Smoke Plume From Controlled Agricultural Burn Seen For Miles
May 31, 2022
A large plume of smoke Tuesday afternoon could be seen from Davisville, Bratt, Walnut Hill, Atmore.
It was 160 acre agricultural controlled burn of a field post-harvest in the area of Greenland Road and Dortch Road.
Pictured: A smoke plume from the controlled burn of a field could be seen for miles. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
At 104, Local Pearl Harbor Survivor Frank Emond Breaks His Own World Record
May 31, 2022
Pearl Harbor survivor Frank Emond of Cantonment, age 104, broke his own world record Monday.
Emond held the Guinness World Record as “World’s Oldest Conductor” for leading the U.S. Air Force Band’s Airmen of Note in Glenn Miller’s iconic “In the Mood” at the American Veteran Center’s “America Valor: A Salute to our Heroes”. He set the previous record at age 103 last November in Washington, D.C.
Monday night, he led the Pensacola Civic Band in the seventh annual Pensacola Memorial Day Concert at the Community Maritime Park amphitheater.
“I’m so happy that I’m still able to do this. It was my life’s work conducting, so once or twice a year when I get a chance, it’s always good,” Emond said. “I’m real happy I still have the physical strength to do this.”
Related: Local Pearl Harbor Survivor Frank Emond Turns 104
Originally from Rhode Island, Emond enlisted in the Navy in 1938 as a musician. He played the French horn for the ship’s band and even got to perform at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York before he was assigned to the USS Emond, CWO4 USN (RET.), spent his naval career as a musician and band director. He was on the stern of the USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) getting ready to play morning “Colors” on his French horn when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Emond then walked to the conductor’s stand, picked up the baton and proceeded to direct the band in “Stars and Stripes”.
After seven years of playing horn, he became a Navy bandleader, retiring in 1968.
He remained a music man; sometimes leading the music at Gonzalez Methodist and performing with the Pensacola Civic Band.
Pictured: At 104, Pearl Harbor survivor Frank Emond of Cantonment broke his own Guinness World Record as “World’s Oldest Conductor” Monday at the Pensacola Memorial Day Concert. Images courtesy WEAR 3 for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Reno’s Reptiles Will Visit Local Libraries This Week
May 31, 2022
Reno’s Reptile will visit a West Florida Public Library near you this week.
The animal show-and-tell with alligators, tortoises, snakes and more will be at the library as follows:
- Tuesday, May 31, 10:30-11:30 a.m. – Westside Library
- Tuesday, May 31, 3-4 p.m. – Tryon Library
- Wednesday, June 1, 3-4 p.m. – Genealogy Library
- Thursday, June 2, 10:30-11:30 a.m. – Molino Library
- Friday, June 3, 10:30-11:30 a.m. – Century Library
- Friday, June 3, 3-4 p.m. – Pensacola Library
- Saturday, June 4, 10:30-11:30 a.m. – Southwest Library
Pictured: Reno’s Reptiles visits the Molino Library in 2018. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Driver’s License Services, Vehicle Registration Event Returns To Century In June
May 31, 2022
The Florida Licensing On Wheels (FLOW) mobile office is returning to Century.
FLOW is a standalone mobile office with technology to provide most motorists’ needs. The mobile unit provides a convenient method to renew a driver license, obtain a replacement driver license, conversion/reciprocation of out-of-state license, change a name or address on a current driver license or identification card, and get a first-time identification card. In addition to licensing services, the mobile unit also provides an opportunity to renew or replace a vehicle registration and apply, renew or replace disabled parking placards. Written and driving tests are not available from the FLOW unit.
Vehicle registrations can be renewed up to three months and driver licenses up to 18 months in advance of expiration.
The FLOW mobile office will be at the Billy G. Ward Century Courthouse, 7500 North Century Boulevard on Wednesday, June 8 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Citizens using the FLOW services are encouraged to visit EscambiaTaxCollector.com and click the “What Do I Bring” button for information on what is needed for these services. Staff from the tax collector’s office will be on hand to answer all FLOW service questions and questions concerning all other tax collector services such as property tax, business tax receipts, concealed weapons licensing, etc.
Pictured: The Florida Licensing On Wheels (FLOW) mobile office at the courthouse in Century in January 2020. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Escambia Academy Head Football Coach, Headmaster Hugh Fountain Moves To Pike Liberal Arts
May 31, 2022
Monday, Escambia Academy Head Football Coach and Headmaster Hugh Fountain was named the new head football coach and athletic director at Pike Like Arts School in Troy, effective immediately.
