Pensacola News Journal from Pensacola, Florida • 17

Journal I LZJ Click on and find coupons for stuff you need! MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2000 DriRfnl Man leads deputies on 2 county chase An 18-year-old Fort Walton Beach man was charged with home invasion robbery Saturday after deputies chased him through two counties. Brandon Sentell Caldwell was driving a blue 1991 Pontiac van that was being pursued mm TOW ODD (Mnf By Emily Roach News Journal staff writer Onlookers saved a young Mobile woman from drowning Sunday evening, but were unable to rescue the two men swimming with her in the Gulf off Pensacola Beach. Demetrius Sanders, 20, and Bobby Rander, 29, both of Mobile, were familiar faces at the public beach near the Gulf Islands National Sims. Pensacola Beach Fire Department volunteers pulled the two men from the Gulf after they were spotted from the air about 6:30 p.m., but they could not revive them. "She said the waves kept pulling her back out there," said Vickie Hunt.

Her niece and nephew, Charletta and Edward Hunt, helped pull both women from the water. "She had been hollering for help for 10 or 15 minutes," Vickie Hunt said. Finally, she realized the young woman was in trouble By the time the Hunts pulled Winbush out, she was saying her legs were numb. All three were far from shore, and the Hunts said the men disappeared before anyone could get to them. "You just saw them, and then you didn't see them," said Charles Betts, also of Mobile.

He ran to tell a nearby deputy. A helicopter, which is jointly operated by the Sheriffs Office and Florida Highway Patrol, was hovering over the water within minutes. The men were spotted, but couldn't be pulled from the water until firefighters arrived with rescue water scooters, Sims said. They were declared dead shortly before 7:20 p.m. "There are a lot of drop-offs out there and sandbars," said sheriff's Lt.

Gary Willis. Swimmers can get pulled into deep water with little warning, he said. Santa Rosa Island Authority General Manager Monte Blews said the drownings happened after the lifeguards went off duty for the day. Seashore gate, said Charletta Hunt. A Mobile resident, Hunt said she didn't know the two mmhmh men, but she PENSACOLA helped her BEACH aunt pu11 their friend from the water shortly before 6:30 p.m.

Larkisha Winbush, 19, of Mobile survived, said Escambia County deputy Derrick E-commerce could deplete sales tax revenue Bruce GranerNews Journal More than 200 riders on about 130 motorcycles participated in the fourth annual Bears for Bears Motorcycle Ride on Sunday. Riders, delivering hundreds of stuffed toys to the Pensacola Police Department, made the trip from Cordova Mall to City Hall. Bears on bikes ride for a cause westbound on U.S. 98 by Okaloosa County sheriff's deputies. 111 itinA wuawen being chased for causing a disturbance at a nightclub, deputies said.

Santa Rosa deputy Mike Braband picked up the chase in Navarre. Caldwell crashed his van in a ditch at Greenbriar Parkway and ran into the Tiger Point area, where he broke into two homes and took cash and keys to a white 1991 Chevrolet Caprice, according to Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office reports. He was arrested as he drove the Caprice out of the neighborhood. He is charged with home invasion robbery, burglary of an occupied dwelling, grand theft auto and aggravated fleeing and eluding. He is being held in Santa Rosa County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bond.

Events designed to help homeowners Pensacola will sponsor a reception and expo to celebrate National Home Ownership Week. All the events are designed to help potential buyers learn more about home ownership. Tuesday's kick-off reception features Davey Gibson, an assistant to Andrew Cuomo, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It begins at 2 p.m.

Tuesday at City Hall, 180 Governmental Center. The Affordable Housing Expo will be Saturday in Cordova Mall's center court from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Representatives from local banks, building companies, real estate agencies, consumer credit counseling firms and nonprofit organizations will be on hand. For more information, call Davis-Henderson at 595-6234 or Jimmie McFall, a city housing specialist, at 435-1668.

