2 Injured In Hwy 29 Crash
April 18, 2012
Two women were seriously injured in a single vehicle accident on Highway 29 north of Molino Wednesday afternoon.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Alicia Potter, age 30 of McDavid, was southbound on Highway 29 near Cotton Lake Road when she ran her 1999 Buick into the median before over-correcting, crossing the southbound lanes of Highway 29 and hitting a ditch embankment.
Potter and her passenger, 31-year old Summer Rogowski of Pensacola, were transported by ambulance to West Florida Hospital in serious condition.
Charges against Potter are pending, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The Molino and McDavid stations of Escambia Fire Rescue, Escambia County EMS and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office also responded to the crash.
Pictured: Two people were injured in this single vehicle wreck north of Molino Wednesday afternoon. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
4-H Council Gets First Look At Navy Federal Sale Agreement, County Offer
April 18, 2012
The 4-H County Council, a group aged 8 to 18, got their first look at a memorandum of understanding Tuesday that spells out what exactly might happen if they approved the sale of the Langley Bell 4-H Center to Navy Federal.
Navy Federal has offered $3.6 million for the the 4-H property, which is 240 acres adjacent to the Pensacola complex of the largest credit union in the world.
Under the memorandum presented to the 4-H Council Tuesday, the 4-H foundation will receive the full $3.6 million. Up to $1.6 million will be available to 4-H for facilities construction, projects or purchases, while $2 million will be placed in an endowment fund with the interest supporting 4-H.
Escambia County has committed $1.5 million in Local Option Sales Tax funds towards the construction of a 4-H building and facilities at the Escambia County Extension Service on Stefani Road. It is estimated that it will take up to two years to construct the facilities, with the plans subject to the approval of the Extension Service.
Two other options are also included in the memorandum; one will be selected by a 4-H Extension Task Force. The final decision will be made by the Escambia County Extension Service.
The first option would provide for 20-30 acres next to the Roy Hyatt Environmental Center in cooperation with the Escambia County School Board for animal-related programs and other appropriate 4-H activities. This property will be in addition to the facility to be located at the Extension Service on Stefani Road.
The second option would allow for the purchase of acreage with the Navy Federal sale proceeds to be donated to Escambia County for the use of the 4-H program.
The 4-H County Council will vote on the memorandum of understanding and sale of the Langley Bell 4-H Center next Monday. If they should vote against the plan, the Escambia County Commission could override their decision as trustees of the property.
Pictured top: Pamela Allen, director of the Escambia County Extension Service, addresses member of the 4-H County Council Tuesday. Pictured inset: Dave Timberlake of the Escambia County 4-H Foundation discusses the sale of 4-H property to Navy Federal Credit Union during a meeting late Tuesday afternoon at the Escambia County Extension Office. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Escambia Joins Suit Over $6.2 Million Medicaid Billing
April 18, 2012
The Escambia County Commission voted Tuesday night to join other counties in the state in a lawsuit challenging the Legislature’s decision to recoup tens of millions of dollars in disputed Medicaid costs from counties.
Under the law, Escambia County owes about $6.2 million to the state for disputed Medicaid bills that have been adding up for about a decade. The shortfall has the commission scrambling for replacement revenue, with discussions centering around library closures, other departmental cutbacks and layoffs, a sales tax increase or a property tax increase.
Escambia County will join the suit being brought by the Florida Association of Counties.
The Legislature last month approved recouping the money, with leaders contending that counties have not fully made required Medicaid payments. The counties, however, argue that the state’s billing system has major flaws.
Escambia County, for instance, has found that it is being billed for residents of Santa Rosa County and even Alabama residents that used medical facilities in Pensacola.
Deputies: Boyfriend Attacks Daughter; Daddy Pulls A Gun On Boyfriend
April 18, 2012
A 66-year old Century man is accused of pulling a gun on his daughter’s boyfriend while he was changing a tire that she slashed.
Deputies responded to the 7600 block of Pleasant Hill Road where they found Tyrone Webb, 52, changing a flat tire. He told deputies that his former live-in girlfriend had slashed the tire on his 2006 Chevrolet pickup with a large butcher knife. He told deputies that he had not physically touched the victim, but he did slash the rear tire on her 1996 Ford Mustang in retaliation, according to an Escambia County Sheriff’s Office report.
As deputies were interviewing the victim, her father arrived on Pleasant Hill Road. Willie Dortch stepped out of his pickup with a .45 caliber handgun and confronted Webb, according a Sheriff’s Office report. The deputy that witnessed the incident called for backup and took Dortch into custody.
The victim told deputies that Webb arrived, accused her having an affair and demanded her cell phone. When she refused, he physically attacked her and removed the cell phone from her hands, the report states.
Webb was charged with battery and released on $1,000 bond from the Escambia County Jail. The father of his former live-in girlfriend, Willie Dortch, was charged with improper exhibit of firearm.
