Molino Family Searching For Missing Special Needs Companion Dog
March 27, 2013
A local family has been searching for their dog Jasper for over a week now, and they are asking the Molino community for help in finding him.
Jasper is a male yellow lab about four years old, and he is a specials needs companion for a child named Destiny, who suffers from Downs Syndrome. He’s been missing since last week from the Brickyard Road area. The family has listed him missing on the NorthEscambia.com classifieds page and on Facebook.
“He first met Destiny when she was about six months old,” aunt Aundrea Smith said. “It was like they automatically latched onto each other.” Jasper has learned to alert the family when Destiny is experiencing difficulty breathing or find an adult when she has other needs.
“I don’t have any money, or I’d offer a million dollars reward for him; he’s that special,” Smith said.
Anyone that sees Jasper is asked to call Aundrea Smith immediately at (850) 754-0053.
Pictured: Special needs companion dog Jasper has been missing from a Molino home for over a week. Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
House Will Propose College Tuition Hike
March 27, 2013
Splitting from the Senate and Gov. Rick Scott, the House will propose a six percent tuition increase for students in state universities and colleges.
House Appropriations Chairman Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, said the House wants to prevent Florida’s universities from “falling further and further behind their peers throughout the country.” He added, “I just think we need to keep pace.”
Senate Education Appropriations Chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, told the Lakeland newspaper that the Senate will not include a tuition increase in its budget proposal. Scott also is opposed to the idea.
By The News Service of Florida
FHSAA Warns Legislation Will Create High School Free Agents
March 27, 2013
The association that dictates rules for Florida’s middle and high school athletes is fighting what it says is a power grab by legislators that will lessen the oversight of mid-season transfers and allow some schools to become recruiting giants.
The Florida High School Athletic Association is objecting to measures (HB 1279, SB 1164) by Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha, and Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, that could restrict their investigations into student-athlete transfers, limit the amount of fines and fees member schools pay, and revamp the makeup of the association’s board.
FHSAA Executive Director Roger Dearing, during a media teleconference on Tuesday, claimed the legislation would essentially allow middle and high school student-athletes to become “free agents.”
“This legislation opens the door for nefarious people who might want to circumvent rules in order to do what they may think is getting students scholarships to college, or even open the door to professional athletics,” Dearing said.
The measure by Metz also further expands the state law that allows students to play for the school of choice if the public or charter school they attend does not offer the sport.
Stargel’s companion proposal adds more legislative oversight to the FHSAA board by having the House and Senate each make four appointments to the board, with the Commissioner of Education getting to name three.
While the board would be expanded from 16 to 25, the majority of appointments would come from Tallahassee.
Currently, FHSAA member schools select 13 board members, with the three others coming from the Department of Education.
The proposals also call for replacing Dearing by having the commissioner of education name the FHSAA executive director rather than the association’s board.
Dearing said his job being on the line was less a concern than keeping the playing field level for students and schools as they compete across the state if each school district is given powers to self-regulate transfers.
Stargel, in a release from Access for Student Athletes Coalition sent out prior to the teleconference, denied her proposal will allow illegal recruiting or create student-athlete “free agency.”
“This proposal would not prevent the FHSAA from fulfilling their primary role,” Stargel stated. “However, it would help combat their predisposition to consider students as guilty until proven innocent, and would establish true due process and rights for student athletes, which the current system of conducting investigations clearly lacks.”
The coalition, which contends the FHSAA displays overreaching and arbitrary authority when conducting investigations on student eligibility, is an initiative launched by the Naples-based conservative-policy think tank Floridians for Government Accountability, Inc. The think tank is run by former Maine legislator Tarren Bragdon.
The FHSAA doesn’t directly receive state funding, but in addition to relying upon corporate donations for funding draws public dollars through membership fees from public schools.
FHSAA Chief Financial Officer Linda Roberston said the expected reduction in revenue by capping fines and fees could hinder the non-profit association’s ability to promote and run championship events at professional fields, along with training and certification for coaches and officials.
“The quality of our events will certainly suffer,” Robertson said.
“Mike Alstott, the football coach at Northside Christian High in St. Petersburg, said an athlete shouldn’t be allowed to play for one school in the fall for football, another in the winter for basketball and a third in the spring for baseball.
“This could really change the playing field, to not be fair,” said Alstott, a former Tampa Bay Buccaneer fullback.
The high school student-athlete proposal follows a law enacted a year ago that pushed back on the FHSAA for clamping down on mid-school year transfers and students following coaches to new schools.
