Back To The Barnyard: Century Starts Over With New Animal Ordinance
December 3, 2013
After weeks of back and forth discussion on a barnyard animal ban, the Century Town Council started over with a new ordinance Monday night.
The ordinance will make it illegal to keep a horse, mule, donkey, goat, sheep, or cow within the town limits except in areas that are zoned agricultural or rural residential. Hogs are already prohibited in all areas of the town.
One horse will be allowed for every two acres, one donkey per acre and one goat per one-half acre. The animals and their pens must be 200 feet or greater from a dwelling or property line.
Anyone with horses, donkey or goats (but not mules, sheep or cows) in an area not zoned agricultural or rural residential within the town limits, must register theirl animals at the Century Town Hall within 60 days of the adoption of ordinance.
Anyone with nonconforming animals must apply for and be granted a variance from the town council within six months or get rid of their animals.
The council held a first reading of the new ordinance Monday night. They also voted to schedule a special meeting at 6 p.m. on Monday, December 23 for public comment and for a final council vote.
The new ordinance shortens the time noncomplying residents have to request a variance or remove their animals from 18 to six months. The council also removed a previous discussed requirement that any barnyard animals approved under a variance be implanted with a tracking microchip.
Pictured: (L-R) Century Mayor Freddie McCall and council members Gary Riley, Ann Brooks, Sandra McMurray Jackson and Jacke Johnston at Monday night’s meeting of the Century Town Council. Council members Annie Savage was absent. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
McDavid Man Charged With Attacking His Mother
December 3, 2013
A McDavid man is facing several felony charges after allegedly threatening to kill his mother over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Haden Brock Howard, 19, was booked into the Escambia County Jail on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, felony battery by strangulation, aggravated battery using a deadly weapon and battery. He was released from the Escambia County Jail Sunday afternoon on a $3,500 bond.
The 42-year old victim told deputies that Howard, her son, had taken her vehicle without permission. She was able to locate it alongside Highway 97. As she was driving home, the victim said Howard suddenly sat up from the backseat, became enraged and put a knife against her right temple and was saying he was going to kill her, according to an arrest report.
The victim pulled off the road in the 7200 block of Highway 97 in Walnut Hill. She told deputies that Howard dropped the knife, then attempted to strangle her before grabbing some sort of handsaw. She escaped the car, with Howard attempting to run over her, an arrest report states, before crashing through a fence and speeding off on Highway 97.
Deputies made contact with Howard by phone and he said he had no idea what was going on and that he had not seen his mother in two or three days. Deputies convinced Howard to exit his grandparents’ home on Green Village Road, at which time he was taken into custody. He continued to insist that he had not had any contact with his mother.
The victim’s car was located in the grandparents’ backyard, with what appeared to be a bloody fixed blade knife inside, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office report.
$300 Million In Transportation Projects Announced
December 3, 2013
Over $300 million in transportation projects were announced Monday by the Florida Department of Transportation, including several significant projects in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
In Escambia County, newly announced projects include:
- Funding for the design of increased capacity for SR 10 (US 90A) 9 Mile Bridge from SR 8 (I-10) to SR 297 Pine Forest Road.
- Funding for the resurfacing of SR 295 Navy Blvd from East of New Warrington to SR 10A (US 90).
- Funding for the resurfacing of SR 742 Creighton Road from East SR 291 Davis Highway to SR 10A (US 90) Scenic.
In Santa Rosa County, the funding includes:
- Funding for the construction of SR 30/10 US 98/90 corridor management improvement projects.
The $300 million includes additional projects in Bay, Holmes, Jackson, Okaloosa, Walton and Washington counties.
The projects will be officially unveiled Tuesday during a public hearing in Chipley.
“Growth and development in Northwest Florida depend on an infrastructure that can attract and support more economic activity that creates more jobs,” Senate President Don Gaetz said. “Over the next five years, the State of Florida will invest more than $3 billion in our region’s ports, bridges, roadways and railways. Many of these items have been priorities of local communities for years. This level of commitment is rocket fuel for Northwest Florida’s economy.”
Stolen Four-Wheeler Dropped Off At Police Department
December 3, 2013
The Flomaton Police Department has recovered a stolen four-wheeler and returned it to its owners.
On Friday, NorthEscambia.com ran a photo and short story about the stolen Yamaha, resulting in several tips to police that it was in the Century area. On Monday, the Flomaton Police Department and the Escambia County (FL) Sheriff’s Office conducted interviews in their search, according to Flomaton Police Chief Brian Davis.