Nursing assistants honored this week This week has been set aside as National Nursing Assistants' Week. Fourteen nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties will honor their top CNAs at an awards banquet Tuesday at the Pensacola Junior College Warrington campus. Certified nursing assistants provide daily, hands-on care under the direction of nurses. They monitor their patients' conditions, checking their blood pressure, pulse and heart rate. They also help patients bathe, eat, get out of bed and walk.

i io vvag CORRECTIONS The News Journal strives for accuracy and fairness. We will correct errors or misunderstandings created by stories, headlines or photographs. Readers may request a correction by calling 435-8511. LOTTERY Here are the winning numbers selected Sunday in the Florida Lottery: Cash 3: 9-2-1 Play 4: 3-9-2-3 Fantasy 5: 4-5-9-12-20 Information: 1-900-737-7777, 77? per minute. i.

in. i motorcycle to be Tony GlbersonNews Journal The heavily traveled Woodbine Road is being widened by contractor Anderson Columbia. time with the Woodbine Road project. Among those guarantees: The company will pay double the usually $600 daily penalty for late work; It will not stop work if it is ahead of schedule; If the company falls more than 15 percent behind schedule, the county will stop payment until Anderson Columbia catches up. 1 By Derek Pivnick News Journal Staff Writer The menacing image of motorcycle riders suffered another blow Sunday when more than 200 of them strapped teddy bears to their rides, all for a good cause.

Pensacola Police Department traffic officers estimated 130 motorcycles took to the road Sunday from Cordova Mall to City Hall to deliver 300 stuffed toys that officers will use to comfort children. Six Pensacola traffic officers provided the escort. It is the fourth year the American Bikers Aimed Toward Education, or ABATE, has made the run. The group isji motorcyclists' rights organization open to an assortment of riders, regardless of what type of motorcycle they ride. Ultimately, children will benefit from Sunday's run.

"This is a great program to help young children, and we're proud to offer our support," said Joe Jackson, ABATE's Gulf Coast Chapter president. "We're very pleased to present these toys to the Pensacola police." The motorcycle group called it the Bears for Bears Ride. The stuffed bears are donated to local law enforcement agencies in its annual June run. Each year in December, ABATE holds a Toys for Tots ride to benefit local charities and children. Pensacola police Lt.

Bob See BIKERS, 3C The $727,000 project, the first for Anderson Columbia with Santa Rosa County, includes constructing a center turn lane from U.S. 90 north for about a mile to Riverview Drive, a left turn lane into the McDonald's and Tom Thumb at U.S. 90, and a right turn lane into the Pace Area Recreation Association park. For now, work is concentrated on drainage and preparing the roadside grade, but future work will require some lane closures. White said that is still weeks away.

"We're going to try to do most of that at night," he said. Folks who drive on Woodbine Road every day say the much-needed county project seems to be proceeding nicely. "It seems to be coming along," said Lee Brannon, a resident of Woodbine Springs Plantation who travels the road daily. Lynn Walker, the head cook at the Penny Pantry on Woodbine Road, agreed: them will come from sales taxes. According to a recent study by Richard Hawkins and David Eppright, both professors at The University of West Florida, there might not be as much money as expected.

They estimate that sales-tax losses in 2004 because of e-commerce will be 4.2 percent for Escambia County and 2.9 percent for Santa Rosa. The worst case scenario where online retailers capture 50 percent of the markets in which they effectively compete puts the figures at 15.9 and 9.9 percent respectively. The economy is expected to remain strong, so it is highly unlikely that sales-tax revenues will decrease. Future budgets are based on growth projections, however. Money would have to be found from another source or programs would have to be cut.

