robberies was a white male driving a grey Dodge Charger. Shortly after 10:00p.m., a deputy observed a matching vehicle at the Waffle House located in the 100 block of New Warrington Road.
Byrd exited the vehicle and was taken into custody.
Valentine’s Day: Love On The Line
February 14, 2014
On Valentine’s Day, an 82-person Gulf Power storm team was hard at work in north Georgia to restore power after a winter storm.
Ice storms, hurricanes or just afternoon thunderstorms, linemen and other power company employees are there to restore our electricity as fast as possible. But working in Georgia means the 82 men and women were away from their someone special for Valentine’s Day.
Special thanks to Gulf Power employee Tabbatha McGhee for helping with this story and photographs.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
the road to the crown: Meet The Girls (part three)
February 14, 2014
Today, it’s part three of our multi-part series “the road to the crown” as we follow 14 young ladies at Northview High School in their quest for the crown and the title of “Miss NHS 2014″.
Today we introduce you to the third and final group of contestants. Their biographies, as submitted by the girls, are below along with their photos. You can click any photo below to enlarge. (For the first set of contestants, click here; for the second set, click here.)
Our series “the road to the crown” will continue tomorrow. The pageant is Saturday night at 7:00, and NorthEscambia.com will have the new Miss Northview High School and all the photos here Sunday morning.
Tickets are available at the Northview High School office.
Tiffani Nichole Pritchett
Tiffani is 17-years old and is a senior at Northview High school. Tiffani has been a member of the volleyball team for four years and the softball team for four years. She has been on the weightlifting team for two years. She has been a member of Rho Kappa for two years, an FCA member for two years and CECF (DCT) member for one year. She has received many awards including the 2014 Coach’s Award in weightlifting, 2011 best offensive volleyball player, 2012 most improved award in volleyball and the 2013 Subway volleyball all star. She has also received the Atmore Rotary Academic All-Star award. Tiffani is a member of the 2013 Class 1-A state volleyball team and the student chair of Discipline Committee. In her community she is a member of the First Baptist Church of Bratt, played softball at the Molino ballpark for seven years, and helps to coach young girls softball.
Her hobbies are playing sports, cooking, photography and spending time with loved ones.
Her future plans are to attend FSU and pursue a medical degree.
Brianna Morgan Smith
Brianna is 16-years old and is a freshman at Northview High school. Brianna is a member of the National Honor Society and SGA. She is also a member of the junior varsity Lady Chiefs softball team and a majorette with the Tribal Beat marching bad. In her community she is vice president of the Greater Pensacola Youth Bowling Association. She is a seven-time youth bowling all-star. Brianna is a member of the United States Bowling Congress and VSBC Junior Gold Medal. She has won several scholarship tournaments in bowling. Brianna also dances with Heather Leonard’s Danceworks and twirled baton with Twirl Time for six years.
Her hobbies are bowling, baton, softball, dancing, fashion designing and doing crafts of all kinds.
Her future plans are to attend a college that offers bowling and softball as well as a marching band so she can continue her hobbies and attain a degree in teaching.
Morgan Nicole Digmon
Morgan is 17-years old and is a senior at Northview High school. Morgan has been a member of the Northview Dance team for three years and played softball for one year. She is a member of the Beta Club for three years, Glee Club for one year and Fellowship of Christian Athletes for three years. She has received the Atmore Rotary Academic All-Star Award, was named Miss Poise and Appearance in the Miss NHS pageant in 2011 and a talent show winner in 2013. In her community she volunteers at Relay for Life and Manna Food Bank. She has danced at Heather Leonard’s Danceworks for nine years. Morgan attends Ray’s Chapel Baptist church where she participates in the youth group and volunteers in the church nursery.
Her hobbies are dancing, singing, shopping, listening to music and spending time with her family and friends.
Her future plans are to attend Auburn University and pursue a degree in nursing and become a neonatal nurse. She also hopes to become a member of the Tiger Paws dance team.
Olivia Kate Neal
Olivia is 17-years old and is a senior at Northview High school. Olivia has been a member of the varsity cheerleading team for one year and a member of the competition cheer team for one year. She has been a member of the Glee Club member for one year, a member of the weightlifting team for two years, junior varsity volleyball team for two years, Students Against Destructive Decisions member for one year and FFA for one year. In her community, Olivia attends Little Escambia Baptist Church and is an active member of the youth group. She is lead singer for her youth praise band.