Davis later received a phone call Monday that the four-wheeler would be returned to the Flomaton Police Department, and it was dropped off about 15 minutes later.
So far, there are have been no arrests as his department’s investigation continues. He declined to release to the name of the party that returned the four-wheeler to the police department.
The four-wheeler had been reported stolen from Titi Street in Flomaton during the early morning hours last Wednesday.
Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
House Speaker Weighs Gambling Constitutional Amendment
December 3, 2013
House Speaker Will Weatherford is developing a new plan that could provide cover for Republican House members reluctant to expand gambling as the Legislature takes up the thorny issue during the upcoming session.
Weatherford wants to put a constitutional amendment on the 2014 ballot that would let voters decide if they should weigh in on future expansion of gambling.
The proposal, still being developed, would set in stone any changes lawmakers agree to during the 2014 session and require statewide approval of any future gambling expansion. Like other constitutional amendments, the proposal would require 60 percent approval by voters to pass.
Weatherford said it’s part of the “holistic look at gaming” the Legislature is undertaking that includes a swath of issues from casino-style resorts to blackjack at South Florida tracks to getting rid of greyhound racing altogether.
“I have become over the years very concerned with the drip, drip, drip expansion of gaming that’s taken place in the state of Florida. I am certainly warming up to the idea of having a constitutional amendment that would require all future expansion to go before the voters. I’m very, very intrigued by that concept,” Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, told The News Service of Florida on Monday.
Weatherford’s proposal would be linked in theory to a comprehensive gambling bill that could include a rewrite of the state’s gambling laws and regulations, the creation of a gambling commission and, possibly, a kitchen-sink of elements sought after by existing race tracks and frontons as well as destination resorts coveted by out-of-state casino operators. Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, is leading a group of conservative Republicans backing the idea of the constitutional amendment. House Select Committee on Gaming Chairman Rob Schenck, R-Spring Hill, is Weatherford’s chief negotiator on the sweeping gambling legislation.
“Everything is on the table,” Weatherford said. “I’ve always been anti-expansion and continue to believe that unfettered expansion of gaming in Florida is bad for the state and bad for the citizens. However, we’ve been having expansion under our noses for the last decade or two. And it’s been uncoordinated. It’s been unstructured. The Legislature hasn’t had its hands on the wheel. We have an opportunity to do that this year.”
The possibility that 2014 could be the last opportunity for the Legislature to sign off on gambling changes without a statewide referendum intensifies the gambling industry’s push to have myriad issues resolved during the upcoming session.
“There’s no question that if everyone believed any future expansion after the 2014 session required a statewide vote, all the gaming interests would do whatever they could to try to include anything they could in the comprehensive legislation,” said lobbyist Nick Iarossi, who represents Las Vegas Sands, one of the casino operators pushing lawmakers to approve at least one convention-style hotel and casino in Broward or Miami-Dade counties.
An overhaul of the state’s patchwork quilt of gambling laws would likely rein in regulators at the Division of Business and Professional Regulation who have approved a variety of controversial practices such as barrel racing.
The bill may also include an effort to buy back or revoke dormant licenses and stop pari-mutuels from using licenses at one facility to operate card games or other activities somewhere else. And it could include lower tax rates for the pari-mutuels in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
“What I believe is a very smart way to go is to fix the problems that are now existing in the gaming laws, consolidate them, streamline them, expand where it makes sense for both Florida’s brand and Florida’s economy, contract them where markets have gone away and it doesn’t make sense,” said lobbyist Brian Ballard, who represents Palm Beach Kennel Club, which is hoping to get slot machines, as well as Resorts World Miami, LLC, the Malaysian casino giant pushing for a destination resort in downtown Miami. “In other words, let’s fix it now, let’s pull up the ladder and say that’s it, we’re done. We’ve reformed the system. Now the people will decide whether there’s going to be an expansion or contraction of gaming. I think that makes absolute sense.”
But enshrining the new laws so quickly into the constitution could be problematic.
For example, the gambling package is also expected to address problems with a new law banning Internet cafés now being challenged in court by senior arcade operators.
“You’re going to reform 100 years of pretty poorly-written law. And then on top of that you’re going to say this is it and any changes require a constitutional amendment so we better be right. There won’t be a tweak in the statute to fix things down the road. It’s a great theory. It makes a lot of sense in theory. I worry about some unintended results. We just have to make sure whatever passes this year is done well,” Ballard said.