Fountain led the EA Cougars to six consecutive football championship games and two Alabama Independent School Association (AISA) state championships during his tenure. He spent 11 years as a football coach at Escambia Academy, compiling a 94-31 record.
Prior to his time at Escambia Academy, Fountain coached at Charles Henderson High School for 16 years, plus W.S. Neal and Evergreen high schools.
Pike Liberal Arts was a member of the AISA for over 50 years, but they transitioned to play under the Alabama High School Athletic Association this fall.
Driver Passes Away Following Walnut Hill Railroad Crossing Crash
May 31, 2022
The Florida Highway Patrol has confirmed that a man has passed away after hitting a railroad crossing gate post Sunday afternoon in Walnut Hill.
The 42-year old male from Walnut Hill was driving his Honda Accord eastbound on Arthur Brown Road near Corley Road about 4 p.m. when he crossed over the center line and struck the crossing gate post. The vehicle continued across the tracks, left the roadway, crossed back over Arthur Brown Road and came to rest in a field. The crossing post tore into the engine compartment of the vehicle and pierced the windshield.
The adult male was airlifted to the USA Medical Center in Mobile by Air Care helicopter where family says he passed away Sunday night.
The crossing sign, lights and gate were destroyed in the crash.
The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating. The Walnut Hill Station of Escambia Fire Rescue, Escambia County EMS and Escambia County Sheriff’s Office also responded.
For more photos, click or tap here.
NorthEsambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Jim Allen Elementary Names Students Of The Month
May 31, 2022
Jim Allen Elementary School recently named Students of the Month. They are Trevor Wilson-Crews and Weston Frantz. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Florida Memorial Day Gas Prices Set New Record High
May 31, 2022
Florida gas prices held relatively steady through the holiday weekend.
Memorial Day gas prices were officially the holiday’s most expensive on record. The Florida state average price of $4.57 per gallon was $1.71 per gallon more than last year’s holiday and well above the previous Memorial Day high of $3.93 per gallon – set in 2008.
The lowest price Monday night in North Escambia was $4.28 per gallon at a station on Muscogee Road, while the lowest price in Pensacola was $4.12 on Pensacola Boulevard.
“Gas prices appeared to level out over the weekend, but there’s renewed upward pressure on pump prices after an active week on the oil market both last week and overnight,” said Mark Jenkins, spokesman, AAA – The Auto Club Group. “Tightness in the global fuel market has kept a high floor on fuel prices. The price of oil traded higher overnight after the European Union announced a partial ban on Russian oil imports. The region, which is historically reliant on Russian oil and gas, will now have to find alternative suppliers, in what is already an extremely tight fuel market.”
NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
A Local Marine Never Forgotten: ‘I Died Doing Something Meaningful’
May 30, 2022
For Memorial Day, we take you back to August of last year, the 10 year anniversary of the death of local LCpl. Travis M. Nelson, who gave his life in Afghanistan on August 18, 2011.
Gold Star Mom Beckie Nelson spoke with NorthEscambia.com about the last decade and her son’s sacrifice in Afghanistan.
I Died Doing Something Meaningful.
And she shared with us a short, simple note LCpl Travis Nelson left behind in his field book just in case he did not return.
“Dear friends & family, If your reading this it seems I didn’t get to come home. I love each and every one of you and I want you to know I have no regrets. I died doing something meaningful.”
He died a few short weeks after writing that note.
Beckie Nelson clings to those words that provided her peace and understanding.
“We received Travis’ belongings weeks after the funeral. The emotions we felt as we opened the trunk are unexplainable. Still in disbelief, our hearts still in pieces, it was gut wrenching to say the least. When I saw this page I closed the book, laid down on his bed with it in my arms and I actually slept for the first time in weeks.”
Growing Up With A Promise To His Mother
A young Travis Nelson grew up in Bratt, just two doors down from the modern day Travis M. Nelson Park that was named in his memory about a year after its 2010 opening.
He would play on those very grounds, shooting his BB gun and riding his go cart. His first love in his young life was fishing. At four years old, he would spend hours with relatives fishing on the Escambia River. No matter how old he got, he never gave up the love for a fishing pole and hook. He also loved playing baseball at Northwest Escambia’s Bradberry Park in Walnut Hill.