"About 4 percent? We're losing more than that to Escambia County every day," joked Bill Lundin, Santa Rosa County commissioner. "We can't afford to lose any more." Budget planners are not likely to get much help from the people who have come to love shopping online. It's changes formats "When we make programming decisions, it's going to be to serve the best interest of Northwest Florida. Mike Bates, station's sales manager gins at 11:30 a.m. A two-hour, local call-in program at 4 p.m.

hopes to prompt spirited discussion and debate about community issues. Both shows are scheduled to hit the air today. County Commission meetings that aired live are not part of the new programming. That's because they can't preempt some of their new shows, Bates said. For Bernice Mapoles Rivenbark, listening to the live radio broadcast of the commission meetings was a lot better than seeing it later on television.

"It's been our only radio station," Rivenbark said. But she said shell adjust to the new format. Mapoles still has a morning show, but said he is unsure he will continue after the sale is final. Marykay Lamoureaux, executive director for the Santa Rosa County Chamber of Commerce, likes a consumer advocate show that airs from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

"The reason that is great is that a lot of people in this area don't get WCOA," another station with a similar format, Lamoureaux said. Road projects, schools might be affected By Brett Norman News Journal staff writer To buy or not to buy online? That might become a question of loyalty between consumer and community. As shopping on the Internet grows more popular, e-commerce could pose a significant threat to state and local sales tax revenues. If the 1999-2000 school money was depleted by 4 percent the amount of sales tax revenues the state could lose to e-commerce in 2004 Escambia County schools would lose about $4.4 million and Santa Rosa schools about $2.2 million. About 55 percent of all nonfederal funds for Escambia and Santa Rosa's school districts comes from sales tax proceeds, according to JoAnn Carr at the Florida Department of Education.

Escambia County's local 1-cent sales tax is projected to bring in $234 million over eight years, from 1999 to 2007. Projects such as road paving, new parks and court system renovations are undertaken with the assumption that money to pay for Station owners, Radio show will have local, national news By Derek Pivnick News Journal staff writer A Santa Rosa County radio station that began broadcasting in the 1950s has changed its tune. Santa Rosa County Commissioner Byrd Mapoles is selling WEBY rTer 1330 AM, the sta- tion his family has MILTON owned since 1954. With the exception of just a few years, the station has been on the air continuously since Mapoles' father built it from the ground up. Beginning today, the format changes to news and talk, broadcasting 12 hours a day with local and national talk shows and news.

The previous format included country music. "What we want to become is the town hall, the barber shop, the city square of today," said Mike Bates, the station's sales manager. Bates and a partner, Jeff Weeks of Pensacola, are managing the station until the Federal Communications Commission transfers the license from Mapoles to them. Bates said it will be one of the last locally owned radio stations in the area. "When we make programming decisions, it's going to be to serve the best interest of Northwest Florida," Bates said.

The new lineup includes a half-hour show with a rotating panel of experts that callers can query for free advice on nearly any topic; it be- 4t 1 (I, Toys wait on the back of a delivered to City Hall. "They're out there digging up the dirt. You know they're out there." The work is the first phase of a three-phase project. Although the other two phases have not been funded, a second phase would add turn lanes as needed to a middle segment of Woodbine and add a center lane to the northern segment. Making the road four lanes is not planned.

That's something Brannon thinks might deserve some consideration. "I just wonder how far away it will be before we need four lanes with all the housing and development coming in on Woodbine and further north," he said. Although Anderson Columbia has worked in Santa Rosa County before it widened State Road 87 in Milton on a state contract the company has never held a contract with the county. The company gave Santa Rosa County commissioners assurances it would be on Anderson Columbia makes progress on Woodbine Road Project might be completed by year's end By Louis Cooper News Journal staff writer The widening of a portion of Woodbine Road is ahead of schedule. Santa Rosa County officials and contractor Anderson Columbia Co.

say the work could be finished weeks ahead of the December deadline. "They shouldn't have any problem, especially the way the weather's been County Commissioner Jim Williamson said. The project is in his road district. Robert White, Anderson Columbia project manager, said even though a few minor, unforeseen obstacles have popped up, crews are on track. "We've stayed ahead of our work," he said.

"We're better than 20 percent ahead of schedule." 9 iii.l..iu i fcl.jt!.