The law, sponsored by Stargel – then a member of the House – allows students-athletes to change schools at any time without having to sit out a year as was the prior rule after the first 20 days of a school year. Meanwhile it is up to the school districts to self-police themselves for recruiting violations by coaches, parents and alumni.
The FHSAA initially fought the law, noting that none of its member high schools had requested the change.
Months before the bill was introduced, the FHSAA imposed more than $62,500 in fines against the Lakeland High Dreadnaughts after seven of its athletes, including five from the school’s perennial football powerhouse, were found ineligible to play for infractions ranging from falsifying addresses, failing to make a full and complete move before enrolling, and receiving impermissible benefits that included free rent.
Stargel argued that the bill serves Florida’s student-athletes, while regulating FHSAA investigators.
By The News Service of Florida
Quarter Horse Show This Weekend
March 27, 2013
The Northwest Florida Quarter Horse Association will host a horse show this weekend, Friday, March 29, to Sunday, March 31. The show will include English and Western classes, as well as leadline, driving and halter classes.
The competition starts at 6 p.m. Friday and at 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Escambia County Equestrian Center. Classes will run until finished. For a list of classes or more information on the event, visit www.nwfqha.com or call Debbie Wall at (256) 441-1081.
The event is free and spectators are welcomed. A full service concession stand will be open during the event.
Authorities Seek Missing, Endangered Man
March 26, 2013
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is searching for a man considered missing and endangered.
Ellis Robinson, 22, was last seen March 22 in the 100 block of South 2nd Street and has been without needed medication since this time. He was last seen wearing a blue and white striped shirt, blue jeans and black and white striped shoes. He has brown eyes, is about 5-feet, 8-inches tall, and weighs about 220 pounds.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to contact the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620 or (850) 436-9199.
Exclusive: Sister Addresses McGhee Disappearance; Sheriff Has Message For Abductor
March 26, 2013
It has been a decade since Melinda Wall McGhee went missing from her Atmore home, a decade that has been a living nightmare for her sister Lisa Wooten.
Wooten said Monday that she’s never held any hope that her sister will be found alive since the moment she learned the details of McGhee’s disappearance .
“I live everyday with no hope that she will be found alive,” Wooten said in an exclusive interview with NorthEscambia.com. “I knew from the first day, I knew and believed at that moment that she was murdered.”
For Wooten, her hope now centers on closure and justice.
“Every time I hear that remains have been found somewhere, I pray that it will be my sister,” she said. “We are still hoping someone with come forward with something. We want to to find out what happened, who did it, and bring them to justice.”
The case still haunts Escambia County (Ala.) Sheriff Grover Smith.
“We’re all a little concerned when we lay our head down and sleep, to know that a person can be abducted from their home in broad daylight, and ten years later we still have no answers,” he said.
Smith also had a message of justice for McGhee’s abductor — or murderer — at a press conference held Monday.
“We also want to remind the person who took Melinda McGhee, that every time you hear a footstep behind you, every time you hear a noise in the night, it could be us. We’re not gonna quit. We are never going to let you rest and we’re going to do everything in our power that God gives us the wisdom to seek to do, to find out where Melinda is and where you are if you’re the person who took her.”
Smith said foul play was certainly part of McGhee’s disappearance, and he vowed his department will continue their investigation. A special investigator, Tommy Calhoun, is leading the search for the suspect.
Smith said sometimes he doubts the abductor will be found locally. “The type person that will commit a crime like this is likely to commit another similar crime in 10 years,” he said. “That has not happened here.”
“People remain suspects until they can be cleared, and there are several individuals we are highly interested in that we will not clear until we have sufficient evidence and information that they are no longer a suspect,” Calhou said. Some of those people have refused to speak to investigators for the past 10 years.
The morning of March 24, 2003, was a sunny start to the first day of spring break. Melinda Wall McGhee, then 31, returned to her home about 8 a.m. after working the night shift as a nurse at a Bay Minette nursing home.
Her husband, Troy McGhee, was at work at Masland Carpets in Atmore. Their two children were at a babysitter, and Troy’s son from a previous relationship was at a dentist’s office. At about 8:30 the morning of March 24, 2003, Melinda McGhee spoke to her mother on the phone. It was the last time anyone known to Melinda would ever hear from her.
At about 4:00 that afternoon, husband Troy came home to find Melinda missing. There was blood and evidence of a violent struggle inside the home. He reported his wife missing.
In 2010, authorities issued a death certificate for McGhee after a required seven year waiting period passed.