On Sept., 11, 2001, Travis Nelson was nine years old when America was attacked. He was not playing; he was fixated on the news.
And he made a promise that day. The kind of promise to a mother that a young man will do anything to uphold.
“I’ll never forget him saying ‘Momma, I will protect you. I will be a soldier’,” Beckie Nelson said.
The family last saw Travis on July 13, 2011, as he deployed for Afghanistan. Their last phone conversation was Monday, August, 15, 2011, as he requested items for a care package.
That care package was still sitting by the front door three days later. It never made it to the mail.
August 18, 2011.
It was about noon on Thursday, August 18, 2011, at the Nelson home in Bratt.
An American flag fluttered in the breeze on the porch.
And three men in military uniforms stood at the door. Beckie Nelson knew what that meant.
“I just screamed and said no,” she said. “I just went to my knees and said don’t let them come in. I knew right away that he was gone.”
My Biggest Fear
The next day, Beckie Nelson sat in the middle of her bed with a laptop, reading the scores of reader comments on a NorthEscambia.com story about Travis Nelson’s death.
“He really was our hero,” she said, clutching a 5×7 photo of her son.
“I didn’t think I could see past that day. I felt like it would always be that day. I didn’t imagine that I could ever talk about it,” she said. “But I can, and it has to do with the support groups, the military support groups, and the community support.”
She was remarkably strong as she talked about the heart wrenching pain of that day.
But during our interview, her voice broke.
“My biggest fear,” she said before pausing. “My biggest fear was that Travis would be forgotten. I was scared I was going to forget.”
A Fallen Marine Returns.
LCpl. Travis M. Nelson was never forgotten.
The rain poured down at Pensacola Naval Air Station August 24, 2011, as Nelson’s body arrived on the final leg of his journey home.
Outside the main gate of Pensacola NAS, people gathered to pay their respects to the young soldier. The rain did not send them running; they stood silently — many holding American flags — as the hearse carrying an American hero departed on a 55-mile journey to Atmore.
Along the way, some of Pensacola’s busiest roadways came to a complete standstill as the motorcade passed. Many motorists stood outside their vehicles and paid their respects.
In Walnut Hill, just a few miles from Nelson’s boyhood home in Bratt, the motorcade slowed as it approached Ernest Ward Middle School. Nelson was a Golden Eagle, attending Ernest Ward in the sixth and seventh grades.
Hundreds of Ernest Ward Middle School students and teachers dressed in red, white and blue lined Highway 97, American flags in hand, waiting for the arrival of the motorcade.
Several of Nelson’s middle school teachers were among the crowd that suddenly grew silent as the first sirens could be heard. As the procession passed, the students stood with their hands over their hearts, waving Old Glory. The thunder of 127 Patriot Guard motorcycle riders vibrated the ground and echoed across the country fields near the school.
Six Florida Highway Patrol trooper vehicles led the hearse past the school. Many students and teachers broke down in tears at the sight of a flag draped coffin. Others cried as they made eye contact with Nelson’s parents and their daughter — who was a sixth grader at Ernest Ward at the time.
“I look back at those pictures now,” Beckie Nelson said. “Those pictures from the middle school. It meant so much. Those kids are now fathers, mothers, some are now serving in the military.”
My Travis.
“Travis knew at nine years old that nothing was going to hold him back. That was his heart’s desire,” Beckie Nelson said 10 years later. “That’s what he wanted to do with his life.”
“God had a greater plan for my Travis.”
Above: NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Two Teens Missing For Hours Found Safe Along The Perdido River Near Fillingim Landing
May 30, 2022
Two teens were safely located Sunday night over six hours after they went missing along the Perdido River.
Authorities are searching for two teens last seen Sunday afternoon at Fillingim Landing along the Perdido River near Barrineau Park.
Keeth Cooper Martinez, 17, an Gage Wallace Eicher, 16, were last seen at the landing at 2:30 p.m.at Fillingim Landing near Barrineau Park
They had crossed the river and were headed westbound into the woods on the Alabama side of Perdido River. They were unable to safely cross back over the river, which was at about nine feet Sunday night. That’s over double the four-foot reading early last week before heavy rains.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Escambia Search and Rescue, other agencies and numerous volunteers took part in the search.