Her hobbies are playing the guitar, singing, cooking, attending mission trips and spending time with her loving family and unfailing friends.
Her future plans are to attend Pensacola State College to obtain a degree in culinary arts.
Jessica Kathryn Amerson
Jessica is 16-years old and a sophomore at Northview High school. Jessica has played the French horn for six years and has been a member of the Tribal Beat band for two years. She is a member of the SGA, yearbook staff, math team, battle of the book team and a member of the mock United Nations team. Jessica was freshman class historian, and represented the sophomore class on the 2013 Homecoming Court. She has been a member of the junior honor society for three years and is currently the top student in her class. Jessica was a sophomore representative for the Pensacola spelling bee, placed third in the VFW Voice of Democracy districts, and won first place in the Rotary Four-Way Test essay contest. She has also placed in the science Olympiad competition and was voted into honor society at summer camp. In her community she is a member of St. Robert Bellarmine church.
Her hobbies are reading, camping, writing, drawing, horseback riding, playing piano, traveling and taking pictures.
Her future plans are to master and become fluent in at least three languages other than English, with basic knowledge of as many languages as possible. Jessica plans a career in government as a translator with plans to be a UN Ambassador for the White House.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Scott Signs Death Warrant For 1987 Killer
February 14, 2014
Gov. Rick Scott signed a death warrant Thursday for Robert Lavern Henry, who murdered two women at a fabric store in Deerfield Beach more than 26 years ago. The execution is scheduled for March 20 at Florida State Prison near Starke.
Henry, 55, who has been on Death Row since 1988, was convicted in the deaths of Phyllis Harris and Janet Thermidor.
When police and firefighters responded to a call on Nov. 1, 1987, the women were found in the store’s restrooms. Harris was tied up and dead in the men’s room. Thermidor, located in the women’s restroom, was conscious despite a head wound and burns to more than 90 percent of her body. Thermidor stated that Henry, the store’s maintenance man, hit her on the head with a hammer, left with the store’s money, only to return to douse her in a liquid before setting her on fire. Thermidor died the next day.
A year later, Henry was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, one count of armed robbery, and one count of arson.
The warrant comes a day after the execution of Juan Carlos Chavez, who committed the notorious 1995 murder of 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce in Miami-Dade County. Chavez was the 13th Death Row inmate executed in Florida since Scott took office in 2011.
Also Wednesday, a North Florida circuit judge ruled that a new lethal-injection drug would not violate the rights of Paul Augustus Howell who is scheduled for execution on Feb. 26. Howell was convicted in the 1992 killing of a state Trooper James Fulford in Jefferson County.
Rep. Jeff Miller Honored For Championing Employment Of Disabled
February 14, 2014
U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller received the AbilityOne Congressional Champion Award Thursday in recognition of his support for the employment of people with significant disabilities.
Richard “Micky” Gazaway, executive director, South Region, SourceAmerica, presented the award on behalf of AbilityOne, a program that leverages the purchasing power of the federal government to promote employment for people who have significant disabilities.
The AbilityOne Congressional Champion Award is given to elected federal policymakers who support the AbilityOne Program and employment opportunities for people with significant disabilities.
Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Parasailing Regulations Get Launched In Florida Senate
February 14, 2014
An effort to impose minimum regulations on the parasailing industry, aided by video of a ghastly accident last summer that went viral on the Internet, is starting to get off the ground in the state Legislature.
The Senate Regulated Industries Committee on Thursday unanimously backed a measure (SB 320) that sponsor Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, said should lessen the chance Florida will again find itself showcased worldwide as a risky place for amusements. It would prohibit parasailing operations when sustained winds are 20 mph or higher or when lightning storms are within seven miles.
The video involved a parasailing accident last summer in Panama City Beach that seriously injured two Indiana teens.
“When you see those storm clouds coming up (on the video), and those two young girls slammed against buildings and balconies, and then going up against power lines and finally landing against on an SUV, you think why is this happening,” Sachs said after the committee hearing. “That dramatized the need for safety regulations and I think that, unfortunately, that had to happen before a lot of people said, ‘You know what, we need to do this’.”
Similar measures — opposed by the parasailing industry mostly because of increased insurance costs — failed in the last six years.
The House version of the bill (HB 347) was unanimously supported last week by the Business and Professional Regulation Subcommittee, and it is now headed to the Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee.