When asked what she would like to say directly to the person responsible for the disappearance of her sister, Wooten said, “I don’t want him to know the pain, the hurt, the anger I’ve felt for the last 10 years. He is not worthy of any of my words.”
Anyone with information about McGhee’s disappearance is asked to call Investigator Tommy Calhoun at (251) 809-2154 or email him at tcalhoun@co.escambia.al.us. A reward of up to $15,000 is offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
Pictured top inset: Melinda Wall McGhee’s mother Ouida and her sister, Lisa Wooten, sit quietly behind pictures of McGhee during a press conference Monday in Poarch, AL. Pictured inset: Escambia County (AL) Sheriff Grover Smith (left) and Investigator Tommy Calhoun discuss McGhee’s disappearance. Pictured bottom: Representatives from contingent of law enforcement agencies that have worked the case for the past 10 years. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
House Destroyed, Four Other Structures Threatened By Wildfire (With Gallery)
March 26, 2013
One house was destroyed and four other structures were threatened by a wind-drive brush fire Monday afternoon in Byrneville, and one home owner is pointing the blame at thieves or vandals that have plagued the neighborhood.
An uninhabited house was reported to be on fire just before noon in the 1300 block of McBride Road. The house was fully involved and had sparked a brush fire that was spreading quickly across a field as firefighters arrived on scene.
The house was a total loss. Firefighters were able to keep the rapidly spreading brush fire from destroying an abandoned trailer, two occupied mobile homes and barn. In total, the brush fire consumed about eight acres.
For a photo gallery, click here.
“They’ve been stealing stuff out of the house before,” said Noah McBride, owner of the abandoned house. He said the house had no electricity of gas and theorized the fire was started by thieves or vandals.
“There has been a big problem with break-ins in this area,” he said. “The house still had old furniture and things in it, and they’d been there several times stealing a few things. I bet they were back.”
The exact cause of the fire will be determined by the Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office.
The Century, McDavid, Walnut Hill, Molino and Cantonment stations of Escambia Fire Rescue, the Flomaton Fire Department and the Florida Division of Forestry battled the blaze. Escambia County EMS and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office also responded.
Pictured top: An uninhabited house on McBride Road was fully involved when firefighters arrived on scene as scene in this reader submitted photos.. Pictured inset and below: A resulting brush fire consumed about eight acres and threatened four other structures. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Property Taxes Deliquent April 1
March 26, 2013
Real estate and tangible personal property taxes become delinquent on April 1.
After the Saturday, March 31 deadline, a penalty of 3 percent for real estate and 1½ percent for tangible taxes will be assessed. Over $31 million (approximately 13%) of the Escambia County tax roll remains unpaid, according to Tax Collector Janet Holley.
Since the deadline falls during the weekend when the offices are closed, offices will still accept payments without penalty Monday, April 1 for in person payments only.
In addition, payments will be accepted without penalty if:
- mailed with a postmark by March 31
- left in any 24-hour drop boxes available at all offices by midnight March 31
- made on the tax collector web site by midnight March 31
Drive thru service and 24-hour drop boxes are available at all locations.
You may check the status of your taxes and pay online at www.escambiataxcollector.com. For more information, contact the tax collector’s office at (850) 438-6500, ext. 3252.
All tax collector offices will be closed March 29 in observance of Good Friday.
Escambia Schools Plan Summer Programs
March 26, 2013
The Escambia County School District is planning a variety of summer school programs.
Programs will include a summer reading camp for third grade students who continue to exhibit substantial reading deficiencies, a preschool readiness program for children entering kindergarten who have not participated in a VPK program, an extended school year for students with disabilities, a high school driver’s education program, and a virtual program for remediation and course recovery for secondary students.
The budgeted programs are expected to cost $964,405, less than the $1.35 million spent last year due to the elimination of a second reading and math camp.
The third grade summer reading camps will be held at centralized locations: Beulah, Molino Park, Oakcrest, Holm, Pine Meadow and Blue Angels elementary schools. The preschool readiness program will be offered at Beulah, Pine Meadow, Holm and Blue Angels elementary schools.
Woman Hit, Killed By Train
March 26, 2013
A woman died after being hit by a train Monday afternoon in Escambia County.
The woman was identified by police at 22-year old Anja Govedarica of Scenic Highway. Authorities said she was chasing her dog trying to get it off the tracks as a train approached. The dog escaped, but the train was unable to stop before striking Govedarica.
The incident occurred around 4:15 p.m. in the 200 block of Chipley Avenue.