New Florida Budget Means $378 For Every Escambia Resident
April 18, 2012
The Florida budget signed Tuesday by Gov. Rick Scott will funnel $378.96 into Escambia County for every man, woman and child that calls the county home. Overall, the 2012-2013 budget will mean an allocation of $112,784,552 to the county to be spent on specific projects.
But across the Panhandle, the budget is better news for some counties — like Walton at the top of the sate funding list with $3,881.75 in allocations for each resident, or $213,663,028 total. The budget numbers, however, might leave officials in Santa Rosa or Okaloosa counties feeling a bit shortchanged. Santa Rosa will receive $29,898,302 in allocations ($157.33 per person), while Okaloosa County will see $22,446,336 ($124.13 per resident).
Amount per resident based upon population according to the 2010 Census:
- Escambia — $378.96
- Santa Rosa — $157.33
- Okaloosa — $124.13
- Walton $3,881.75
- Holmes $185.62
- Washington $2,548.61
- Bay $352.84
Total dollars received by each county:
- Escambia — $112,784,552
- Santa Rosa — $29,898,302
- Okaloosa — $22,446,336
- Walton — $213,663,028
- Holmes — $3,698,876
- Washington – $63,450,299
- Bay — $59,577,857
According to data released by the Legislature this week, Hillsborough County topped the list with more than $1.2 billion, while Miami-Dade lawmakers took home almost $1.1 billion for their constituents. Alachua County — home to the University of Florida — was third with just shy of $527 million, followed by Duval County with $518.7 million. Only two counties were allocated less than $1 million: Baker County, which received just $312,085, and Lafayette, with $54,893.
On a per capita basis using the 2010 Census, Walton County was the top recipient of state money, taking in $3,881.75. Two more counties hauled in at least $2,500 a head: Madison County, at $2,702.44, and Washington, with $2,548.61 a person. Seven counties pulled in less than $100 per person, including Martin, Gilchrist, Taylor, Indian River, Citrus, Baker and Lafayette, which hit the bottom of the list at $6.19 per resident.
The News Service Florida contributed to this report.
Photos: Ernest Ward, Ransom Middle Schools Track
April 18, 2012
Ernest Ward Middle and Ransom Middle school boys and girls recently competed in a track meet at Bellview Middle School in Pensacola.
For a photo gallery, click here.
Results from the meet were not provided by the host school.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Scott Signs Budget, Axes $142.7 Million In Projects
April 18, 2012
Wielding his veto pen more lightly than when he struck a record amount of spending authority last year, Gov. Rick Scott signed the budget for the coming fiscal year Tuesday that he boasted would increase education spending by $1 billion — about $150 per student — while making frugal use of taxpayer money.
But Scott hadn’t even left Cunningham Creek Elementary School in St. Johns County before education groups and others began downplaying the spending on schools as insufficient to make up for cuts during Scott’s first year in office, much less earlier reductions in classroom funding.
The education funding debate could play a role in the fall elections, when all 160 legislators will be up for re-election. Weighing in at a shade over $70 billion before Scott’s line-item vetoes, the spending plan is relatively austere aside from the increase for schools.
“This budget is an education budget,” Scott told a small crowd of sometimes squirming but mostly quiet elementary students at the school just across the county line from Jacksonville. Scott said in a morning radio interview before signing the bill that there was no particular significance to the choice of the school – simply that he was invited there.
The governor and lawmakers touted an additional $1 billion in state funding for schools, but districts and others have griped that most of the extra money will be gobbled up to pay for enrollment increases and the loss of income from other sources.
Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said, however, that “by investing in education and jobs without raising taxes, the budget signed today benefits all of Floridians.”
But the Florida Education Association, the main teachers union, blasted the budget as “dismal.” Democrats also took shots at the plan.
“This budget is nothing more than the same shortsighted priorities of Florida Republicans that has put the special interests ahead of investing in education — while schools are left crumbling around our children,” Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith said in a statement. “That is no way to lead.”
Scott took a few minutes at his budget signing to explain to the students how a bill becomes a law, but didn’t go through the intricacies of the line-item veto process or the $142.7 million in spending projects he slashed from the plan.
That was a sharp decrease from the $615 million in spending Scott nixed last year, even when accounting for the fact that almost $300 million of the 2011 vetoes came from an accounting sleight of hand. Scott said that the smaller number was in part the result of supporters of those projects giving him better information.
In other cases, Scott extracted promises from those receiving the funds. Sarasota County assured the state it would get $12.5 million in additional sales tax receipts as a result of a rowing center funded by the budget — or it would return the money.
“I treated some projects just like we treat economic development,” Scott said. “If we don’t get the return they said they were going to get, they’ll give us the money back.”
The governor also conceded that lawmakers were able to “convince” the onetime outsider governor to give some projects a second look instead of axing them.