“We are not trying to punish the industry. … We only want to make this a safe activity,” said Rep. Gwyndolen Clarke-Reed, D-Deerfield Beach, the sponsor of the House bill.
The proposal — named the “White-Miskell Act” — was aided Thursday by appearances at the Capitol by Alexis Fairchild, who was one of the two Indiana teens injured July 1, and by family members of Amber May White, 15, of Belleview, who died in 2007 after a line snapped on a parasail, resulting in her hitting the roof of a hotel.
“If this law had been passed when it was brought up the first time I wouldn’t be standing here,” Fairchild, who suffered head trauma and had to undergo surgery to her spine, told Senate committee members. “If it was passed the second time, I wouldn’t be standing here. I don’t want another person to be standing here.”
Shannon Kraus, White’s mother, added that lawmakers have a “moral obligation” to approve the legislation.
The other part of the bill is named after Kathleen Miskell, a 28-year-old Connecticut woman who died in 2012 after she fell from a harness while parasailing over the ocean off Pompano Beach.
The measure has the support of people in the industry, said Larry Meddock, executive director of the Water Sports Industry Association.
“They’ve accepted the fact that they need to have best practices to try to do a better job,” Meddock said.
Meddock said operators have come around to “reality” after being advised by the U.S. Coast Guard that if regulations backed by people in the industry are not in place, the federal agency would impose rules, due to the “frequency of incidents” in recent years.
“That message was sent out loud and clear,” Meddock said.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimates there are about 100 active commercial operators in Florida, most along the coasts, with one at Walt Disney World on Bay Lake in Orange County.
From Jan. 1, 2001 through Oct. 30, 2013, the state has recorded 21 parasailing incidents that have resulted in 23 injuries and six fatalities. Nearly half were due in part to wind conditions, with others because of equipment or operator error.
The legislative measure would require owners of vessels engaged in commercial parasailing to carry at least $1 million in bodily injury liability coverage, for the boats to be equipped with a functional VHF marine transceivers and separate electronic devices capable of providing access to weather forecasts and current weather conditions, and for operators to record the weather whenever on the water with passengers.
Putting the information in a log was among the hurdles that have kept past efforts to impose regulations on the industry from advancing in the Legislature, Sachs noted.
“It’s been a hurdle, but I figure if they can swipe a credit card, they can log the weather,” Sachs said.
The effort to impose regulations was aided last summer when Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, advised those in the parasailing industry to talk to Sachs after he heard from constituents who had witnessed the accident involving Fairchild and her friend Sidney Good.
During a meeting in November with about 250 owners and operators, Meddock said, nobody objected when asked if they had a problem with the proposed legislation.
The measure doesn’t impose regulations on the types of equipment used by parasailing operators, but Sachs said the insurance regulation should force those in the industry to demonstrate they are up to date on safety to get their policies.
The proposal still must get support from the Senate Commerce and Tourism and Community Affairs committees.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Woman Convicted Of Child Neglect After Toddler Found Wandering In Road, Living In Squalor
February 13, 2014
A Cantonment woman was convicted this week on child neglect charges in connection with an October 2013 case in which her 3-year old was found wandering in a busy roadhundreds of feet from the home where he lived in squalor.
Cynthia Faye Godwin,36, was convicted of three counts of felony child neglect without bodily harm. She was sentenced by Judge Linda Nobles to three years probation, ordered to undergo mental health evaluation and complete a parenting class. She must also abide by a Department of Children and Families case plan, the details of which have not been made public. Godwin, who had been jailed since the October 28 incident, was released from jail following her sentencing.
Michael Roy Godwin has pleaded not guilty to three counts of felony child neglect without bodily harm in the case. His trial is set to begin next week.
Bus driver Daisy Robinson, her bus 1-12 loaded with Ransom Middle School students, found the child in Kingsfield Road in the area of Pauline Street and the railroad tracks, just off Highway 95A. She managed to safely coach the 3-year old onto her bus and radio bus dispatch for help, according to Rob Doss, the Escambia County School District’s director of transportation.
After waiting for a short time period, she moved her bus to the parking lot of a nearby gas station to wait for the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office to arrive. The young boy was not injured.
At the child’s home, deputies found the Godwins outside searching for him, stating that he had walking about about 30 minutes before. Once inside the trailer, a responding deputy reported, “the smell was horrible and the conditions appeared even worse”, according to arrest report.