Senate Gaming Committee Chairman Garrett Richter said he has heard of Weatherford’s constitutional amendment but not spoken with his House counterpart about it yet.
“One of the things that became clear in the public hearings is that the voters want a referendum. So the distinction becomes whether it’s a statewide referendum or a local referendum. I’m not prepared to say where I would have a preference or not. But what did come through is that communities want to have a referendum ahead of an expansion of gaming in their communities,” Richter, R-Naples, said.
The constitutional amendment should remain separate from the overall gambling package, Richter said.
“I don’t think that initiative should draw the attention away from or to the objective to come up with something responsible for the state of Florida in the gaming arena,” he said. “Really what we’ve got to do now is determine what kind of meat we want to put on the bones. Whether it simply clarifies existing statutes or expands gaming or creates a gaming commission…remains to be seen. But I think the next step …is to begin to develop that legislation and then have people take a stance either for or against.”
by The News Service of Florida
Bill Would Slice Local Regulation Of Knives
December 3, 2013
A Republican senator filed a bill Monday that would bar state and local government agencies from regulating pocketknives, hunting and fishing knives and other types of knives. The bill (SB 458), filed by Sen. Thad Altman, R-Viera, would give only the Legislature the authority to regulate such knives — a concept known as “preemption.”
The state has a similar preemption law dealing with firearms.
“It is the intent of the Legislature to occupy the field of regulation of knives, common pocketknives, and weapons,” the bill says. “It is the further intent of the Legislature to provide uniformity of laws by prohibiting state agencies and political subdivisions from enacting rules or ordinances on the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, and use of knives and weapons.”
by The News Service of Florida
61 Arrested During Sheriff’s Office Warrant Sweep; Burglary Ring Discovered
December 3, 2013
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office arrested 61 people on outstanding warrants during an a sweep named “Operation Smoking Gun”. And, as part of the operation, Sheriff David Morgan says his deputies also uncovered a burglary ring.
“We believe we are now on to a pretty sizable burglary ring in Escambia County,” Morgan said during a press conference Monday afternoon. Three people have been arrested in connection with the burglaries, but investigators believed up to 10 people may be involved. Due to the ongoing investigation, the Sheriff’s Office has not named the three arrested so far.
The burglary ring is believed to have included about 30 residential burglaries and more than 100 vehicle break-ins across the county.
On any given day in Escambia County, Morgan said there are about 25,000 outstanding arrest warrants. He said the November 18-23 outstanding warrant crackdown is just the first of many more similar operations.
Pictured: Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan speaks during a Monday news conference. Courtesy image for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Escambia Animal Shelter Joins Adoption Campaign
December 3, 2013
The Escambia County Animal Shelter teamed up with Blue Buffalo and 4,000 other shelters worldwide to adopt 1.5 million pets this holiday season. The Blue Buffalo “Home 4 the Holidays” seasonal pet adoption campaign runs through January 2, 2014, with the goal of placing orphaned pets into loving homes.
The program has grown into the largest pet adoption drive in the world and is credited with saving more than 8 million pets across the globe since its inception in 1999.
Six Injured In Highway 29, Tate School Road Wreck
December 2, 2013
Six people were injured in a two vehicle crash Sunday night on Highway 29 at Tate School Road that closed northbound Highway 29 at the intersection for several hours.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, 56-year old Curtis Ward drove his 2004 Jeep Liberty the wrong way on Highway 29, causing the the head-on collision with a 2006 Chevrolet Silverado driven by 42-year old Kimberly Hall of Brewton.
Ward was seriously injured in the crash, while his three juvenile passengers, ages 7-8, received minor injuries. All four were transported to Sacred Heart Hospital. Hall and her passenger, 42-year old Kenneth Hall also of Brewton, were seriously injured and transported by ambulance to Sacred Heart Hospital.
Charges against Curtis Ward and pending blood results, according to the FHP.
The Ensley and Cantonment Stations of Escambia Fire Rescue, Escambia County EMS and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office also responded to the crash.
Pictured: Six people were reportedly injured in this two vehicle crash Sunday night on Highway 29 at Tate School Road. NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Smith, click to enlarge.
Wildfire Burns Portion Of Walnut Hill Cotton Field
December 2, 2013
A wildfire burned through a portion of an unpicked Walnut Hill cotton field Sunday afternoon. The fire was reported near the intersection of Highway 164 and North Highway 99 about 12:40 p.m.
Firefighters from the Walnut Hill, McDavid and Century stations Escambia Fire Rescue battled the blaze, along with the Florida Forest Service.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