But Scott still struck dozens of transportation and cultural programs, from $500,000 for the Bay of Pigs Museum vetoed – on the 51st anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion on April 17 in 1961 – to $1 million to renovate and expand a neighborhood center in the Parramore area of Orlando, to three line items totaling almost $1.4 million for the Panhandle Area Educational Consortium.
Scott also said he had asked state universities to limit tuition increases to 5 percent and look for new efficiencies in how they operate. The governor did not specify whether he had an agreement with the Board of Governors, which can authorize tuition hikes of up to 15 percent, to rein in the increase.
The governor has said he’s not eager to raise the “cost of living,” including tuition bills, for Floridians.
“I’m very comfortable that the Board of Governors will do that sort of review and the right thing will happen,” he said.
Scott didn’t address the fate of the University of South Florida’s Lakeland campus, which is scheduled to become the state’s 12th university. Scott is still considering a measure that would accelerate and overhaul the board’s plan for creating an independent Florida Polytechnic University.
The governor said he signed money in the budget dedicated for the project, but only to make sure that USF was fully funded regardless of what happens to the independence bill, which must be signed or vetoed by the end of the week.
By The News Service of Florida
First Redbox Comes To The Flomaton/Century Area
April 18, 2012
Flomaton and Century have been abuzz the past few days over a new Redbox movie rental kiosk that is now up and running in Flomaton — the first in that immediate area.
The kiosk is located in front of the Dollar General Store on Sidney Manning Boulevard. That is just a few feet from, somewhat ironically, the former location of Movie Gallery and a subsequent independent movie rental business.
When the bankrupt Movie Gallery closed two years ago, industry analysts said the company’s demise was due to the popularity of the online rental service Netflix the standalone Redbox kiosks.
Movie rentals at a Redbox kiosk are $1.20 per day, $1.50 for Blu-ray and $2 per day for games.
Pictured: A new Redbox movie rental kiosk outside the Dollar General in Flomaton, Ala. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Suns Shut Out Wahoos 7-0
April 18, 2012
Jacksonville third baseman Shane Bowman collected three hits, including a home run, and drove in four runs to push the Suns past the Pensacola Blue Wahoos in a rain-shortened 7-0 shutout on Tuesday evening at Pensacola’s multi-use stadium.
The game was called following the first pitch of the ninth inning, when home plate umpire and crew chief Spencer Flynn called for the grounds crew to cover the field with the tarp. Officially the game ended after eight frames, with Jacksonville taking a 2-1 lead in the series.
Bowman (3-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 4 RBI) brought home runs with a run-scoring single in the third, a two-run base knock in the fifth and a solo home run in the seventh as he led all hitters with three hits. It was the second night in a row Bowman left the yard, as he tied last night’s contest at 4-4 with a solo home run to left in the seventh.
Pensacola RHP Daniel Corcino (4.1 IP, 3 H, 5 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 3 SO) suffered the loss to fall to 0-1 on the year after allowing two earned runs on three hits, while Jacksonville RHP Zach Neal (7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 BB, 7 SO) earned the win after yielding six hits while fanning seven in seven shutout innings pitched.
Blue Wahoos RF Yordanys Perez (3-3) accounted for half of the club’s six hits, collecting three hits in his first multi-hit game of his professional career.
Pensacola and Jacksonville will meet again Wednesday night, with first pitch scheduled for 7:00 pm. RHP Tim Crabbe is slated to get the ball for the Blue Wahoos, while the Suns are expected to send LHP Graham Taylor to the mound.
By Andrew Green
Yordanys Perez had three hits in Pensacola’s 7-0 loss to the Jacksonville Suns Tuesday night. Photo by Chris Nelson for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
County Set To Close Molino Building Inspection Office
April 17, 2012
The Escambia County Commission is set to close the Molino Building Inspection Office. Lloyd Kerr, Development Services director, is recommending the closure to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
According to the recommendation, an economic downturn had led to a decrease in permitting revenues; the county’s building inspection fund lost about $612,000 in 2011. The closure and elimination of two permanent positions will save the county about $100,000.
Services will be relocated to the Central Office Complex at 3363 West Park Place in Pensacola, about 17 miles away from the current Molino office.
“This would be a huge mistake and greatly affect the northern end of our county in the near and distant future,” said Paul Mack of Mack Custom Homes of Cantonment. “The past few years have been hard on everyone, but when things get better, and they will get better, the only direction our county can grow is north.”
The Molino Building Inspection Office has been located in the county-owned Escambia County Health Department building at 3470 North Highway 29 since 1989.
“If the only goal for this closure is to reduce the payroll by two employees it seems that it would be just as effective to leave the Molino office alone and eliminate the two positions just as if the Molino office closed,” Mack said, referring to the fact that the Molino Building Inspection Office is located in a county-owned building.
Pictured: The Escambia County Central Office Complex. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.