The deputy reported there were roaches crawling on the floor and counters. There were no drinks or food in the refrigerator or freezer. The refrigerator contained dead roaches, according to the arrest report. The house was in a mess with clothing covering the floors. The three mattresses in the house for the child were very dirty and stained; one of these had dog feces on it.
Florida Executes Child Killer; Victim’s Dad Says Execution Is A Warning
February 13, 2014
As state lawmakers work to toughen laws against sexually violent predators, Juan Carlos Chavez, who committed the notorious 1995 murder of 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce in Miami-Dade County, was executed Wednesday at Florida State Prison near Starke.
Chavez, 46, who was visited only by a “spiritual adviser” on Wednesday, was pronounced dead at 8:17 p.m. The death came despite a last-minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
After the execution, Don Ryce, the father of Jimmy Ryce, said hopefully Chavez’ death will serve as a warning to sexual predators who find themselves on the verge of decisions similar to the one Chavez made nearly 19 years ago.
“I hope they will remember, it will be burned in their mind, four words, ‘Don’t kill the child,’ ” Ryce said during a brief televised press conference. “Because if you do, people will not forget, they will not forgive, we will hunt you down and we will put you to death.”
Chavez was convicted in 1998 of kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of Jimmy Ryce. The brutal crime spurred the Legislature to pass the Jimmy Ryce Involuntary Civil Commitment for Sexually Violent Predators’ Treatment and Care Act, known simply as the Jimmy Ryce Act.
The 1998 law lets the state indefinitely keep violent sexual predators behind bars by requiring them to undergo reviews for the risk of re-offending and to be committed at a secured treatment facility after completing their sentences.
“I doubt that there is anything I can say that would satisfy everybody, even less those who see in me nothing more than someone deserving of punishment,” Chavez wrote in his final statement that also expressed his belief in Christ.
Ryce’s dismembered body was found near an avocado grove three months after being abducted at gunpoint near his Redland school bus stop on Sept. 11, 1995. Ryce’s book bag was found in Chavez’ trailer.
The execution came on a day the state House Appropriations Committee unanimously approved a slate of bills aimed at cracking down on sexually violent predators.
The measures (HB 7013, HB 7017, HB 7019, HB 7021, HB 7025 and HB 7027) would, in part, increase the mandatory minimum sentence for “dangerous sexual felony offenders” from 25 to 50 years; bar sexually violent predators from having their community supervision run at the same time that they are under civil commitment; and increase the amount of personal information that registered sexual predators and offenders must provide to authorities.
The bills were crafted following reports in the South Florida Sun Sentinel that nearly 600 sexually violent predators had been released only to be convicted of new sex offenses — including more than 460 child molestations, 121 rapes and 14 murders.
The companion measures (SB 522, SB 524, SB 526, and SB 528) are scheduled to appear before the Senate Appropriations committee on Feb. 20.
Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, has repeatedly said the intention of the legislation will be to make Florida “scorched earth” for sexually violent predators.
“Tonight ends a horrible chapter in the short life of Jimmy Ryce, but his legacy lives on through the lives saved and the children protected by the Jimmy Ryce Act,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a prepared statement.
The execution, initially scheduled for 6 p.m., was delayed for more than an hour as the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed and ultimately rejected a final appeal.
The U.S. Supreme Court action came hours after the Florida Supreme Court unanimously rejected a last-minute request for a stay based on a challenge to a new three-drug cocktail used in executions.
A brief order from the state court described the challenge as a “delaying tactic.”
Chavez also lost an appeal Monday at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Perdido Dollar General Robbed At Gunpoint
February 13, 2014
The Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an armed robbery at the Dollar General store in Perdido, AL.
About 9:30 p.m. Monday night, two men — one armed with large pistol and the other armed with a large rod, stick or pipe — held up the store.
The suspects demanded money and cigarettes before ordering the two store clerks into a restroom. They fled on foot after taking approximately $1,000 in cash and about 11 packs of Newport cigarettes, according to the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office.
Both men were described as wearing black pants and jackets, bandannas cover their faces and hair and gray gloves. One suspect was wearing a light blue ball cap.
Anyone with information on the robbery is asked to contact the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office at (251) 937-0202.
Perdido, AL, is located just a couple of miles northwest of Nokomis, FL, or about six miles west of Atmore.
Pictured: Surveillance video from the Perdido, AL, Dollar General shows armed bandits holding a clerk at gunpoint Monday night. Images for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
